Father who Escaped Lev Tahor Trying Frantically to Rescue Son Held Captive by Cult

ISRAEL (VINnews) — Shocking new details have emerged about Lev Tahor, after a 22-year-old man who escaped the evil cult returned to Guatemala in an attempt to rescue his son.

Two years ago, Yisrael Amir videotaped himself on the cult’s Guatemalan compound, describing the horrific conditions cult members were subjected to, and the brutality of its leaders. He sent the video to relatives, who traveled from Israel to Guatemala and helped him escape.

Since then he has been struggling desperately to rescue his young son, still being held captive in Guatemala.

Last Thursday, Israel’s Channel 12 aired a special documentary depicting his dramatic rescue operation, and shedding light on never-before-revealed details about the cult’s bizarre and menacing ways.

It all began when Mr. Amir persuaded former Shin Bet officer Eshel Armoni to help. Mr. Armoni then recruited several people whom he worked with at the intelligence agency.

Prior to the operation Danny Limor went to Guatemala to conduct reconnaissance. The next stages sound like something out of a spy novel.

Mr. Limor found the compound was heavily protected with cameras and a guard tower. Trying to gain entry, he pretended to be a businessman looking to install solar panels, however cult leaders did not take the bait.

So he enlisted an American Chabad group who was able to breach the compound. Among the horrific discoveries made by the spies, was the fact that Lev Tahor leadership instructed all mothers to murder their children and commit suicide if officials ever infiltrated. The mothers took a course on how to slit the throats of their young children.

The group also took a video of one of the leaders, Uriel Goldman, saying that in order to evade a crackdown by law enforcement, Lev Tahor would soon flee Guatemala and head to Iran via Iraqi Kurdistan.

They wrote a letter to Ayatollah Khameini declaring their anti-Zionist beliefs and requesting asylum in Iran. At that point, Mr. Armoni and Mr. Amir decided to immediately travel to Guatemala, fearing that if the group escaped to the Middle East, it would be much harder to rescue the boy.

Soon after, Mr. Armoni got intelligence that the first group was leaving the country, including children. Amazingly, they were apprehended by officials before crossing the border, and Mr. Armoni and Mr. Amir were present, looking for the child. Sadly they could not find him

The team of agents made several additional attempts, however they have not been able to find the boy.

Yet Mr. Amir has not given up, and told Channel 12 that he plans to keep fighting until he finds his son.

Lev Tahor was founded by Shlomo Helbrans in Jerusalem in the 1980s. This past November, two top leaders, Nachman Helbrans (the son of Shlomo) and Mayer Rosner, were convicted by a court in New York of child exploitation and kidnapping.