Israeli girls saved from Canadian extremist sect

A STORM has erupted in Israel over the attempt by two young Israeli girls to join an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect in Canada. Lev Tahor is so extreme that any member who sins faces a lashing and women must remain fully covered.

The unnamed sisters, aged 13 and 15, were sent by their parents last week to join the community in Quebec. But they were stopped at Montreal's Trudeau airport after the girls' great-uncle petitioned an Israeli court for their return.

His claim that Lev Tahor would abuse and enslave them was upheld by the court and after diplomatic efforts from the Foreign Ministry and Interpol, the girls were detained on their arrival in Canada.

The girls spotted the members of Lev Tahor who had come to Trudeau airport to collect them, but police intervened. According to Haaretz, the older girl said: "We tried to resist. We screamed and cried."

They were put on a plane back to Tel Aviv on Sunday and are now back at the family home in Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem.
 
The episode has raised questions about the legitimacy of Lev Tahor, and an Israeli court will rule next week on whether membership of the sect should be made illegal for all Israelis.

If this happens, one implication is that social welfare agencies will be empowered to take away member parents' children.
 
Lev Tahor was established a decade ago and today consists of around 45 families. It is said to be among the most extreme religious groups in Canada. "Rituals of the Lev Tahor community reportedly involve lashing anyone considered a 'sinner,' and sending 14-year-old girls to the wedding canopy", Haaretz reports.
 
The sect is known for keeping women members completely covered in black robes, a custom that has earned Lev Tahor the epithet 'The Jewish Taliban'.
 
The Globe and Mail reports that community leader and founder Rabbi Shlomo Elbarnes explained this week that some girl members do marry as teenagers but that they are not forced into it.

Elbarnes established Lev Tahor after being forced to leave the USA for Canada in 1994, having been convicted of kidnapping a 13-year old boy. In 2009, the female head of the group's Israeli branch was convicted for abusing her mentally ill son.
 
For now, the parents of the two young girls retrieved from Montreal have signed a form promising that they will never try to send the girls back to Lev Tahor. ·