Rabbi of the Pure Hearts : Inside Lev Tahor - the fifth estate
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Published 2014-08-12
Their ongoing legal battles are raising an old dilemma: when does a group’s right to religious freedom get trumped by society’s obligation to protect children? It’s also prompted a lot of questions about life inside the secluded community - and the past of its charismatic leader, Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans. The fifth estate’s team travelled from New York to Israel to investigate his murky history, and host Gillian Findlay spoke to people with an intimate knowledge of his past. With unprecedented access to the community in Chatham, including first-hand footage of a police raid there and an extensive interview with Helbrans, ‘Rabbi of the Pure Hearts: Inside Lev Tahor’ reveals the challenges of life in the Jewish sect.
A joint investigation with Radio Canada's Enquete program
Original airdate : February 28th, 2014
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All Comments (21)
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Protection of children and innocents should always come first no matter what.
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Declared himself a rabbi. That's all I needed to hear. A NUTCASE!
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I'm Jewish and I'm speechless. Good reporting 👍. Fanatism has no borders. Everything has to be in healthy balanced moderation.
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Update: The leaders were arrested in Guatemala and the woman is also arrested in US.
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the reporter is fearless. good job.
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Any person who says," I have never ever ever ever....!" is lying to you.
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Lady: Who remembers the capital city of Ontario? Kids: Ottawa. Toronto people: Wait, what?
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As a Jewish woman this is heartbreaking 😢
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"when does a group’s right to religious freedom get trumped by society’s obligation to protect children?" Every time, always.
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This journalist is amazing... she really puts it to them and rightly so! Watched her on other episodes and she doesn’t miss a beat! Great work 👍🏼
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Honestly. How can you blindly follow this man? He hasn't left two words out of his mouth and I knew he was nothing without his loyal followers. Sad, just sad. These poor and helpless children.
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Lev Tahor is not part of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Excommunications are incredibly rare in that community, almost unheard of, yet these people earned one.
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I’m grateful for these reporters for finding out about the suffering of the little children.
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Fundamentalism, no matter the religion, always seems to end up subjugating women.
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I cant believe that at end she interviewed Sima the woman next to her husband presumably asking her " but your brother in israel says your miserable, so are u unhappy here?" 😣 God help her with her husband afterwards...
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At around 2:40, the rabbi tells a younger man to go and shut down his computer. The young man, and his brother, would go on to kidnap two children and attempt to smuggle them to Guatemala. The kidnappers are named the Weissman brothers I believe, this happened early last year
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Any religious group that likes to keep to themselves and not deal with Outsiders for some reason always has the same problems that come up. Abuse of children and abuse of women
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This Rabbi is extremely dangerous. The state must fight for the wellbeing of this children.
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When a group of people move to a secluded community they then can't possibly expect the public to believe that they aren't doing acts that would be looked at being illegal.
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Hello! The documentary is from 7 years ago. Do you have any new updates on what is happening now?
