Case of Rabbi Elior Chen
(AKA: Eliyahu Abuhazira, Elior Noam Hen, Elior Noam Chen)
Betar Illit, Israel
Jerusalem, Israel
Canada
San Paulo, Brazil
This page is dedicated in honor of all children who were abused by the parents of those who followed Rabbi Elior Chen. May their healing journey go easy and they only know nonviolent - unconditional love the rest of their lives.
Rabbi Elior Chen, who fled to Canada shortly after one of his followers was charged with systematic child abuse including burning her toddlers, making them eat feces, and putting them in a suitcase for days. Chen was not charged with anything, but fled as news reports of the Jerusalem mother's detention were circulated, and it appeared she had committed the abuse following instructions from him on child disciplining techniques.
Chen is also accused of cult like practices.
Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation
or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet
their own personal needs.
Abused child says his mother was hypnotized by rabbi (03/06/2008)
Parents held in case of Jerusalem child abuse (03/15/2008)
Court denies bail to two moms in abuse cases (04/02/2008)
Jerusalem child abuser to be indicted next week (04/03/2008)
State helpless in face of skeletons in haredi closet (04/03/2008)
Jerusalem mother charged with child abuse (04/06/2008)
Police seek extradition of rabbi from Canada (04/06/2008)
Or Yehuda 'abusive' mother put under house arrest (04/07/2008)
Police to demand extradition of Rabbi believed behind child abuse sect (04/07/2008)
Police arrest man allegedly tied to Jerusalem child abuse case (04/07/2008)
Israeli cult rabbi flees to Canada (04/07/2008)
Israel seeks extradition of rabbi from Canada on suspicion of child abuse (04/07/2008)
Media statement from Canadian Jewish Congress (04/08/2008)
Israel seeks extradition of rabbi in child abuse probe: One child, aged 3, suffered permanent brain damage (04/08/2008)
Metzger: Abusive parents and rabbis should be 'excommunicated' (04/08/2008)
Candian Broadcast Company (04/08/2008)
Calls for fugitive Israeli rabbi to contact police (04/09/2008)
Israeli rabbi accused of abuse asked to surrender (04/09/2008)
Child-abuse case leaves investigators stunned; Israel seeks to prepare international warrant, extradite rabbi (04/09/2008)
Suspect in J'lem child abuse arrested (04/09/2008)
God Wasn't There (04/10/2008)
Rabbi on run after child is forced to drink solvent (04/10/2008)
'If he said jump off the roof, you'd jump' (04/11/2008)
Israel issues international warrant against sect leader suspected of child abuse (04/11/2008)
Rabbi on run after child is forced to drink solvent (04/11/2008)
Fugitive rabbi's followers in Jerusalem court (04/13/2008)
Don't politicize child abuse case (04/13/2008)
Canadian Jewish Conference (04/14/2008)
Rabbi Metzger: Abuse stems from distortion of Kabbalah (04/14/2008)
Father tracks down fugitive child abuser (04/26/2008)
Sadistic Child Abuser in Canada Masquerading as Rabbi (05/27/2008)
Mother in 'cult abuse' case ordered held until end of trial (05/28/2008)
Fugitive suspected child abuser's kids removed from wife's custody (05/28/2008)
Cloistered Shame in Israel (05/28/2008)
Radical rabbi may be in Brazil (05/29/2008)
Suspected Haredi child abuser Elior Chen said to be hiding in Brazil (05/29/2008)
Rabbi Israel sought by Interpol in Brazil (05/29/2008)
Brazil's Interpol chief Jorge Pontes shows the photo of Rabbi Elior Chen (06/04/2008)
Rabbi' Elior Chen turns himself in (06/04/2008)
Brazil: Child Abuse Suspect Elior Chen Turns Himself In (06/04/2008)
Suspected Haredi child abuser Elior Chen turns himself in to Brazilian authorities (06/04/2008)
I hope Elior Chen departs this world' (06/04/2008)
Israel asks Brazil to extradite rabbi (06/04/2008)
Elior Chen surrenders to Brazilian authorities; will be extradited to Israel (06/04/2008)
Interpol suspects Brazilian Jewish community hid rabbi wanted for child abuse (06/05/2008)
'Ringleader' in J'lem abuse case could be extradited in weeks (06/05/2008)
Rabbi accused of torturing children (06/05/2008)
Israel: 7 days in 5 minutes (06/06/2008)
Evidence may prove police lied about arresting 'Rabbi' Chen (06/08/2008)
'Parents' feud could be behind baby abuse complaint' (06/11/2008)
Child abuse suspect Elior Chen to fight extradition from Brazil (06/19/2008)
'Rabbi' Chen to fight extradition from Brazil (06/19/2008)
Abuse charges rabbi to fight extradition (06/20/2008)
Elior Chen opposing extradition from Brazil (06/22/2008)
Related Cases
Related Information:
Background Information and The History of Rabbinical Ordinations
Shimon Gabai / David Kugman / Rabbi Elior Chen / A. Masklatzi
Tools Chen's Cult Used to Torture
Children
Abused child says his mother was hypnotized by
rabbi
By Haaretz Staff and Channel 10 - March 6, 2008
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/989428.html
The son of a woman charged with child abuse details the brutality he faced by his mother's rabbi.
The family of a soldier killed in the Second Lebanon War receives his dog tag from Hezbollah.
Thousands pay tribute to Yosef Lapid at his funeral in Tel Aviv.
Parents held in case of Jerusalem child
abuse
By Jonathan Lis
Haaretz - March 15, 2008
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/964247.html
Police are still not sure who is responsible for the abuse of two small children hospitalized with severe burns and bruises. The boys' mother admitted the abuse charges under interrogation Wednesday night, but later recanted.
The father has not visited his eight children since the Sukkot holiday. Several friends of the mother frequented the home and helped with the children. One of these friends called emergency services Wednesday night and performed CPR on the unconscious 3-year-old and was also detained by police.
During a bail hearing yesterday for the parents and family friend, Judge Haim Liran ruled that none of the evidence so far fixes who assaulted the children. "Some of the evidence ties each of the suspects to the charges," Liran said and denied bail for five more days. The woman comes from a prominent family in the New York Jewish community. She immigrated from the U.S. more than a decade ago.
Jerusalem police yesterday called the abuse of the 3- and 4-year-old boys exceptional in its severity. Detective Aliza Aroch termed it "monstrous." Commander Bruno Stein, in describing the boys' injuries, said police could see the children had been tied up and suffered from skin lesions that resulted from criminal neglect. "We could see they had been beaten with objects, and had various burns from heaters being placed against their bodies." In the family's apartment, police found torn nylon restraints with blood stains.
Both children are still hospitalized. The 4-year-old was brought in three days ago with burns and is in good condition. However, the 3-year-old remains in critical condition and has not regained consciousness since being admitted to the intensive care unit.
Police arrested the parents and family friend after doctors suspected abuse. More extensive medical examination revealed that both children bore signs of prior abuse.
The mother confessed to the abuse but later recanted and claimed detectives threatened she would not be allowed to visit her hospitalized children until she admitted the assault.
The father, who also denies the charges, told detectives he wasn't at home and had been out of town that day. However, detectives have evidence he beat the children with a rod in the past.
The family's remaining children have been removed from the home, and police have prohibited family members from visiting the injured boys until they can be questioned.
The parents, who are both U.S. citizens, have not contacted the American consulate in Jerusalem for assistance, a consulate spokesperson said.
(Daphna Berman contributed to this report.)
Court denies bail to two moms in abuse cases
By Jonathan Lis and Ofra Edelman
Haaretz - April 2, 2008
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/971187.html
The Jerusalem District Court yesterday extended the remand of two women suspected of severely abusing their children.
In the case of the Jerusalem mother, whose two children aged three and four and a half were hospitalized in serious condition, an indictment is expected on Sunday. The Beit Shemesh woman was charged yesterday with abusing a minor, along with 25 charges of assault against six of her 12 children.
During the pre-trial hearings yesterday, new details were revealed about the case of the Jerusalem family.
Parents invited rabbi into home
According to the details of the investigation, the parents of the children invited Rabbi Elior Chen and several other men to their home in order to study Torah. The men, including David Kugman and Shimon Gabai, lived in the family's home. When the relationship between the mother and the father deteriorated, the men allegedly drove the father out of the house by force, and he moved elsewhere.
Rabbi Chen allegedly told Kugman and Gabai to discipline the children, but they failed to do so.
The police said that when the routine methods of discipline failed, Rabbi Chen ordered them to use violence, which allegedly included beatings, burnings, pushing, shaking and tying. Investigators also suspect that the two men placed the children in baths of hot and cold water, and broke their bones with hammers and blows.
