CultNEWS101 Articles (11/18/2016)

Nutritionist Rosemary Stanton on finding life outside a religious #sect

"Rosemary has been a public figure for several decades in Australia, advising people on nutrition and healthy eating.
What is less well known about her is that she was brought up in a religious sect which did not allow women to attend university.

Rosemary's family belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, and lived very strict lives dictated by the church, which meant no television, no radio, and no socialising with outsiders."

http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-rosemary-stanton/8011214

Prime minister John Key labels Brian Tamaki's #homophobic  claims 'ridiculous'

"Prime Minister John Key has called comments made by Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki "ridiculous" after the "bishop" blamed New Zealand's queer community for the recent spate of earthquakes."

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/11/prime-minister-john-key-labels-brian.html?m=1

Plea deal for sex-offender rabbi — report
#Bratslav  #Hasidic

"A rabbi who has been accused of sexually abusing several women, including a minor, is likely to sign a plea deal that would see him serve only 18 months in prison, Chanel 2 reports.

Rabbi Eliezer Berland, founder of the Shuvu Bonim religious group, was extradited to Israel earlier in the year after three years on the run."

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/11/plea-deal-for-sex-offender-rabbi-report.html?m=0

On Nov. 22: Undertow Available
by Charlene L. Edge

"I’m happy to announce that on November 22 the Special Offer starts for ordering Undertow. For 30 days (until Dec. 22) customers in the USA can place orders at my website and receive a signed copy in the mail."

http://charleneedge.com/undertow-available-november-22-2016/

India Bans Organization Run by Controversial Televangelist Preacher

"The Indian government has banned a nongovernmental organization run by a popular televangelist preacher, Zakir Naik, after accusations that he promoted terrorism through his speeches."

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/world/asia/india-preacher-zakir-naik-banned.html

Arizona begins process of booting polygamous community’s police force

"The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board then voted to start the process of removing those marshals from the police force in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. The marshals will be allowed to remain on the job while they appeal, which their lawyers indicated Wednesday they will do."

http://www.sltrib.com/home/4590424-155/arizona-is-set-to-boot-polygamous

Google Think Tank Launches New Weapon in Fight Against ISIS

"Developers at Jigsaw, the tech giant's [Google] think-tank, are two months into a pilot project called Redirect, which aims to push web users searching for jihadist information toward content designed to counter the slick tools of terrorist recruitment."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/google-think-tank-launches-new-weapon-fight-against-isis-n682036

Police 'failing to identify' hundreds of children abused for being 'possessed'

"Campaigners believe up to 400 youngsters suffer violent abuse annually, often after unscrupulous faith leaders accuse the child in order to charge parents for a bogus exorcism."

http://www.cultnews101.com/2016/11/police-to-identify-hundreds-of-children.html?m=0

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Plea deal for sex-offender rabbi — report

November 15, 2016
Times of Israel

A rabbi who has been accused of sexually abusing several women, including a minor, is likely to sign a plea deal that would see him serve only 18 months in prison, Chanel 2 reports.

Rabbi Eliezer Berland, founder of the Shuvu Bonim religious group, was extradited to Israel earlier in the year after three years on the run that took him between Zimbabwe, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and South Africa, accompanied by a group of devout followers numbering around 40 families.

Channel 2 says that under the deal Berland will admit to only two of the cases.

Berland, 79, considered a cult-like leader to thousands of his followers from the Bratslav Hasidic sect, was on the run for years in an attempt to evade extradition to Israel.

He fought his extradition from the Netherlands in 2015 on the grounds that the alleged assaults happened in the West Bank and Israel does not have jurisdiction there. He later fled the Netherlands to avoid extradition.

He also twice escaped arrest by South African authorities, but was finally nabbed in April after entering a hospital for treatment.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/plea-deal-for-sex-offender-rabbi-report/

Rabbi caught on video admitting rape, plotting murder with students

Years-old footage released of newly extradited Eliezer Berland shows him explaining how he forced a married woman into sex

 

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF 

July 27, 2016

 

A rabbi extradited from South Africa for sex offenses and arrested upon his arrival in Israel last week, after being on the run for three years, has been caught on camera admitting to raping one of his female followers.

