2 Senior Members Of Lev Tahor Arrested In Guatemala

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NEW YORK (VINnews) — Guatemalan police and Interpol members arrested Aharon Teller and Yosef Rosner, two senior members of the “Lev Tahor” cult, in Guatemala City on Thursday, on suspicion of human trafficking and forcing minors into marriage.

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Teller, the former son-in-law of the cult’s founder, Shlomo Helbrans, who passed away in 2017, was arrested alongside Rosner in a coordinated police operation. During the arrest, five mobile phones were confiscated. The local prosecution arranged for a Yiddish interpreter to ensure the detainees’ legal rights. These arrests follow the detention of Yoel Alter, a 35-year-old Israeli citizen, who was taken into custody last week near a government facility housing the children rescued from the cult compound.

On December 20, 2024, Guatemalan authorities raided the cult’s compound in the Santa Rosa region. During the operation, 160 children and teenagers, as well as several women, were rescued and transferred to government welfare facilities. According to official reports, some young mothers, following cult orders, are withholding food from their children in an attempt to pressure authorities into releasing them.

Guatemalan officials report that the community, consisting of about 50 families from Guatemala, the United States, and Canada, settled in the country in 2013 after leaving Mexico and Canada. In Mexico, an ongoing criminal investigation against cult members has been underway since 2022.

An Israeli government delegation has arrived in Guatemala to coordinate actions with local authorities. Meanwhile, the search continues for 11 more children from the cult who have yet to be located.

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Educated Archy
Educated Archy
16 days ago

We need the Satmar community to fly down there and talk to lev tahor. They are the ones that are most capable of snapping the mothers and children out of the cult like system and integrating them. This isn’t to say that Lev Tahor has anything to do with Satmar. But at the end of the day, the men dress similar and the Hungarian Yiddish is most in their style. They will feel most comfortable around them vs a Chabadska like shea Hecht or the likes

Disunity
Disunity
16 days ago

What’s even more tragic than the current situation is the fact that nobody in the Jewish community Orthodox or not. Isn’t doing anything to address the situation

MOSHE
MOSHE
16 days ago

When are the authorities going to make this cult illegal and close it down once and for all?

613ari
613ari
16 days ago

I would love to adopt these innocent neshamas. any ideas how to?

esther
esther
16 days ago

there are children in the us stolen from their mother in the mother in the middke of the night their controlling father and noone was able to free them

Simple
Simple
16 days ago

To Getting excited for you : That was a nice , humourous comment ( I am not sarcastic, ) friendly indeed . Actually I ve given you Thumbs Up .

Yid
Yid
16 days ago

No fan of Lev Tahor, but Guatemala is a third world nightmare were violence is rampant and the government is weak, inept, and essentially controlled by gangs and drug lords. Why are they suddenly expending resources and manpower on this? Not suggesting anything in particular, but I really don’t trust the Guatemalan government’s motives at all.

Simple
Simple
16 days ago

No mercy ?
A yid is a yid .
Let Lev Tahor to confess
then , back home .Not Lev Tahor s home,
rather regular living like rest of us .