Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans
Quebec authorities are trying to commit “genocide” on
members of Lev Tahor, the group’s leader says in a video released Friday.
Grand Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans says in the 18-minute video that
his fundamentalist Jewish sect had no choice but to move from Ste-Agathe to
Chatham late last year in order to avoid a Quebec judge’s ruling to remove 14
children from two Lev Tahor families.
“What choice do we have? We came to Ontario,” said Helbrans,
who referred to Nazi persecution and claimed Quebec authorities “want to
destroy us, to obliterate us… They want to commit a genocide.”
Helbrans said his group tried to work with children’s aid workers
in Quebec, as well as police and the courts, but that no one would listen to
Lev Tahor members.
“This place was full with joyful children, playing with such
happiness and charm, with such purity and innocence,” Helbrans said in the
video, which appears to have been made in front of a few followers shortly
before sunset on Feb. 6. “The children would never tease or harm anyone. No one
has ever harmed the children, at least not from our community.”
Helbrans, who was among the last of more than 200 Lev Tahor
community members to leave Ste-Agathe,
said the group’s “persecution” originally started with Israeli
authorities. The rabbi said the Isreali government refuses to accept Lev
Tahor’s stand against Zionism. He said his group practices a purer interpretation
of the Torah.
“The Creator knows the truth, that we have not committed in
the village a single crime,” Helbrans said. “We did not break any Canadian or
Quebec law.”
Lev Tahor’s move to Ontario has provided the group a
reprieve. But they still face legal troubles. An Ontario judge earlier this
month ruled that the children in question must return to Quebec, though Lev
Tahor was given 30 days to appeal the Ontario ruling.
Meanwhile, the Jewish group has been enjoying support in
Chatham.
Dave Formosa, the founder of a human rights Facebook group,
has organized a peace rally from 1 to 3 p.m. on Feb. 25 near the Chatham-Kent
Court House, to show Lev Tahor members that they have friends in the greater
community.
“We really greatly appreciate this kind of support and we
want to thank everybody for that,” Uriel Goldman, a Lev Tahor spokesman, told
the Star Friday. “All the time people are coming and saying good words, every
single day.
“They understand that we are getting persecuted and they do
not agree.”
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