Guatemala villagers try to force out ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect

[oberliner]

SAN JUAN LA LAGUNA, Guatemala — Merchants clad in bright, indigenous patterns greeted a boatload of tourists arriving on the shore of Lake Atitlán. But as some of the travelers disembarked, they directed their gaze at an incongruous pair.

They were a mother and daughter, dressed in black from head to toe, members of Lev Tahor, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish fringe group that has settled in this Guatemalan village of less than 10,000 people after fleeing Canada earlier this year. The municipality estimates that about 100 members live there.

“They scare away the tourists and … they don’t assimilate,” said Guillermo Cholotio, a local tour guide, pointing toward the cloaked figures. Only the pale ovals of their faces were exposed. “They don’t respect our customs.”

In the 1980s a fiery young anti-Zionist rabbi from Jerusalem founded Lev Tahor, which means “pure heart” in Hebrew. Today the community numbers in the low hundreds and comprises about 45 families living primarily in Guatemala, Israel, the U.S. and Canada. The group interprets Jewish Scriptures literally and aims to “go back to the original Judaism” of the Torah, said Lev Tahor spokesman Uriel Goldman.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/8/29/lev-tahor-conservativejewishsectguatemala.html

[LiberalAndProud]

1. And now religion erects a new artifice to exacerbate our innate tribalism.

Bah, humbug.

If there really was no child abuse as the Canadian courts found, then I guess they should be allowed to rear their children and dress themselves as they see fit. But still, why don't we have enough to separate us from one another already?

[4now]

2. After fleeing Canada amid allegations of child abuse

Lev Tahor, a radical strain of Hassidic Judaism, was founded by Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans in Israel and flourished after he moved the group to the U.S. in the early 1990s. While living in New York, Helbrans was jailed for kidnapping a young follower. He was deported to Israel after serving a portion of his prison sentence. In the early 2000s, he moved his group to the Quebec town of Ste-Agathe-des-Monts.

Problems began several years ago when encounters with Quebec's child protection authorities led to suspicions the group was carrying out underage marriages, forcing members to take powerful and unnecessary psychiatric medication and raising their children with no access to doctors or proper education. That prompted a raid in August 2013 and proceedings to have more than a dozen children taken into foster care.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/08/29/jewish_group_lev_tahor_expelled_from_guatemala_sanctuary.html

[Fred Sanders]

4. Stories of religious prosecution of all religions by other religions are a dime a dozen.

[oberliner]

6. These are some pretty creepy anti-Zionists

I wouldn't want them in my town either.

[3rdwaydem]

3. "... they don’t assimilate,”

Why should they. I'm against the melting pot theory.

[hifiguy]

5. "When in Rome do as the Romans do"

has always been good advice for visitors.

This sounds culty/creepy to me.

[Scootaloo]

7. Sounds like common experience for visible minority religious groups

Sikhs and traditional-dressing Muslims get the same treatment in the US, for example.