Shlomo Helbrans

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Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans is a Sephardic Hasidic rabbi who leads Lev Tahor, a small settlement of a dozen families residing in the Laurentian mountains in Quebec. He is a former citizen of the State of Israel, but after claiming that his life was being threatened he was granted refugee status in Canada. He authored a polemic against Zionism called Derech Hatzalah or The Way to Salvation.

Helbrans was convicted and served a prison term for the 1992 kidnapping of 13-year-old Shai Fhima Reuven, a Bar Mitzvah boy he was tutoring.[1][2] His case also gained attention because he successfully convinced New York prison authorities to waive their requirement that all prisoners be shaved for a photograph upon entering prison, a violation of strict Jewish law, and to accept instead a computer-generated image of what he would have looked line clean-shaven.[3]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Joseph P. Fried. "Rabbi Given Prison Term In Kidnapping Of Teen-Ager", New York Times, November 23, 1994. 
  2. ^ Denholtz, Elaine (September 2001). The Zaddik: The Battle for a Boy's Soul. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1573929202. 
  3. ^ George James. "Computer Replaces Razor For Rabbi's Prison Picture", New York Times, December 29, 1994. 

[edit] External links

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