Shlomo Helbrans

Common card · No. 228214

Shlomo Erez Helbrans (Hebrew: שלמה הלברנץ; 5 November 1962 – 7 July 2017) was an Israeli-born Rabbi. He was the founder and Rebbe of Lev Tahor. Originally having established his community in Israel, which he claimed to have modelled after the Satmar Hasidic movement, Helbrans moved his community to the United States, where he was convicted in 1994 for kidnapping, for which he served two years in prison. During this time he was accused by a few former community members of child abuse, serving medicine and psychological pills, and using various punishments on his followers. He was deported back to Israel, but in 2001 he fled to Canada, where he reestablished his community in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec, applying for and attaining refugee status for himself two years later. In November 2013, amid clashes with the education authorities, most members of the group left for Ontario, again claiming religious persecution. On 7 July 2017, Helbrans drowned while performing a ritual immersion in...

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