Jerusalem – Rabbi Eliezer Berland was indicted Friday morning at the Jerusalem District Court for sex offenses.
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The charges included assault against minor and using his position as a service and educational worker to assault others.
The induction came after a three year manhunt for the rabbi.
His followers demonstrated outside the court house in support Berland.
Berland is the leader of the Shuvu Banim community of the Breslov Hassidic sect. He originally fled Israel in 2012 after claims of sexual abuse were made against him by several women, including a 15-year-old girl.
He had since resided in Miami, Zurich, Morocco and Zimbabwe with a band of devoted followers in his efforts to escape extradition to Israel.
The rabbi was arrested in Amsterdam last year, but escaped before he could be extradited, and made his way back to South Africa, having previously sought shelter there after being expelled from Zimbabwe in 2014.
Berland was successfully extradited from South Africa to Israel two weeks ago, with the Israel police arresting him upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport on suspicion of various sex offenses.
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What sefer is he reading?
A shanda.
Lovely pictures of all his followers praying for him. Where are the pictures of them praying for his victims. Times like this I am almost ashamed to be an orthodox jew. That a sick animal can do things like that and hide behind the title rabbi and have his followers protect him and flee different countries to avoid prosecution. An example needs to be of sick predators like him.
How can this old frail person assault women?
I see one of the protesters is holding a sign “משפט דרייפוס 2016”. How much you wanna bet that guy doesn’t know who Dreyfus was.
If allegations are fake and he did nothing why was he on the run? Couldn’t he just prove his innocence? There must be more to this.
lets not forget that an indictment is NOT a guilty verdict so we are bound by the fact that it is meanwhile Loshon Hora.
The good Ruv will have an opportunity to clear his name in court in open trial if he is indeed innocent.
If he is so innocent, why did he run away, from country to country. Innocent men do not run!!
in the tenth picture down there is a pokeman go…almost in the centre of the picture
The holy Reb NACHMAN taught that it is better to be a nirdof rather than be a rodef .We can’t fathom what a tzadik has to do to achieve certain lofty works.