Extremist Haredi Cult Flees Quebec, Planning Move to Iran
Forty families belonging to an extremist haredi Orthodox cult fled their Quebec homes and are planning to go to Iran.
Members of the group, called Lev Tahor, or Pure Heart, left their homes on Tuesday out of fear that Canadian welfare authorities would take their children, the Times of Israel reported Wednesday. The paper cited an Israeli whose sister and eight children are part of the cult, which has been accused of neglecting and abusing its 137 children.
The members traveled to Ontario before the planned move to Iran, according to the paper.
The cult, led by Israeli Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, reportedly uses extreme violence and mind control. Most of its members are Israeli-born with Canadian-born children.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