In the case of the Beit Shemesh woman, the indictment states that she beat her children for years with a belt, a stick, a rolling pin and an electrical cable.
Jerusalem child abuser to be indicted next
week
Jerusalem Post - April 3, 2008
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207159746535&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
A Jerusalem woman who immigrated from the US and her companion are expected to be indicted next week for allegedly abusing her two young children, police said Wednesday.
The woman's three-year-old child remains hospitalized in critical condition with severe head injuries, and is likely to remain in a vegetative state, officials said.
Police said that several months ago, the woman's relations with her husband broke down, and he was removed from their Jerusalem home by two men whom the couple had brought into their home to educate their children.
The mother told police that since they were unable to educate her children in the "standard" way because they were "mischievous," the two men "corrected" the children, a police representative told a Jerusalem court on Wednesday.
The "corrections," which took place in the mother's presence, included beatings, tying up the children, shaking them dozens of times, setting their fingers on fire, dousing them in hot and cold water, and breaking their bones by beating them with hammers and other tools, according to the testimony of the police representative.
A court order has prevented the release of the names of the woman and her companion, who on Wednesday were remanded in custody for an additional five days by the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court ahead of their planned arraignment next week.
The children's father, who has been released from custody, was allowed by the court to pray at his child's hospital bedside, in the presence of social workers.
The two key suspects in the child abuse case, identified by police as Shimon Gabbai and Rabbi Elior Chen, remain at large, and are wanted by police.
The Jerusalem abuse case is one of a series of grisly incidents of brutality against children that have recently come to light.
State helpless in face of skeletons in haredi
closet
By Yael Branovsky
YNet News - April 3, 2008
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3526809,00.html
In spite of efforts by welfare officials, local rabbis, state
authorities are unable to curb rampant child abuse in ultra-Orthodox
families.
One harrowing case after another, yet welfare officials stand by helpless: Faced with a string of heart wrenching cases of child abuse in the haredi community, even state officials now concede that they have only been able to reach this closed community on rare occasions, and often too late.
One recent, disturbing case, for instance, in which a Netivot mother had sexually abused her son, only came to light when the son began to attend boarding school and molested a fellow pupil. The social workers who handled his case quickly realized that the child had no idea that what he was doing was wrong.
Dalia Lev-Sade, director of community services at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, stated in an interview with Ynet that seeing as the haredi community is so sequestered, haredi children enjoy less exposure to societal conventions of right and wrong.
"This is a group that is extremely closed off from the rest of the world, and so many times we are unaware of problems within the community and cannot intervene."
"The case in Beit Shemesh is a classic example," recounts Lev- Sade. "Even though the family was monitored by welfare services, the social workers involved could not fully understand the family, nor the essence of the problems it was facing, because they kept such closely guarded family secrets. Only when something drastic occurs can we actually begin to take action."
The ultra-Orthodox community, however, is slowly becoming more open, according to Lev-Sade. "The haredi community is slowly opening up and coming to realize that you can't keep the skeletons in the closet forever."
Orlet Moyal, director of welfare services at the Bnei Brak Municipality, tends to haredi families on a daily basis and knows all too well that that road to reaching this clandestine community is long and torturous. "It was nearly impossible to reach the haredi community just a few years ago, but we began to come up with creative means of reaching this community without offending its sensibilities.
"We wanted to be able to reach the haredi community before things became disastrous," says Moyal, "and so we contacted local rabbis and rabbinical councils and urged them to mediate and intervene when families were reluctant to accept help."
'More willingness to report abuse'
Dr. Yitzhak Kadman, head of the National Council for the Child, believes that it is the closed and reticent nature of the haredi community that in many instances precludes intervention by state authorities in child abuse cases.
"The haredi community firmly opposes airing its dirty laundry out in public, like we saw with many kibbutz communities in the past. The haredi community is extremely concerned about its public images, and in many cases rabbis did not allow families to go to the police and report abuse."
Kadman noted, however, that this trend is mercifully changing. "In recent years there is more willingness among haredi families to report abuse. In our council alone, 30% of individuals involved in a project tending to victims of sexual abuse are haredi."
Doron Aggasi, director of the Shlom Banecha foundation, which aids victims of sexual abuse and violence in the haredi community, stated that the recent public cases of child abuse within the haredi community indicate that the haredi world is changing for the better when it comes to reporting such crimes.
"These kinds of cases were often stifled in the past, because the haredi community was unwilling to disclose anything. Now however, people are far more aware of issues such as sexual abuse and familial violence, be it through exposure to the internet or other sources."
Aggasi maintains that it is rabbis that are at the forefront of these positive changes in the haredi community.
"Rabbis have asked me about the best treatment options for pedophilia and sexual deviance, and we are currently training social workers to treat both victims and perpetrators.
"In this respect, the haredi community has bypassed its secular counterpart by far, because this is a very motivated, obedient society that has taken heavy handed measures to help curb such phenomenon."
Roi Mandel contributed to this article
Jerusalem mother charged with child
abuse
By Aviram Zino
YNet News - April 6, 2008
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3528332,00.html
Indictment reveals rabbi instructed woman to 'repair' her
children through 'beating, tying, burning organs and feeding them with
faeces'
As her three-and-a-half-year-old comatose son continued to lie in his hospital bed, a Jerusalem woman was indicted Sunday by the Jerusalem District Court of abusing him and his four-and-a-half-year-old brother.
The court also indicted a family friend accused of conducting a "tikkun" (exorcism) on the children under the influence of a rabbi who fled to Canada.
Shortly after the indictment was submitted, the remand of another suspect involved in the affair was extended. The man, a acquaintance of the mother, allegedly took part in the abuse.
According to the indictment, "During the months of February and March, the accused and her children moved to her mother's apartment in Jerusalem. During this period, the mother found it difficult to cope with the burden of raining her small children, and particularly with their education.
"The defendant turned to a rabbi and asked for his advice in terms of his children's education. The rabbi concluded that the children were 'possessed' with evil spirits and advised the defendant and other suspects to carry out 'tikkunim' on the children in order to help them get rid of those demons."
The indictment went on to say that the rabbi instructed the mother to conduct "tikkunim" on the children – "meaning, jolting, beating, tying, burning organs, feeding them with faeces, and more.
"Two of the suspects were put in charge of educating the children, and systematically abused them and the defendant's other children in a large number of cases, for a long time, claiming that these 'tikkunim' were aimed at removing these evil spirits from the children."
Some of the acts of abuse were also described in the indictment. "The defendant, who knew about the abuse, continued to desert her children."
The mother was accused of "cooperating with some of the other suspects in forcibly jolting the children in at least 40 cases, grasping them in the back or shoulders, or grasping them in their hands and legs and shaking them with their heads moving back and forth and from side to side.
"The defendant and the other suspects also used to tie the children's hands and legs with plastic restraints and ropes for many hours, as well as hit one of the children in the face and bend his hands behind his back, throwing him in the air."
'Police veterans were shocked'
In one of her remand hearings, the police representative presented the judge with a photo album containing shocking pictures of the children.
"The Jerusalem Police veterans found it difficult to listen to such a shocking story," a police representative said during the previous hearing.The mother admitted to the suspicions and went back on her confession, while the father and another person arrested denied the allegations.
"Evidence submitted to the court testifies to a long and harsh abuse," a police representative said during the hearing.
The small son, who was hospitalized at the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital's intensive care unit, suffers from brain damage which has left him in a vegetative state.
Efrat Weiss contributed to this report
Police seek extradition of rabbi from
Canada
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS AND HILARY LEILA KRIEGER/TORONTO
Jerusalem Post - April 6, 2008
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1207486207691&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The police will issue an international arrest warrant this week
against an extremist rabbi who fled to Canada and is a key suspect in one
of the worst child abuse cases in the nation's history.
Israel demands rabbi's extradition from Canada
Police said Monday that Rabbi Elior Chen and his followers are suspected of severely abusing two children, aged 3 and 4, who were savagely and systematically beaten with hammers, knives and other instruments for months until the younger child lost consciousness last month.
The three-year-old suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the systematic and brutal abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother and her companions, according to an indictment filed against his mother this week in a Jerusalem court.
He is expected to remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his life.
Chen, who served as a spiritual mentor to the abusive mother and who provided explicit written instruction on how to abuse the children, fled to Canada last month after the case came to light to avoid arrest, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said. He apparently does not have Canadian citizenship, Ben-Ruby said.
According to the charge sheet, the woman's relationship with her husband broke down last year, and she expressed her desire to divorce her husband, who subsequently left their Jerusalem home, leaving his eight children in the care of his wife and two men who were charged with educating her children.
