Lev Tahor women and children attack police while in Guatemalan custody
Authorities in Guatemala say detained members of extremist Jewish sect repeatedly ‘disturb order,’ as investigators carry out DNA tests on kids to determine parentage
Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.
Members of the extremist Jewish sect Lev Tahor held in custody in Guatemala attacked police on Wednesday, Guatemalan authorities said.
The incident came as authorities continue to grapple with the fallout from an operation last month in which they removed dozens of children from Lev Tahor’s compound in Guatemala due to allegations of abuse.
Lev Tahor members have refused to cooperate with authorities since they were taken into custody. Guatemala’s Secretariat of Social Welfare, part of the president’s office, said that on Wednesday night, the women, children and teenagers in custody attacked police and government personnel.
During the incident, members of the group destroyed furniture and supplies, and broke windows, injuring several people with the glass. The group had “disturbed order” in the shelter for the past three nights, the statement said.
Women from the group have also repeatedly refused food provided by authorities, the social welfare office said on Tuesday. The group adheres to an extreme interpretation of kosher dietary laws and mainly eats fruits, vegetables and matzoh.
Guatemala’s attorney general said that weeks after the children were taken into custody, authorities were still seeking to identify the children and adolescents who are in state care.
“It is not yet possible to establish who their biological parents are and they do not have identification documents,” the statement said. “DNA tests will be carried out to determine who their parents are and subsequently obtain statements from them.”
Members of the group who are not in custody have protested outside the shelter, local media reported. Last month, some of the group members in custody broke out of the holding facility with assistance from the demonstrators outside, but were retrieved by authorities.
Immediately after the children’s detention last month, adult members of the group shouted instructions to them in Yiddish, telling them to struggle with the police and not to cooperate with investigators.
The group has gone to extreme lengths to retrieve children taken from the community in the past. Group leader Nachman Helbrans and other members of Lev Tahor’s leadership are in prison in New York for kidnapping two children whose mother left Lev Tahor for the children’s safety. Helbrans’ father, Shlomo, the group’s founder, was also imprisoned for kidnapping in the 1990s.
The group’s opponents have said the children have been “brainwashed” by Lev Tahor’s leadership and would likely need a lengthy recovery to acclimate to mainstream society.
Israeli officials are assisting local authorities in the case. Lev Tahor members are citizens of different countries including Israel, the US and Guatemala.
Guatemala’s attorney general, María Consuelo Porra Argueta, met with Israel’s ambassador to the country, Alon Lavi, and other Israeli officials to discuss the investigation into Lev Tahor, the public ministry said on Tuesday.
The two sides agreed to set up a team of prosecutors to investigate the case and the Israeli diplomats gave their full backing to the investigation.
The Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that its delegation to Guatemala had finished. The group included representatives of the Foreign Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the state prosecutor’s office, Israel Police and experts on cults from the Welfare Ministry.
“Israeli authorities are investing their utmost efforts in trying to assist Israeli minors and other helpless individuals that are in the cult,” the Foreign Ministry said.
On Wednesday, the Guatemalan government said on X that President Bernardo Arevalo spoke by phone with President Isaac Herzog about the Lev Tahor children. Herzog thanked the Guatemalan government for the “rescue and assistance” provided to the children.
The investigation into the group has resulted in at least one arrest.
Last week, police in El Salvador announced the arrest of Lev Tahor member Jonathan Emmanuel Cardona Castillo for human trafficking, rape and abuse of minors. Castillo had attempted to cross the border from Guatemala into El Salvador near the town of Ahuachapán, where he was apprehended.
Authorities in El Salvador were coordinating his extradition for prosecution in Guatemala, police said.
Interpol, an international police organization, had issued an international alert for Castillo at the end of December. Castillo, 23, is a citizen of Guatemala and El Salvador and speaks Hebrew and Spanish, the Interpol notice said.
Authorities in Guatemala raided Lev Tahor’s compound late last month after four minors escaped from the community and alerted authorities to alleged human trafficking. They removed around 160 children and adolescents from the group.
Lev Tahor’s name translates to “pure heart,” but its moves, machinations, and plans are all murky and in 2017, an Israeli court described the group as a “dangerous cult.”
The group adheres to an extreme, idiosyncratic interpretation of Judaism and kosher dietary laws that largely shield members from the outside world. The men spend most of their days in prayer and studying specific portions of the Torah, and women and girls are required to dress in black robes that completely cover their bodies.
Founded by Helbrans in Jerusalem in the 1980s, Lev Tahor has been dogged by allegations of child abuse for years. The group jumped borders for years, under scrutiny from authorities, with members seeking refuge at various times in Canada, Iran, Bosnia, and Morocco, among other locations.
They landed in Guatemala in the mid-2010s, setting up a closed compound near the town of Oratorio, close to the border with El Salvador.
The group’s opponents say it has been collapsing since its leadership was imprisoned for the kidnapping case in New York.
A Lev Tahor spokesperson disputed the allegations of abuse in an interview with The Times of Israel last month.
The spokesperson, Uriel Goldman, said Lev Tahor was the target of religious and political persecution orchestrated by the Israeli government. He claimed Lev Tahor had angered Israel by seeking refugee status as an anti-Zionist group in Canada more than a decade ago, which hurt Israel’s image.
Goldman said the group’s members in custody were being held in “concentration camp” conditions without proper shelter.
“This is religious persecution and we know the State of Israel is behind it,” he said.
