Guatemalan village expels Jewish sect that some see as cult

A few months after moving from Canada to a remote part of Guatemala to find religious freedom, a group of ultra-orthodox Jews have been forced out of their homes in a bitter conflict with hostile villagers.

The Lev Tahor community packed its bags on Friday in San Juan la Laguna, around 150 km (93 miles) west of Guatemala City, to board buses bound for the capital after weeks of friction with sections of the local population.

Verbal abuse, threats to cut off power and eject them by force were the last straw for the Jews who began arriving in March from Canada, where the Lev Tahor group's strict religious ways had clashed with authorities.

The religious group, which practices an austere form of Judaism, has won admiration from some Jews for its devoutness while others have condemned it for being a cult. According to multiple media reports over the course of several years, the sect employs controversial methods of mind control and violence and practices underage marriage.

The group was founded in the 1980s by Israeli native Shlomo Helbrans. Helbrans declined to be interviewed, but another Lev Tahor leader in San Juan, Rabbi Uriel Goldman, fielded questions about the group.

Goldman insisted most of the Guatemalan villagers were friendly toward the black-clad men, women and children of Lev Tahor but that the group was pushed out by an aggressive minority he said were motivated by local politics. Reportedly offered a residence in the capital by the Guatemalan government, Goldman said that the group had decided to leave their homes to keep their families safe.

"I don't understand why they don't want us, we're doing nothing bad here," said the bearded Goldman, who like other men in Lev Tahor (which means "Pure Heart" in Hebrew) has his head shaved and wears sidelocks beneath a black hat. "Unfortunately it went wrong, not from our side," he insisted. "In order to keep the peace we decided we're just going to have to leave. We have a responsibility for our children, for our women, for our families and we don't want to live in a place that who knows what can happen, even [if] we have full rights to be there," he said.

According to Goldman, a council of elders in San Juan issued an ultimatum to Lev Tahor, saying water and electricity would be cut off if they did not leave.

"They warned us they would remove us from the village by force," one of the leaders of the Lev Tahor community Misael Santos said. "We decided to leave as soon as possible because first they [residents from village] were going to cut the water before the [community] meeting and they did. And so with the public threats they made in this place we thought they, the [village] leaders, could do this too. So, we will leave San Juan as soon as possible for the security of our children and our families," he continued.

Miguel Vasquez Cholotio, a member of the elders' council, said the villagers decided to expel the group because they refused to greet or have physical contact with the community.

"We felt intimidated by them in the streets. We thought they wanted to change our religion and customs," he said.

Members of Lev Tahor eschew technological trappings such as television and computers. In Canada, critics and some relatives of Lev Tahor members have accused the group of keeping children in unsanitary conditions, promoting underage marriage and physical abuse. Leaders of the group dismissed the allegations and said Lev Tahor were being persecuted for their religious beliefs.

Rejecting the state of Israel because it views the Jews as a people in exile, Lev Tahor hopes to find land elsewhere in Guatemala to build 30 houses to resettle the roughly 200 members community, Goldman said.

Around 60 members of the group left San Juan Friday night with the rest set to follow.

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