The men, who allegedly carried out the abuse with the mother, received instruction from Chen on how to "fix" the children's behavior, and "cleanse" them of their Satanic possession, the indictment says.
During a search of Chen's Betar Illit home, police found evidence that appears to link the rabbi to the abuse, including notebooks that document the violence, police said.
"Put stones on a [Shabbat] hot plate . . . when they are boiling, put them on the bodies of the children and then they will be cleansed," the instructions read.
Chen also instructs his followers how to tie up the children, and to prepare alcoholic drinks made of salt water and turpentine, which, he writes, should be given to the children in order to "vomit out the devil from themselves." Among the items police discovered at Chen's home were hammers, iron bars, turpentine, sticks, and handcuffs.
The other key suspect in the child abuse case, identified as Shimon Gabbai, remains at large and is also wanted by police.
Meanwhile, another suspect arrested by police late Sunday night was remanded in custody on Monday for five days by a Jerusalem court.
The suspect, Avraham Maskalchi, a yeshiva student who twice tried to flee arrest and was nabbed after a police chase, allegedly took part in the abuse of the children, a police representative told the court.
One of the woman's eight children identified him as taking part in the abuse as well, the police representative testified in court.
The charge sheet in the gruesome child abuse case recounts that the mother allegedly forced her children to eat feces, locked them in a suitcase for three days - letting them out only for brief periods of time - repeatedly beat, whipped, and shook them, burned their hands with a lighter and a heater, and gave them freezing showers.
The abusive mother and "educators" are also suspected of pouring salt on the burn wounds of the child, stuffing his mouth with a skullcap and sealing his mouth with masking tape, and giving the children alcoholic drinks until they vomited.
The woman remains in police custody.
Since her arrest last month, the mother was repeatedly shown pictures of her children's injuries, but on most of the days she was in remand, she did not inquire about the children nor did she ask who was taking care of them, the police said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police would not confirm whether they were working with Israeli police to track down Chen, saying that releasing that type of information could harm the investigation if one were ongoing.
The Canadian Justice Ministry also declined to confirm whether it had received requests from Israel for Chen's arrest and extradition, citing the confidentiality of communications between countries.
But should Chen be found in Canada under an international arrest warrant and Israel requests extradition, a Canadian judge will determine whether the suspect can be deported under the extradition treaty existing between the two countries, followed by a review of the attorney-general, a Justice Ministry spokesman said.
According to the extradition agreement between Canada and Israel, for extradition to go forward the suspect must be accused of having committed an act that is considered a crime in both countries - as child abuse is. Extradition would also be held up if there was concern that the suspect was being prosecuted for political motives or could face the death penalty, the latter of which has sometimes complicated extradition from Canada to the United States but shouldn't affect deportation to Israel.
The main issue from Canada's perspective is "are we respecting the person's rights and the [Canadian] charter's rights," explained an aide to MP Irwin Cotler, who served as attorney-general and justice minister in the last government and has argued cases before the Israeli Supreme Court.
A Haaretz report quoted an associated of Chen's as saying that he chose to flee to Canada because "the extradition law is tough." But observers say that assertion might not jibe with the reality, though extradition from Canada can take a long time because of protections including the right to appeal at different points in the process.
"He's going to be in for a surprise," said Canadian Jewish News editor Mordechai Ben-Dat.
"This is a more law-and-order government than other governments," he said of the current Canadian leadership, meaning the attorney-general was unlikely to stay an extradition judgment.
Ben-Dat said that while the Canadian Jewish community is a tight-knit one, it also has many different haredi groups, groups which might be sufficiently cut off from the outside world and media to know that Chen is accused of committing serious crimes.
Chen might be able to take advantage of these enclaves, Ben-Dat said, "if he wants to disappear."
Or Yehuda 'abusive' mother put under house
arrest
Jerusalem Post - April 7, 2008
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1207486210667&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The mother suspected of severely abusing her infant son, who was admitted to a hospital two weeks ago with cranial hemorrhages and fractured ribs, was released to house arrest with restraints on Monday.
[The mother from Or Yehuda...] The
mother from Or Yehuda accused of abusing her son leaves court Monday. Photo:
Channel 2
The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court thereby approved the request of the woman's lawyers, citing insufficient evidence. Nevertheless, she is forbidden from contacting her husband, who is also suspected of abusing their son.
During her five-day house arrest, the mother is set to stay at a relative in the North. The boy's father was released to house arrest last week after paying a NIS 3,000 bail.
Earlier Monday, Army Radio reported that the couple would probably not stand trial after a pathology report asserted that their "behavior... falls inside the gray area."
When the baby arrived in the hospital and the story broke, the Israeli media had branded them "the abusive parents from Or Yehuda." Doctors had claimed that "the combination of cranial hemorrhaging, clouded consciousness and fractures are very typical of the 'abused baby syndrome,' hence this is a classic case of infant abuse."
Nonetheless, sources involved in the investigation assessed that it was impossible to prove that the parents had abused their child. "The pathology report does not supply any incontrovertible findings, and it now seems that the mother will not be indicted," they said.
"It could be that they are not especially good parents, but the gap between that and a criminal offense is substantial," the sources added.
The police admitted that the case was complicated but insisted that they would pursue an indictment. "I am not willing to give up in this situation, when a two-month-old baby is hospitalized in serious condition and the person who did this doesn't stand trial," a policeman working on the case told Army Radio.
The baby is still in the hospital in stable condition. However, the extent of the harm caused to him is as yet unknown.
Police to demand extradition of Rabbi believed behind child
abuse sect
By Uri Blau, Yair Ettinger, Jonathan Lis and Ofra Edelman, Haaretz Correspondents and AP
Haaretz/Associated Press - Apirl 7, 2008
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/972226.html
Israel Police said Monday they will begin extradition proceedings against Rabbi Elior Chen, who fled to Canada shortly after one of his followers was charged with systematic child abuse including burning her toddlers, making them eat feces, and putting them in a suitcase for days.
Chen was not charged with anything, but fled as news reports of the Jerusalem mother's detention were circulated, and it appeared she had committed the abuse following instructions from him on child disciplining techniques.
During a search of his home Thursday, police found evidence that appears to link the rabbi to the abuse, including journals that document the violence.
Chen may be meeting other members of the sect in Canada, where the family of one of the members lives, according to a friend of Chen's who is familiar with the group but doesn't belong to it. The friend said Chen fled with Joseph Fisher, whose name was not mentioned in an indictment filed yesterday against the mother of the children suspected of being abused by Chen's followers. The remand of the mother was extended Sunday until April 14.
Two of the family's eight children, aged 4 and 5, were hospitalized in serious condition two weeks ago, after Chen allegedly ordered two of his followers to discipline the children by beating, burning, pushing and shaking them, and tying them up as a way of "correcting" their behavior.
The 4-year-old remains in a coma. Police suspect that Chen's supporters also doused the children in hot and cold water and broke their bones with hammers and blows. The mother was charged with forcing the children to eat feces, beating them unconscious and locking them up in a suitcase for three days.
Jerusalem police also arrested an additional suspect in the case, and have issued a gag order regarding his identity. The Magistrate's Court extended his remand by five days.
Chen and three of his supporters allegedly began providing the family with "educational lessons" several months ago. They allegedly kicked the father out of his home and began abusing several of the family's eight children, especially the two youngest.
Chen and Fisher left the country legally, and their exit was registered at border control. Afterward, their wives and children went into hiding. The Fisher apartment has been cleared out and its contents have been placed in storage.
Police said they do not know the location of Chen's and Fisher's families, but Chen's friend said they were hoping to go to Canada as well and may have already left the country.
Chen and his supporters chose Canada in part, the source said, because "the extradition law is tough" there. "Only in very exceptional cases does Canada extradite," he said.
Elior Chen's father, Yaakov Chen, told Haaretz he did not know where his son or his son's family was hiding. "I didn't see him, I don't know where he is," he said. "The last time I saw him was three weeks ago, after he had a girl. I went to his home in Upper Betar, gave him a present and that's it. I haven't seen him since. I'm sitting at home and eating my heart out."
Israel seeks extradition of rabbi from Canada on suspicion of child
abuse
Canadian Press - April 7, 2008
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5i1YBiS9Da1SSnKOGnub-Bt7DAUuQ
JERUSALEM — Israeli police say they have begun extradition proceedings against an Israeli rabbi who went to Canada after being suspected of abusing the children of one of his followers.
A police spokesman says two children, aged three and four, were burned and severely beaten with hammers, knives and other instruments.
The three-year-old suffered brain damage, he added.
The children's mother has been charged with abuse.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the rabbi hasn't been charged with a crime.
