In which Latin American country is Lev Taher, the extremist Jewish sect accused of child abuse and recently discovered in Colombia?

According to Agence France-Presse, authorities estimate that the community consists of about 50 families from the United States, Canada, Guatemala and other countries.

They settled in Guatemala in 2013, shortly after they were charged with child neglect by social services in Canada, a country where they settled in a small town in the province of Quebec.

They had previously had problems with the law in the United States, where they settled after its founding.

In the Central American country, the first reports of its presence occurred in the town of San Juan La Laguna, which is mainly inhabited by indigenous Mayans.

After months of disagreements, the Senate expelled the group, claiming that its members rejected the local population and refused to talk to them or mingle with them.

The sect then moved to Guatemala City, where its headquarters were raided by the Public Ministry, which was investigating cases of child abuse.

In 2016, they moved to El Amatillo, Santa Rosa, a town 80 kilometers from Guatemala City.

According to a 2019 BBC Mundo report, there were about 350 members living there at the time.

The first news about Lev Tahir in Mexico came in 2017, when the Israeli press reported the death of the sect’s founder, Shlomo Helbrans, while performing a religious ritual in a river in Chiapas.

Five years later, in 2022, a Mexican police operation rescued a group of minors in a collective camp in the jungle, about 17 kilometers from the city of Tapachula, near Guatemala.

Two sect leaders were arrested and about two dozen members rioted in protest against what they denounced as religious persecution against them, a common argument of sect spokesmen.

Many of them fled during the riots.

Perhaps the most severe media blow to Lev Tahur came in December 2024, when Guatemalan authorities rescued 160 minors in the municipality of Oratorio in Santa Rosa.

So far, officials in the Central American country continue to verify the identities of minors.

They have even received complaints that if a sect member dies, they are buried without notifying the relevant authorities.

In June 2025, El Salvador extradited two men from Lev Tahur to Israel and Guatemala, after they were arrested in January when they entered El Salvadoran territory.

As a result of recent judicial coups, especially the coup in Guatemala, Gloria Arriero, Colombia’s immigration director, has reduced the current number of members of the community.

“A little more than 90,” he told Karakol Radio, but he did not clarify whether this number corresponds to a regional or global statistic.

In addition to these Latin American countries, Lev Tuhurs have in recent years tried to settle in Eastern European and Balkan countries, such as Romania, Turkey and Macedonia, from where they were deported.

Gloria Arriero told Caracol Radio that the group planned to rent a farm in Colombia where they could settle and there “do what they did in other parts of the world: an operation to maintain their cult and procreate among young people.”

Ariero denounced the marriage of young people to each other, “cousins ​​since they were 12 and 13 years old,” which is what they intended to do near Yarumal.

Among the rescued minors were five Americans carrying yellow Interpol inspection notices.

In total, seven families belonging to the sect entered the country on October 22 and 23.

Colombia’s Immigration Service obtained information about alerts from peer agencies against members of the sect for alleged crimes against minors, including the conviction of some leaders for kidnapping and sexual exploitation of children.

They also knew “indications indicating the possibility of establishing a new colony in Colombia to continue the crimes attributed to this religious sect.”

So far, the presence of Lev Tahur in other Colombian regions is not known, although they are investigating the matter, Ariero told Radio Caracol.

It has also not been announced what will happen to the discovered members, all of whom are foreigners.

Lev Tahur practices many of the customs of Hasidism, an orthodox and mystical stream of Judaism, but is much stricter.

This, coupled with their attractive clothing in a predominantly Catholic area, made settling in difficult.

Marcus Bickel, professor of diplomacy and international relations and director of the Colombian Jewish community, explains that the community does not have any kind of connection with its sect and that it is “against Jewish law and tradition.”

Bikel welcomed the operation carried out by the Colombian authorities, and ruled out the presence of Colombian members in the group, although he was not surprised by Lev Tahur’s attempt to establish his presence in Colombia.

“Because of their geography, their size and the difficulty of controlling territory, they will definitely try to settle, but we trust the work of the authorities,” Bickel told BBC Mundo.

For decades, vast areas of Colombia, isolated and remote, have had a limited government presence that armed and criminal groups have exploited to establish illegitimate rule and control illicit revenues.

In recent years, these same characteristics have attracted foreign religious groups.

Since 2016, Mennonite communities have expanded their presence in the country, purchasing tens of thousands of hectares, putting them at odds with local communities and prompting the National Lands Agency to launch investigations into the legality of their acquisitions.

Various reports in the press speak of hundreds of families of this Christian religious group of European origin in Colombia, who have found in this and other Latin American countries a kind of promised land.

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