“She was raped from start to finish,” Berland says in footage released by Channel 2 television on Tuesday night. “Afterwards she thought it was permissible… the first time I raped her.”

According to Channel 2, the incriminating recordings were made four years ago by two of Berland’s followers. They were told to burn all the tapes and other potentially incriminating material “in case the police do not cooperate.”

But some of the tapes survived, and were handed over to police Monday. In another tape, Berland can be heard instructing one of his followers to place a bomb under the bed of an unnamed person — to send them to heaven.

Berland was extradited to Israel last week to answer charges of molesting female followers, including a minor. He was also accused of involvement in an attack on the husband of one of those women who complained against him.

The 79-year-old Berland is a cult-like figure to his students and followers. He is credited by his followers with inspiring tens of thousands of Jews to adopt an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle. He is the founder of the Shuvu Bonim religious group, part of the Bratslav Hasidic sect.

In one video (in Hebrew) aired Tuesday, Berland appears to be discussing an issue of Jewish law whereby if a wife has an affair she becomes forbidden to remain married to her husband. However, if she is raped, however, this does not apply.

In the heavily edited video, Berland appears to contradict himself and claims that the woman, or perhaps another, is no longer married. “Afterwards she already asked me ‘What? What is happening here?’ I said to her ‘You are no longer married.'”

The video then shows Berland giving an entirely different justification for his actions. “She never did this voluntarily. She understood that she was like a divine messenger, to be the wife of the [rabbi],” Berland says, referring to himself in the third person.

In another video, Berland is seen speaking to a group of his followers in Hebrew. A student whispers something to him, to which Berland replies: “They placed the bomb for him? Who tried to do this?” He then entrusts one of his followers, Shlomi, to “go to Rishon Lezion and deal with those who placed the bomb.”

It is unclear to whom Berland is referring, or whether he was actually referring to a bomb. It is possible that he was using coded language for an entirely innocent activity.

A source close to Berland told the ultra-Orthodox website Hadrei Haredim in response that the video was edited by sources who wished to discredit Berland.

“Dozens of people attended this lesson, and it was recorded by followers of the rabbi and uploaded to YouTube. Those same people chose to cut the film, edit it and send it to the media during the rabbi’s trial. This is part of the well-oiled and prepared system that tries to harm the rabbi and his community.”

Berland was on the run from authorities from 2013 to 2016, eluding several Israeli attempts to extradite him. He moved between Zimbabwe, Switzerland, the Netherlands and South Africa, accompanied by a group of devout followers numbering around 40 families.

On Tuesday a http://www.timesofisrael.com/rabbi-caught-on-video-admitting-rape-plotting-murder-with-students/fternoon, Lod District Court upheld a police appeal against a decision by Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court to release Berland to house arrest. The rabbi was to remain in custody for another day for further questioning.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/rabbi-caught-on-video-admitting-rape-plotting-murder-with-students/

 

Illegal Hasidic school targeted in youth protection raid

Raid comes as representatives from Batshaw youth services seek access to school

CBC News

Jun 01, 2016

An illegal school in the Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie borough was the target of a youth protection operation on Wednesday, led by Batshaw Youth and Family Centres with the help of the Montreal police.

The school is operated by the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish community, and it's suspected of operating without an Education Ministry permit.

About 60 students attend the school, a three-storey brick building featuring a storefront with covered windows on Parc Avenue at the corner of Beaubien Street.

There was a heavy police presence at the school on Wednesday.

Dozens of Hasidic boys were seen exiting the school, using their hats to cover their faces.

Earlier, police escorted a group of a dozen women out of the school and to their cars. Some of them were holding folders, but neither they nor police would confirm if they were teachers in the school.

Negotiations for access to school

Youth protection officials had been attempting to arrange a visit to the school to assess the children and came with police Wednesday to gain access.