But police have identified the suspect being sought as Rabbi Elior Chen.
Rosenfeld says the rabbi had travelled to Canada in the past few days.
Officials at the Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv were not immediately available for comment Monday.
Police arrest man allegedly tied to Jerusalem child
abuse case
Jerusalem Post - April 7, 2008
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207486209452&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Police have arrested a man on suspicion of being connected to the case of a Jerusalem mother of eight who allegedly abused her children, officials said Sunday overnight.
On Sunday, the 38-year-old mother was indicted in a Jerusalem court.
The woman was arrested last month after the two children were taken to the hospital, the three-year-old in an unconscious state. The child remains hospitalized in critical condition with severe head injuries, and is likely to remain in a vegetative state.
Israeli cult rabbi flees to
Canada
JTA - April 8, 2008
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/107964.html
A radical rabbi alleged to have counseled followers to commit horrific acts of child abuse has fled Israel for Canada.
Officials in Israel have issued an international arrest warrant for Rabbi Elior Chen, who is alleged to have counseled his followers to severely beat and burn children in order to rid them of the devil. Other children were allegedly forced to drink alcohol and turpentine until they vomited. Some of the abuses have resulted in serious and life threatening injuries. One child remains in a vegetative state.
Israeli authorities plan to ask Canada to extradite him.
"He left Ben Gurion Airport. He flew to Canada. We know that he's in Canada at the moment," police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told the Globe and Mail newspaper.
Chen was once linked to a plot to fire a missile at Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
The Canadian Jewish Congress has called on Chen, if he is indeed hiding in Canada, to turn himself in.
"Canadian Jewish Congress is willing to assist in facilitating his surrender to Canadian authorities," said Rabbi Reuven Bulka, co-president of CJC. "If Rabbi Chen so desires, we encourage him to contact our offices."
Israel seeks extradition of rabbi from
Canada
Associated Press - April 8, 2008
http://www.pr-inside.com/israel-seeks-extradition-of-rabbi-from-r523769.htm
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli police have started extradition proceedings against an Israeli rabbi who fled to Canada after being suspected of abusing the children of one of his followers, a police spokesman said Monday.
Rabbi Elior Chen and his followers are suspected of abusing two children, aged 3 and 4, who were burned and severely beaten with hammers, knives and other instruments, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. The 3-year-old suffered permanent brain damage, he added.
Rosenfeld called Chen «one of the main suspects» in the case. Though he has not been charged with a specific crime, «He's definitely connected to the abuse,» Rosenfeld said.
He said Chen had fled to Canada in recent days. The children's mother was charged with abuse last week and remains in jail.
Although police said they were still investigating the motive behind the abuse, Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported that Rabbi Chen was trying to cleanse the children of Satanic possession.
In journals describing the abuse, the rabbi wrote, «Put stones on a hot plate . . . when they are boiling, put them on the bodies of the children and then they will be cleansed,» Yediot reported.
The Haaretz daily quoted an unidentified friend of Chen's who said the rabbi chose Canada because «the extradition law is tough» there. It was not known whether Chen holds Canadian citizenship, and the Canadian Embassy did not return messages seeking comment.
In a similar case, complicated extradition laws helped New York Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz evade extradition for 23 years when he fled the United States for Israel in 1984 after being charged with sexually abusing children. Mondrowitz was finally arrested last fall and remains in jail in Israel.
Attention News Editors:
Media statement from Canadian Jewish Congress
April 8, 2008
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2008/08/c3551.html
CJC calls on Israeli rabbi to report to Canadian authorities
OTTAWA, April 8 /CNW Telbec/ - Officials in Israel have issued an international arrest warrant for Rabbi Elior Chen who is alleged to have counseled his followers to utilize abhorrent physical abuse against children. Some of the abuses against these children have resulted in serious and life threatening injuries. Israeli authorities believe that he is hiding somewhere in Canada.
"If Rabbi Elior Chen is in fact in Canada, as Israeli police have suggested, Canadian Jewish Congress is calling on him to report immediately to the local authorities." said Rabbi Reuven P Bulka, co-President of CJC. "Canadian Jewish Congress is willing to assist in facilitating his surrender to Canadian authorities." Rabbi Bulka continued. "If Rabbi Chen so desires, we encourage him to contact our offices."
"We have complete faith in the Canadian and Israeli authorities to conduct a full and proper investigation so that justice is served." said CJC co-president Sylvain Abitbol.
For further information: Jordan Kerbel, National Director of Public Affairs, Canadian Jewish Congress, (416) 635-2883 ext 142, jkerbel@on.cjc.ca
CBC News - April 8, 2008
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/04/08/israel-rabbi-cda.html
Israeli authorities have begun extradition proceedings against
a rabbi who fled to Canada after becoming a suspect in a case involving alleged
physical abuse of the children of one of his followers.
Israeli investigators said Elior Chen fled to Canada last month, but they're not sure precisely where he is.
Rabbi Elior Chen is alleged to have encouraged followers to burn and beat their children with hammers.Rabbi Elior Chen is alleged to have encouraged followers to burn and beat their children with hammers.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfield said Chen, who is in his mid- to late 20s, was "one of the main suspects" in the alleged abuse, although he has not been charged with a specific crime.
Two children, aged three and four, were burned and severely beaten with hammers, knives and other instruments, Rosenfeld said. The three-year-old suffered permanent brain damage, he added.
Several suspects are in custody in Israel. The children's mother, whose name has been withheld, was charged with abuse last week and remains in jail.
The case has garnered massive attention in Israel, where media have published horrific details of the spiritual leader's alleged encouragement of parents abusing children as a form of discipline, the CBC's Peter Armstrong reported Tuesday from Jerusalem.
Journals detailed abuse, police say
Journals purportedly belonging to Chen that were discovered by police after a raid allegedly lay out in explicit detail how the mother should systematically abuse the children to force out their demons, Armstrong said.
The alleged abuse included burning the children, locking them in a suitcase for prolonged periods of time and forcing them to eat feces.
The Canadian Jewish Congress is urging Chen to turn himself in.
Rabbi Reuven Bulka told CBC News that the CJC is willing to assist in Chen's surrender if he is in Canada "to send a message out that there's no escaping from justice."
Bulka said the group was making the public appeal "if on the off-chance he thinks that he's going to be manhandled by police, which we know wouldn't happen, but if there's a fear of this, to let him know that the Canadian Jewish Congress would use its good offices to handle this."
It was not clear what connection the rabbi has with Canada, nor whether he holds Canadian citizenship or residency. The Canadian Embassy in Israel did not call after messages were left, seeking comment.
In Ottawa, Chris Girouard, a spokesman for Canada's Department of Justice, said he could not confirm or deny whether there have been requests for extradition, citing confidentiality of state-to-state communications.
Metzger: Abusive parents and rabbis should be
'excommunicated'
Jerusalem Post - April 9, 2008
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207649968071&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Following a spate of allegations of child abuse in the religious community, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger called on rabbis to "unhesitatingly renounce" such violent acts.
In a statement released Tuesday night, Metzger said that abusive parents and rabbis must be "condemned" and "excommunicated."
He told community rabbis to express their disapproval and the disapproval of the Torah for such "acts of brutality."
Rabbi Yona Metzger on Child Abuse and The Case of
Rabbi Elior Chen
by Vicki Polin, MA, NCC, LCPC
The Awareness Center's Daily Newsletter - April 8, 2008
It seems strange that Rabbi Yona Metzger would be making the following statement, especially since he was accused of sexual misconduct/clergy sexual abuse (with four men) several years ago.
I strongly disagree with the statement Rabbi Metzger made regarding excommunicating the parents of the children who were so horrendously abused. Even though the actions came from their own hands, I believe that they were being manipulated and were acting under the explicit directions of their spiritual leader/cult leader, Rabbi Elior Chen.
Many individuals who get involved with cults, often have histories of child abuse and or neglect. From past experience in working with ex-cult members, I found that women who have left abusive relationships are also more susceptible to getting involved in cult like groups.
The basic issue is that adult survivors of child abuse (emotional, physical and sexual abuse) and those battered as adults are looking for unconditional love. What happens is they get manipulated in believing that their leader represents "the truth." They no longer are able to access their ability to use deductive reasoning / critical thinking.
Though I do believe these parents should no longer have custody of their children, I do not believe that we should make blanket statements stating they should all be excommunicated. We need to look at each situation on a case by case basis. I also have mixed feelings about the parents and the criminal cases that will be brought up against them. If these parents were unable to access their critical thinking, would they then be considered mentally ill? Were they at the time of each act unable to discern right from wrong? I'm not trying to make excuses for their behavior, it's just that I think there is much more to the story then what we are reading in the newspapers. The parents psychiatric help and exit counseling. This can occur either in a prison or a psychiatric facility. I believe that the parents are most likely individuals who most likely have the potential for rehabilitation.
