New York – A New York man has been charged in the kidnapping of two children whose mother recently fled an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect in Guatemala.
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The FBI arrested Aron Rosner of Brooklyn this week on charges accusing him of providing financial assistance to members of the religious group Lev Tahor in an international abduction scheme.
Rosner’s defense attorney did not respond to an email seeking comment Thursday.
The FBI said in court filings that the children — 14-year-old Yante Teller and her 12-year-old brother Chaim Teller — were kidnapped Dec. 8 from their home in upstate New York and taken out of the country.
Surveillance footage shows the children walking out of the residence before 3 a.m. and entering a vehicle.
The boy was spotted with Lev Tahor members at a hotel in Mexico City days after the kidnapping, according to the court filings. The whereabouts of the children was not clear Thursday.
The FBI did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The bureau said in the court filings that the children’s mother had been a “voluntary member” of Lev Tahor, but escaped the group in recent weeks after the organization became increasingly extreme. Her father, Shlomo Helbrans, founded the sect and, in 1994, was convicted of kidnapping a 13-year-old in New York. Helbrans was later deported to Israel.
“The mother indicated that it was not safe to keep her children there,” FBI Agent Jonathan Lane wrote in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court, referring to the group in Guatemala.
Lane referred in the complaint to news accounts of Lev Tahor subjecting children to “physical, sexual and emotional abuse.”
The FBI said Rosner transferred money on seven occasions that assisted members of Lev Tahor in the kidnapping.
He also is accused of speaking with several “co-conspirators about hotels in Mexico as well as purchases of flights, bus tickets, credit cards and food,” according to the criminal complaint.
Rosner was ordered held without bail Monday pending trial.
The FBI hates kidnappers. This goes way back in their organizational DNA. Mr. Rosner has made a huge mistake.
Good lock him up. Also extridate helbrans and lock him up too. Helbrans would be ok dead too. He is a sick puppy not even worth being called an animal. And FYI I almost never advocate locking up frum Jews. But this helbrans is beyond sick. Anyone with kids has to feel for these suffering kids controlled by this filthy beast. I don’t want helbrans to even suffer from yena machla as I do with Muslims. He’d use his suffering to subject his followers with nore torture m. He is cruel and a beast.
We need the cult buster from the 70s Shea hecht to get involved
This is disgusting. Let people live their lives as they choose.
these are not ultra-Orthodox or frum Jews. They are anti-religious
There is no one that can “logically” show the difference of this Helbran’s sect then any other Chassidisha sect. Lets take Square Town for example.
* Physical Abuse: Square makes kids learn 12 hours a day, wear dark clothing that is weird to the rest of the World. Take a head count Friday night at the tish
* Sexual Abuse – they get married at 16, Kids have no choice who they marry, Are forced to walk on the other side of the street. etc.
* Emotional Abuse – Forced to listen to the Rebbe or Elders, Not allowed to registrar their marriages so they can get un-wed mother assistance etc.
We only attack Lev Tohor because it is standing out as a group that inspires to be frumer then the rest us. 50 years ago in America all chassidim were called outcasts & nutjobs like Lev Tohor. Today it became mainstream
America is a free country , anyone can live their lives as they choose – to step out of the rest of society to be as frum as they want to be. Our problem is – “how dare you say we are not frum enough for you” so we outcast them as freaks.