Officials from the school says they had been in negotiations with Batshaw about scheduling that visit when the raid occurred.

A community spokesperson told CBC the school never refused access to youth protection officials, but could not say how long those negotiations had been going on.

Claire Roy, a spokeswoman for CIUSSS de l'Ouest-de-l'Île-de-Montréal – the regional health and social services agency under which Batshaw falls – would not comment about the nature of the operation, citing the restrictions in Quebec's Youth Protection Act.

Police also would not comment.

Education Minister Sébastien Proulx would only say he is "aware of the raid," while a spokesperson for the Education Ministry said there isn't a registered school at the location.

Debate over religious accommodation

Montreal's Hasidic population is situated mostly in nearby Mile End and in Outremont.

Schools in the tight-knit religious community have come under increased scrutiny for failing to comply with Education Ministry requirements.

The community has also occasionally been the target of municipal bylaws and a focal point in the province's debate over religious accommodation.

On Monday, Outremont's borough council moved ahead with a controversial bylaw that would ban the establishment of new places of worship, including synagogues, on two main thoroughfares.

The raid comes a day after a report from Radio-Canada about an illegal Hasidic school in Outremont, Beth Esther Academy.

In the report, the all-girls school showed how it was attempting to comply with provincial law by meeting the requirements for home-schooled children.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/batshaw-youth-protection-raid-petite-patrie-1.3610608

 

Wanted “Sex Fiend” Breslov Hasidic Leader Allegedly Resurfaces – In South Africa

September 25, 2015

Shmarya Rosenberg

FailedMessiah.com

Where in the world is accused sex abuser Rabbi Eliezer Berland?

Berland, the 77-year-old head of the Breslov hasidic Shuvu Banim sect, fled Israel more than two years ago after female followers – including one minor – claimed Berland sexually abused them.

Since fleeing Israel, Berland has hopped from country to country. He was forced out of Morocco, arrested and expelled from Zimbabwe, and escaped arrest in South Africa twice before fleeing to Holland just before Rosh Hashana in September 2014. Berland intended to change planes in Holland and continue on to the Ukraine, where he hoped to spend Rosh Hashana at the grave of Breslov’s founder, Rabbi Nachman, in Uman.

But Berland didn’t make it to Uman. Instead, he was arrested in the international airport near Amsterdam on an international arrest warrant.

Berland unsuccessfully fought extradition to Israel using a mixture of inartful lies (including falsely claiming to be a Holocaust survivor) and allegedly faked illnesses. But when the time for Berland’s extradition was likely only days away late this summer, Berland disappeared from the public eye and apparently fled the Netherlands.

Rumors placing Berland in Guatemala began to be spread, but there was still no public siting of the wanted hasidic leader.

But now Yeshiva World has reported based on a report in MyNet that Berland sent a message to his followers (apparently via Facebook) hours before Rosh Hashana asking them to join him in South Africa. The message did not give an exact address for Berland but did promise a telephone number and address for Berland would soon be made available to them.

Despite these reports, it is unclear whether Berland is actually in South Africa or if he even left Europe.

Berland was born in Haifa and reportedly studied at the Knesset Chizkiyahu Yeshiva in Kfar Hasidim under Rabbi Elyah Lopian and Rabbi Dov Yaffe. Berland went on to join the Ponevezh Yeshiva Kollel (yeshiva for married students) and later moved to the Volozhin Kollel in Bnei Brak and was allegedly a study partner of the late haredi leader Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, better known as the Steipler Gaon. Berland later left the non-hasidic haredi community and joined Breslov, where he eventually started his own sect.

During his nearly 2-1/2-year flight from the law, Berland has been dubbed the “Sex Pest” and “Sex Fiend” rabbi by various African newspapers. His followers, who flocked to be with him at his various locations, trashed public parks and resorts, and allegedly left a string of unpaid bills and damage.

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2015/09/wanted-sex-fiend-breslov-hasidic-leader-allegedly-resurfaces-in-south-africa-678.html