I do not believe this is true when talking about Rabbi Elior Chen. I do agree with Rabbi Metzger that Chen should loose his rabbinical title and believe he should spend the rest of his life in a prison. I do not believe he will ever be safe to be out with the rest of our society.
For more information on Destructive Cults:
Israel seeks rabbi extradition
April 8, 2008
http://www.mediascrape.com/News/BrowseByProperty.aspx?categoryId=17
Israeli authorities have begun extradition proceedings against a rabbi who fled to Canada after becoming a suspect in a case involving alleged physical abuse of the children of one of his followers. -
Israeli investigators said Elior Chen fled to Canada last month, but they're not sure...
Calls for fugitive Israeli rabbi to contact
police
By Neco Cockburn
Canwest News Service Tuesday, April 08, 2008
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=07977297-c2af-436e-9e05-1819d9a599ca&k=12781
OTTAWA - Ottawa Rabbi Reuven Bulka is calling on an Israeli rabbi to turn himself in to authorities after police uncovered a "horrific" case of child abuse.
Israeli authorities have accused Rabbi Elior Chen of playing a role in the alleged abuse suffered over several months by two of a woman's eight children. Chen is believed to have fled to Canada.
Media reports of the abuse, which describe the children, aged three and four, being burned and beaten with hammers, have shaken the country.
The three-year-old boy suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the abuse, according to police, who reportedly found hammers, knives and other objects believed to have been used during the abuse in Chen's apartment. Reports say Chen served as a "spiritual mentor" to the woman.
"It's one of the worst case we've had to deal with in the last few years," Israel police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said in an interview Tuesday.
Rosenfeld said police are in the process of alerting Canadian authorities and starting extradition proceedings regarding Chen, who fled the country after the children's mother was arrested more than a week ago.
Rosenfeld said it is unknown where in Canada Chen may be, but most flights from Israel would have landed in Montreal or Toronto, with a connection through the U.S.
Bulka, co-president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, called on Chen to turn himself in to authorities and said the Canadian Jewish Congress could arrange his surrender.
"I'm just hoping that somehow or other he'll listen to reason," he said.
"It's something that hits home, obviously, because it's a member of the Jewish community. We had to make clear that we're on the side of the law. We're not convicting him of anything, but if there are charges, he should face them."
Israeli rabbi accused of abuse asked to
surrender
By Neco Cockburn
The Ottawa Citizen; With files from the National Post - Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Ottawa Rabbi Reuven Bulka is calling on an Israeli rabbi to turn himself in to authorities after police uncovered a "horrific" case of child abuse.
Israeli authorities have accused Rabbi Elior Chen of playing a role in alleged abuse suffered over several months by two of a woman's eight children. Rabbi Chen is believed to have fled to Canada.
Media reports of the abuse, which describe the children, aged three and four, being burned and beaten with hammers, have shaken the country.
The three-year-old boy has permanent brain damage as a result of the abuse, according to police, who reportedly found hammers, knives and other objects believed to have been used during the abuse in Rabbi Chen's apartment. Reports say Rabbi Chen served as a "spiritual mentor" to the woman.
"It's one of the worst cases we've had to deal with in the last few years," Israel police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said yesterday.
Mr. Rosenfeld said police were in the process of alerting Canadian authorities and starting extradition proceedings regarding Rabbi Chen, who fled Israel after the children's mother was arrested more than a week ago.
Mr. Rosenfeld said it was unknown where in Canada Rabbi Chen may be, but most flights from Israel would have landed in Montreal or Toronto, with connections through the U.S.
RCMP spokeswoman Nathalie Deschenes said that force was among numerous agencies that received information about Rabbi Chen -- reported to the force as "Elior Hen" -- through Interpol. Sgt. Deschenes could not confirm whether Rabbi Chen had landed in Canada, but said anyone who saw him could contact their local police department.
Rabbi Bulka, co-president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, called on Rabbi Chen to turn himself and said the Congress could arrange his surrender.
"I'm just hoping that somehow or other he'll listen to reason," he said. "It's something that hits home, obviously, because it's a member of the Jewish community. We had to make clear that we're on the side of the law. We're not convicting him of anything, but, if there are charges, he should face them."
Rabbi Bulka called the allegations "horrific."
According to a charge sheet, the woman's relationship with her husband broke down last year, leaving their children in the care of the woman and two men who were educating them, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The indictment says the men, who allegedly carried out the abuse with the woman, received instructions from Rabbi Chen on how to "fix" the children's behaviour, and "cleanse" them of their Satanic possession, the Post reported.
The woman is accused of forcing her children to eat feces, locking them in a suitcase for days at a time, burning them with a lighter and heater and giving them freezing showers, the report states. She and the two men are also suspected of pouring salt on a child's burn wounds, stuffing his mouth with a skullcap and giving the children alcoholic drinks until they vomited, the newspaper said.
Notebooks documenting violence, plus hammers, iron bars, turpentine, sticks, and handcuffs, were allegedly found when police searched Rabbi Chen's home, the Post reported.
Police have arrested one man and are seeking two others, including Rabbi Chen, according to the newspaper.
ncockburn@thecitizen.canwest.com
Kingston Whig-Standard - April 9, 2008
http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=978454
Israeli authorities have started extradition proceedings against an Israeli rabbi who went to Canada after being suspected in a case involving harsh abuse of the children of one of his followers, a police spokesman said Monday.
Two children, aged three and four, were burned and severely beaten with hammers, knives and other instruments, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The three-year-old suffered permanent brain damage, Rosenfeld said. The police spokesman said Rabbi Elior Chen was "one of the main suspects" in the case and definitely connected with the abuse, although he has not been charged with a specific crime.
He said Chen had travelled to Canada in recent days.
Israeli authorities are preparing an international warrant for his arrest.
In Ottawa, Chris Girouard, a spokesman for Canada's Department of Justice, said that "due to the confidentiality of state to state communications, I cannot confirm nor deny any requests for extradition."
The children's mother, whose name has been withheld, was charged with abuse last week and remains in jail.
Graphic photographs were reported found in the police investigation. The Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, reported that journals recovered by police allegedly had writings such as: "Put stones on a hot plate ... when they are boiling, put them on the bodies of the children and then they will be cleansed."
Local media reports said the case has left veteran police investigators and welfare workers stunned by the horrific treatment allegedly handed out to the young children.
It was not clear what connection the rabbi has with Canada, nor whether he holds Canadian citizenship or residency.
The Canadian Embassy in Israel did not return messages seeking comment.
The Haaretz daily quoted an unidentified friend of Chen's who said the rabbi chose Canada because "the extradition law is tough" there. It was not known whether Chen holds Canadian citizenship.
Israeli media reports say one member of Chen's group has family living in Canada.
The Haaretz daily reported that Chen's father said he had last seen his son three weeks ago at his home of Beta Illit, a community south of Jerusalem.
The father said he didn't know the whereabouts of his son or his family.
In a similar case, complicated extradition laws helped New York Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz evade extradition for 23 years when he fled the United States for Israel in 1984 after being charged with sexually abusing children.
Mondrowitz was finally arrested last fall and remains in jail in Israel.
Suspect in J'lem child abuse
arrested
By Etgar Lefkovitz
Jerusalem Post - April 9, 2008
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207649970155&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
A
key suspect in a gruesome Jerusalem child abuse case was arrested Wednesday
in a forest on the outskirts of the city, police said.
Shimon Gabai was in police custody after the father of the abused children turned him in to police.
Gabai, who was wanted by police, was hiding in a forest near the capital, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.
He will be brought to a Jerusalem court late Wednesday for a remand hearing.
Meanwhile, police planned to issue an international arrest warrant this week against an extremist Israeli rabbi who fled to Canada and was one of the main suspects in one of the worst child abuse cases in Israeli history.
Rabbi Elior Chen and his followers were suspected of severely abusing two children, aged 3 and 4, who were savagely and systematically beaten with hammers, knives and other instruments for months until the youngest lapsed into a coma last month.
The three-year-old suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the systematic and brutal abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother and her companions, according to an indictment filed against his mother this week in a Jerusalem court.
He was expected to remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his life.
Chen, who served as a spiritual mentor to the abusive mother and who provided explicit written instructions on how to abuse the children, fled to Canada in order to avoid arrest after the case came to light last month, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.
He apparently did not have Canadian citizenship, Ben-Ruby added.
