CHAIM LEV
Mainstream Israeli daily newspaper ARUTZ SHEVA report that Rabbi Eliezer Berland, who heads the Shuvu Banim hassidic sect, was conducting a wedding for one of his followers on Monday at a house when police attempted to arrest him. However, relatives and other supporters managed to spirit him away, chalking up another narrow escape for the runaway rabbi.
Berland managed to escape arrest last month under very similar circumstances, when plainclothes police officers attempted to apprehend him at a previous wedding he was officiating at in Johannesburg.
According to a witness – a follower of Berland’s who had travelled to the South African city for the wedding – in that incident hassidim managed to hide the rabbi in another room while police were duped into chasing after the wrong man.
Read the previous story of how Hawks botched arrest:
ISRAEL CALLS FOR RABBI BERLAND’S ARREST & RETURN
Plus links to all previous stories, writings & related events.
Followers claim that the fugitive Rabbi, who is on the run after facing sexual assault charges in Israel, is legally allowed to stay in Johannesburg and complained of discrimination by local officials.
“From the first moment we got here, senior figures in the Jewish community were trying to exile the Rabbi,” one Shuvu Banim member lamented.
Berland was accused of committing indecent acts against several young female followers; he was wanted in Israel for questioning. Berland fled Israel before he could be arrested, however, to the US, Italy, and Switzerland.
He eventually settled for a time in Marrakech, Morocco before being forced out by the government. He them moved once again to Zimbabwe, from where he was allegedly deported earlier this year.
Last April, before the Passover holiday, the Johannesburg Jewish community was notified that Berland may be staying there for Passover – putting the community on high alert.
Follow the story on Jewish Report Online:
frankel
Sep 10, 2014 at 9:26 pm
‘Seriously, if he would go back to Israel for his trial then answers could be discovered, but he won’t, so he is admitting guilt.
I won’t treat people who condone sexual abuse with respect. I won’t respect people who treat their wives like dogs. I won’t welcome people who so easily abandon their kids and force them to beg on the streets. I wont respect a sect who feel it is okay to defacate in the maharsha mikvah. I won’t accept that it’s okay for a 14 year old girl to be attending the mikvah.
What is wrong with all you people who are supporting them?
‘