‘Hostages’ in Guatemala: The fight for 140 children
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In a quiet courtroom in Guatemala, the fate of 140 Jewish children—described by their relatives as “hostages”—hangs in the balance. Rescued from the radical Jewish sect Lev Tahor in a dramatic police operation in December 2024, these minors are now at the center of a legal battle that, according to their families, risks returning them to the very environment of abuse they were pulled from.
“These are not Guatemalan children. These are Israeli children. Jewish children. The cult came to Guatemala to escape justice,” Orit Cohen said in an interview with The Media Line. Her brother, sister-in-law and four nephews joined Lev Tahor fifteen years ago.
Lev Tahor, founded in Israel in the 1980s by Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, is an extremist ultra-Orthodox sect known for its Taliban-style dress code, rejection of secular education and medicine and enforcement of early child marriages. Over the past two decades, the sect has migrated from Israel to Canada, the U.S., Mexico and now Guatemala, usually in flight from legal scrutiny. International authorities have accused the group of child trafficking, abuse and psychological captivity.
Content retrieved from: https://www.ynetnews.com/article/byu00eduryx.