According to the charge sheet, the woman's relationship with her husband broke down last year, and she expressed her desire to divorce him. The husband subsequently left their Jerusalem home, leaving his eight children in the care of his wife, as well as two other men who were charged with educating them.
The men, who allegedly carried out the abuse along with the mother, received instructions from Chen on how to "fix" the children's behavior, and "cleanse" them of their satanic possession, the indictment states.
During a search of Chen's Betar Illit home, police found evidence that appears to link the rabbi to the abuse, including notebooks that document the violence, police said.
"Put stones on a [Sabbath] hot plate...when they are boiling, put them on the bodies of the children and then they will be cleansed," the instructions read.
Chen also instructs his followers on how to tie up the children, and to prepare alcoholic drinks made of salt water and turpentine. These, he writes, should be given to the children in order to "vomit out the devil from themselves."
Among the items police discovered at Chen's home were hammers, iron bars, turpentine, sticks, and handcuffs.
Meanwhile, a Jerusalem court on Monday extended the remand of another suspect arrested by police late Sunday night by five days.
The suspect, Avraham Maskalchi, a yeshiva student who twice tried to flee arrest and was nabbed after a police chase, allegedly took part in the abuse of the children, a police representative told the court.
One of the woman's eight children also identified him as taking part in the abuse, the police representative testified in court.
The charge sheet recounts that the mother allegedly forced her children to eat feces, locked them in a suitcase for three days - letting them out only for brief periods of time - repeatedly beat, whipped and shook them, burnt their hands with a lighter and a heater, and gave them freezing showers.
The abusive mother and 'educators' were also suspected of pouring salt on the burn wounds of one of the children, stuffing his mouth with a skullcap and sealing his mouth with masking tape.
The woman remains in police custody.
Since her arrest last month, the mother has repeatedly been shown pictures of her children's injuries, but for the most part has not inquired about the children nor asked who was taking care of them, the police said.
How and when have we stopped hearing the cries of children?
By Sima Kadmon
YNET NEWS - April 11, 2008
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3529162,00.html
The photos received by the Yedioth Ahronoth newsroom could not be publish.
They are too difficult to watch, even if the horror revealed in them had been the result of a horrible accident. Or of a terror attack. But the feeling rushing through one's body while looking at them is not one of shock. It's a feeling of great anger. It's hard to believe that the dreadful bubbles and the scorched skin on this child's thin legs were caused by a human being. And not any human being. A mother.
Another picture: Tiny feet, with no skin, covered with festers. Someone took great effort in hurting this child. Someone? Not just anyone. A mother. Had one been told that these photos document the torture of hostages by particularly cruel investigators, one would find it hard to believe that as well. But a mother?
The indictment filed to the Jerusalem District Court on Sunday only intensifies the horror: Burning organs, pouring alcohol and scattering salt over wounds, feeding children with faeces, tying them with ropes and plastic restraints, stroking them with a hammer, breaking their teeth, locking them up in a suitcase for several days – all these charges against a mother of eight guided by a rabbi in Israel to conduct a "tikkun" on her children. Seeing the tools the mother used to abuse her children takes one's breath away. Less brutal means are needed in order to destroy concrete, in order to crack iron, than the ones used on a five-year-old boy and his three-and-a-half-year-old brother.
Who did he cry out to for help, the three-year-old child, when his legs were attached to a heater for several long minutes? When they poured alcohol on his burns? When they hit his hand with a wooden schnitzel hammer? When they scorched his little fingers with a lighter? What was the five-year-old child thinking about while being locked up in a suitcase for three whole days? He couldn't cry out. His mouth was blocked with a skullcap. It is safe to say, however, that God wasn't in there with him.
Where was everyone?
These two small children who underwent incomprehensible acts of abuse are probably not the only ones. A cult headed by Rabbi Elior Chen has recently been uncovered. This spiritual leader even issued a manual to the parents, a sort of Guide to the Perplexed, which teaches God-fearing Jews education methods. Let's hope that this same rabbi won't have to wait for the next world in order to be compensated for his deeds in this world.
Because we are talking about ultra-Orthodox people, it's easy – even tempting – to blame everything on the haredi community. That won't be fair. There are mental patients, sadists and perverts everywhere. Child abuse takes place, unfortunately, among secular people as well. The disturbing thing is that such acts are only revealed when children arrive at hospitals, sometimes in critical condition, sometimes when it's too late.
And the question is where was everyone? Relatives. Neighbors. The welfare services. The social organizations. The teachers. The kindergarteners. Entire circles these children grow up in.
Could it be that such acts are taking place in a nearby house and no one knows about it? How can an entire society shut its heart and ears to voices of distress? How and when have we stopped hearing the cries of children?
Rabbi on run after child is forced to drink
solvent
By Eric Silver, Jerusalem
Jewish Chronical (England) - April 4, 2008
http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?AId=59265&ATypeId=1&search=true2&srchstr=sexual%20abuse&srchtxt=1&srchhead=1&srchauthor=1&srchsandp=1&scsrch=0
Israel is seeking the extradition of a strictly Orthodox rabbi, Elior Chen, who fled to Canada after being accused of instructing a mother of eight to brutally abuse her children as a means of "cleansing" and "educating" them.
The case, the second of its kind in recent weeks involving Charedi families, has shocked Israelis.
The 38-year-old woman was charged in a Jerusalem court this week with savagely beating her two younger sons, aged four and three, forcing them to eat their own faeces and drink a concoction of salt water and turpentine until they "vomited out the devil". Two of the rabbi's disciples are suspected of working with her.
The three-year-old was admitted to hospital in a vegetative state from which he is not expected to emerge. The mother, an American immigrant, is separated from her husband. Her name cannot be published for legal reasons.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the JC that detectives searching the family's Jerusalem home "found knives, hammers and heaters which we believe were used to punish the children".
They also seized allegedly incriminating documents and instruments from Rabbi Chen's home in the Charedi town of Betar Illit. In one of his notebooks, he is said to have told his followers to heat stones on a hotplate then put them on the children's bodies "and they will cleansed".
"We believe the rabbi frequently visited the family's home and was directly involved in what happened there," Inspector Rosenfeld said. "We know he fled to Canada and we are continuing the extradition process." Israel has an extradition treaty with Canada.
Dr Yitzhak Kadman, director of the National Council for the Child, said that while there was no evidence that child abuse was more prevalent in Charedi families than elsewhere — in Israel as a whole, 38,000 cases were reported last year — such groups tended to harbour conspiracies of silence. Like other "closed and conservative communities", such as Israeli Arabs and kibbutzim, they didn't want outsiders to know about them.
"Based on our experience and knowledge," he told the JC, "child abuse exists in the Charedi community. We find all sorts of abuse, including physical abuse, emotional abuse, even sexual abuse.
"But they keep the problem inside. They say they can cope with it without any outside assistance. They'll deal with it their way, even in a better way."
Dr Kadman reported, however, that over the past two years there had been a slight but sure change in attitude among Charedi rabbis and families. "In more and more cases we find a willingness not to hide the problem any longer, to complain to the social services or the police. They are even turning to us to escort the complainants through the legal and bureaucratic processes. We have a Charedi rabbi on our board."
'If he said jump off the roof, you'd
jump'
By Uri Blau and Yair Ettinger
Haaretz - April 11, 2008
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/973871.html
"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer" - Deuteronomy 18: 10-11
Elior Chen grew up in Jerusalem's Romema neighborhood, one of seven children of a mother who worked as the neighborhood's ritual-bath attendant and a father who was an employee of the city's religious council. His father, Yaakov, who had immigrated from Morocco, was a man of action, a fervent Zionist, who served in an elite army unit and been involved in daring operations. However, toward the end of the 1970s he was offered a modest position in the service of the chief rabbis of Jerusalem, and decided to don a black skullcap and give his children an ultra-Orthodox education. He foresaw a future for his son as a brilliant Torah scholar. He purchased countless religious books, including volumes of kabbala, in which the child immersed himself from the age of 12.
Today Elior Chen, 29, is apparently in Canada, hoping to evade the international extradition order that has been issued against him. In Israel, he is suspected of being responsible for one of the worst cases of systematic child abuse the country has ever known. The victims are the children of his disciples, who were prepared to do anything for him, including spilling the blood of their own children and those of their friends.
Police and prosecutors believe that under instructions from their rabbi, Chen, the accused and parties still at large imposed a reign of terror on the children: beating them on the head with hammers, pushing them against burning-hot heaters, throwing salt on their wounds, tying them with ropes, and gagging and punching them. They are accused, too, of imprisoning them in suitcases and other confined areas, forcing them to eat feces and to drink arrack until vomiting, and made them run around until they fainted.
The apparent victims of most of these acts were two children - 3 and 4 years old, the youngest of eight children of the woman charged this week with grave abuse together with another member of Chen's circle, David Kugman.
In any event, the sixth wedding anniversary of Elior and Ruth Chen this week was marked separately by husband and wife: He is in Canada, along with a disciple, Yosef Fischer, and she is apparently somewhere in Israel with their four children and other followers who have not been arrested.
"I knew [Chen] very well, like a brother," relates a former member of the group. "As I remember him, there weren't concepts like violence involved, but there was a madness that stood out in him. If he said jump off the roof, you'd jump. I am certain he has supernatural powers and the proof is that a mother, whom I know as a sterling woman, a religious woman, takes her son and passes him through fire, as though before Moloch. Is it possible to understand a thing like that rationally? And I tell you that even if the child had died, it would not have upset her. Why? Because she's certain she is doing the best thing for the child."
Do you understand what you are saying?
"You have to realize that there are people who can take you - someone from North Tel Aviv, from Haaretz - and control you. This is a reality, out of your control, and you will do things and all of a sudden wake up and only two years later will you manage to escape the scene ...
"Do you know what the police are getting wrong? They aren't trying to understand this story. They think they are dealing with criminals, or with methods of child-rearing. They don't understand that from the perspective of these people there is a 'correction' going on here, in the spiritual sense, a tikkun [correction] of the soul. And the police don't understand what level of control this is. You are talking about nonviolent people who were not beaten at home, perfectly normal people. Someone simply comes along, gets control of their switch and that's it. They need to be sent for observation, and given about two years before they can understand the gravity of the matter. I wouldn't send them to prison for murder, I'd send the person who made them do what they did, because he's the main thing."
Walking 'wounded'
Elior Chen's bar mitzvah, in 1992, was graced with the presence of venerable ultra-Orthodox rabbis and wheeler- dealers, both Sephardic and Ashkenazi, who knew the boy's father, Yaakov, from the religious council. These rabbis were presented with a wunderkind who devoted hours to holy books. No one imagined these were mostly books about Jewish mysticism - kabbala.
Despite his diligence, the youngster had difficulty getting along in ultra- Orthodox settings. At the age of 15 he was sent to the Oz Leyissachar Yeshiva, where he spent 10 years. From a narrow alley that leads from Joseph Caro Street in Jerusalem's Beit Yisrael neighborhood, steps lead to the second story of a building. Here, beyond an iron gate, Oz Leyissachar operates out of three rooms. Wretchedness prevails there. At the late hour when we visited, three students were trying to rest, sprawled on rickety bunk beds. In the main room, a man with a long beard and earlocks, sucking a lollipop, read a text by Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav.
Oz Leyissachar was founded by Rabbi Haim Pinto, and intended for youngsters who are on the bottom of the ultra- Orthodox social ladder, some of whom have cut themselves off from their families. The yeshiva is identified with the Bratslav sect, but not formally affiliated with any major branch of Hasidism. Some students have become associated with an anti-establishment group called Pitzuei Hanahal - nahal, meaning "brook," from Rabbi Nachman's "Flowing Brook, a Fountain of Wisdom"; and pitzuei, "wounded," because of their oppression by the ultra-Orthodox establishment. Graffiti is scrawled on the cupboards at the yeshiva: "wanderer," "injured by nerves or anger," "hurt by the cold."
The "wounded" have replaced life at establishment yeshivas with study in independent settings, wandering among graves of holy men and in forests. The group, whose members are unmarried, has been joined by the newly religious and refugees from national religious yeshivas. In recent years, the name "Wounded" has struck terror in the hearts of Arab passersby in Jerusalem's Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood after a number of violent incidents, some culminating in convictions.
Elior Chen was never identified with the hard-core "Wounded," but that was the environment in which he grew up. He excelled in his studies and became Rabbi Pinto's favorite. After some years as a student, Pinto appointed him a ba'al shi'ur (teacher) at the yeshiva. Although he was never ordained, he has since been called by the title of "rabbi" and has attracted enthusiastic disciples, who are impressed not only by his knowledge of kabbala, but by the way he applies it practically.
Rabbi Pinto was also responsible for making a match for his foremost student. A number of years ago he was contacted by Sharon Tel-Tzur, a Bratslav Hasid who had become newly religious and requested his help in transferring Rebbe Nachman's remains from Uman in Ukraine to Jerusalem. Tel-Tzur dreamed of marrying his daughter to an Ashkenazi, but when Pinto offered him the genius of the yeshiva, he could not refuse. The couple married and moved into an apartment in the Beitar Illit ultra-Orthodox settlement.
The popularity of his lessons led Chen to believe that Oz Leyissachar was not "big" enough for him; Pinto was unhappy about the kabbala lessons he was giving.
"He started dealing with kabbala too much," recalls one of Chen's classmates. "Rabbi Pinto would say: 'Don't teach kabbala. Study everything, but young people are forbidden to teach kabbala' ... Five years ago Elior quarreled once and for all with the rabbi. The explosion occurred because of the business about kabbala. Elior left."
Other students left together with Chen. Some of them became members of the circle that coalesced around him, like Shimon Gabai - a main suspect in the child-abuse case, who was found Wednesday and is now in police custody. Others, like D., the separated husband of the woman who was indicted in the affair, who himself is not a suspect, and David Kugman, the other person who was indicted - simply worshiped Chen's "powers." At first he would give lessons in synagogues in the capital's Geula and Har Nof neighborhoods; later he met with followers near his parents' home in Romema.
Canceled wedding
About two years after the Chens' wedding, Tel-Tzur's second daughter met one of Chen's major disciples: Kugman. Today a central suspect in the child-abuse case, he then looked like a good match. "She wanted Kugman because he comes from a wealthy home. She wanted a comfortable life. She had several meetings with him and he looked to her like a refined, nice person," relates a relative.
The intended bride linked up with Chen's group, and members of her family remember that she started to disappear from home. They felt they were losing her to Chen, but say the closer she got to him, the more she was upset by his control over her fiance, says one source: "She said she was not interested in anyone whose rabbi was Elior - she felt Elior controlled him entirely."
The day before the vort (an agreement between the bride's and groom's parents) was sealed, Chen decided he did not like the bride's reservations, and ordered Kugman to call everything off. After this humiliation, the Tel-Tzurs broke off relations with their son-in-law and thus with their eldest daughter Ruth as well. The only one who continued to maintain contact with Ruth was her grandmother, who says she spoke to Ruth about a month ago, after she gave birth to her fourth child, and says: "I am very worried about her. She is a good soul. She is so naive and loyal to her husband."
"Ruth realized that if her husband breaks up the match, it means her father is no longer happy with her genius [husband], her 'messiah rabbi,'" says a family member. "Tel-Tzur told his daughter many times: 'For me your husband is my son-in-law and he will never be my rabbi.'"
Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri, son of kabbalist Rabbi David Batzri, relates that as early as 18 months ago he heard "talk about 'a hidden saint.' A kind of young star with supernatural powers, who was leading a group of Bratslav Hasidim connected to Pitzuei Hanahal. People were saying he was advising people, and doing tikkunim and rituals of applied kabbala for them."
The practice of applied kabbala attributed to Chen has been considered illegitimate in the world of Jewish mysticism ever since it was prohibited by the Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria) in the 16th century. Along with the flourishing amulet and "holy water" industry, many kabbalist rabbis engage in theoretical kabbala, such as "revelation of the secrets" of Creation.
The so-called tikkunim conducted by kabbalists are for the most part a kind of prayer, rather than acts associated with applied kabbala - the forbidden realm of "invoking the names" of angels to influence reality. "Hardly anyone engages in those things," explains the younger Batzri. "I believe that this is possible, but I am somewhat skeptical about those things, and I don't believe that a youngster of 29 can do them."
Chen has indeed engaged in "invoking names," relate former friends and members of his family. "He has engaged in applied kabbala and mysticism, and this has attracted many people," says his brother-in-law Nachman Tel-Tzur who, as noted, has cut off contact with him. "Many people have been in contact with him, asking for advice. When he would come to Ashdod, a list of people would chase after him because they thought he works miracles. There were rumors that he cured people in hospitals. I can't rely on that, but I have seen things with my own eyes. He would sit in the house and move things by reciting verses, and he would do things with parchment. One time he looked at the palm of my hand and told me things that I was shocked that he knew."
His classmates relate that Chen's work with applied kabbala began in 2005, after he had left Oz Leyissachar; even before that, all of them are prepared to swear, they saw him perform wizardry. "At first I didn't believe it," relates one of them, who refrains from revealing his name for fear that Chen will do him harm. "The reality was," he continues, "that we would drive at no cost ... from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, and then from Jerusalem to the North and back. He would ask how much was needed and then he would say, 'Bring a book,' open it and find cash. Call this whatever you want, I have seen this happen."
Rabbi Batzri says that from the details of the abuse affair, it seems there were attempts to exorcise a dybbuk (evil spirit) from the bodies of the victims, rather than to perform tikkunim, as stated in the indictment. "To me it sounds like complete paganism, like sacrificing children to Moloch. This is a religious rite that does not exist in Judaism. There isn't any religious rite because there aren't any such things in the Jewish kabbala, not even in applied kabbala, which is forbidden. This is exactly how children are sacrificed to Moloch. Only in Christianity and in pagan religions is there a concept like that - to pass a child over a fiery oven so he will burn."
Batzri is convinced that anyone who engages in "invoking names," like Chen, is exposed to danger from "demons and evil spirits," like Samael and Lilith. "Only someone who holds conversations with demons can arrive at passing children through fire.... It's like all kinds of mediums who don't have any connection to kabbala. That is the danger in these things, because it can lead to complete paganism."
In May 2005, on the day opponents of the Israeli pullout from Gaza planned to block roads across the country, the Shin Bet security service exposed a Jewish group that was planning a terror attack on the Temple Mount, intended to spark an all-out war in the Middle East - and thwart the withdrawal. At that time the Shin Bet believed that Avtalion and Akiva Kadosh - two brothers who knew Chen from Oz Leyissachar, and afterward attended his lessons outside - were planning to fire a Lau missile from the Bratslav Shuvu Banim Yeshiva at the Temple Mount, and then hurl grenades at the police who arrived on the scene. At the end of the operation, the Shin Bet said, the two planned to commit suicide. To this end Avtalion Kadosh contacted Eyal Kermani of Rehovot, to help carry out the terror attack and purchase weapons, but Akiva Kadosh got cold feet, and refused to cooperate with them.
Although he did not serve in the Israel Defense Forces, Chen is known as "a very militant, Kahanist figure." Attorney Naftali Wurtzburger, who represented the men under arrest, recalls "a hallucinatory group of Bratslav guys, hallucinatory in the harmless sense - fellows who go around to the graves of holy men and started to talk about how they would bring redemption by blowing up the Temple Mount. The Shin Bet took this seriously and thought they had discovered a new Jewish underground. In the end they realized that this is a hallucinatory story, somewhere in the twilight zone of these people's thinking."
Wurtzburger remembers the major role Chen played in the affair: "The others in the group saw him as their squad commander in a way. He wasn't a sort whom battalions follow, but he did lead this small group. The initiative and the talk ... were attributed to him."
Wurtzburger gained the impression that Chen's authority did not derive only from a dominant personality. "All of their talk was at the religious level. The idea was to bring about redemption by means of a grandiose action, and the messianic atmosphere was always in the background. In the end the Shin Bet also understood that it was dealing with a hallucinatory group." Chen's involvement in this affair unraveled his ties with the yeshiva and with Pitzuei Hanahal, once and for all.
'Hidden saint'
Chen continued to nurture the hard core of his disciples, which numbered 10 to 15 people. After he was released from arrest in the Temple Mount affair, he closed the gates to the group and demanded total loyalty and blind obedience. Even though his reputation as a "a hidden saint" continued to grow, he ordered his disciples not to let people from the outside join the group, which met alternately at his home in Beitar, his parents' home and at the home of D. and his wife.
"We weren't permitted to bring people in, and if this did happen he would be angry," says a former member of the group. "He didn't want other people. Whoever was there, was there; they were stuck to him. There were a lot of people whom he kicked out."
Among the sworn followers were the suspected abusive mother and her husband D., Yosef Fischer, Shimon Gabai, David Kugman, Avraham Mascalchi and at least three other unmarried men, whose identies are protected by the court.
"If someone met a girl and wanted to marry her," relates the former group member, "[Chen] would tell that person not to get married and people would cancel everything. That is what happened with Shimon Gabai, who got engaged and broke the engagement, that is what happened with David Kugman, who was about to get married to Chen's sister-in-law, and that is what happened with Avraham Mascalchi."
Another wedding was canceled this week in different circumstances: Yet another disciple, whose identity is protected by a gag order, was arrested on Monday, just hours before his wedding. He did not agree to hold the ceremony in jail, as the judge suggested at his arraignment.
Only a few of the Chen family's neighbors in Beitar knew the members of the group by name. The children who live on Hazon Ish Street tell about the lively traffic of visitors to the Chens' home, and about another family that lived with them during the weeks before the child-abuse story broke, and then left.
Close to the family's apartment, a kollel (yeshiva for married men) of the Shuvu Banim Yeshiva operates in a trailer. One student there, newly religious, remembers the group of naive men that gathered under the leadership of the neighbor across the way. He remembers the tikkunim they conducted in the street in the middle of the night.
"In that group, [Chen] was the only one from Beitar," he relates. "They would go to the ritual bath together and would go into seclusion. On nights of the new moon, at 2 A.M., he would stand here under the tree with some 10 or 15 people, doing tikkunim. If you want to find him, he is usually in the fields in the area. He is very mysterious. He has lived here for years and no one knows anything about him."
The married men of the group were Chen, Fischer and D., the husband of the mother suspected of child abuse. D. and she were born and raised in the United States in Zionist, Orthodox families. After they immigrated, they lived for a few years in a settlement in Gush Katif in Gaza and then moved to the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem. There D. abandoned the values of religious Zionism and began to take an interest in mysticism. The couple and their children felt comfortable in the Jewish Quarter, where there are many foreign residents who join the ultra-Orthodox communities in the city; D., who dresses in a white robe, is familiar to the residents. The couple sent their children to a relatively liberal Talmud Torah (school for young boys).
D. met Chen about six years ago and became a key member of the group that traveled together to the tombs of holy men, and secluded themselves in the forests near Jerusalem and the Etzion Bloc. "Even though Elior is much younger, D. saw him as a very wise individual. He recognized his special qualities and thought Elior Chen was a spiritual individual with abilities," relates a close friend.
D. opened his home on Misgav Ladach Street in the Jewish Quarter to the group's members, which is how their acquaintance with his children and his wife developed. In their home they came to know Kugman and Gabai, who "would come to their home and study, sitting and talking about the Torah portion of the week, Hasidism, things that people learn at any yeshiva. There wasn't a focus on raising children."
D. and his wife were unusual among the members of the group, mostly because they were well off economically, even though D.'s friend says that "in his time it never happened that the rabbi asked for or received money. D. says that if he had wanted money then, he would have become a millionaire, because of his many disciples."
During the past year the relationship between D. and his wife began to crack: The veteran Chen disciple found himself outside the circle, whereas his wife remained on the inside and her position grew stronger.
"If there were a constellation of sexual closeness between the rabbi and the wife, that could explain why Chen took the trouble to neutralize D.," says the same source.
Chen ordered D. to leave home and advised him to give his wife a bill of divorce. This past Sukkot D. was thus compelled to leave his wife and eight children, and to stop his visits to the home. At the same time he totally cut himself off from the group. The separation was kept secret, ironically, so as not to hurt the children, as D.'s friend relates. "She didn't want him to be in the home, but they kept up the pretense of conducting themselves as husband and wife for the benefit of those around them. Divorce in the ultra-Orthodox world can harm the children and he was afraid of that."
The strengthening of the wife's position occurred in parallel to her total abdication to Chen's will, to whom she turned when she had difficulty raising her small children in the absence of the father. Chen authorized Gabai and Kugman to "help" in the education of the children, an education that was almost entirely pure torture. Gabai and Kugman took control of the home in the Jewish Quarter and later of the villa to which the wife moved two months ago. The villa, part of the prestigious Wolfson complex in the Shaarei Hessed neighborhood of Jerusalem, belongs to the wife's mother, who lives in the United States and is the proprietor of a well-known Jewish newspaper.
According to his friend, D. "did not really know what was happening there. When he heard the story, he said that it couldn't be happening, that they had gone crazy. How could people do such things to children? He couldn't believe it of his wife and he said that she was a woman who put all her soul into the children. This isn't a family where there was violence, it's a very wealthy family. Now he is in bad shape and he can't sleep at night."
On Monday an ambulance left Hadassah University Hospital in Ein Karem for the Herzog Hospital for nursing care. In it lay a small child of three and a half, hooked up to tubes and machines. His condition is defined as vegetative. This is the eighth child of the mother and D. The doctors at Hadassah have given up hope that he will ever regain consciousness.
At Hadassah, before she was jailed, the mother was able to visit him once, accompanied by police. One of the medical team recalls: "The mother looked calm and serene, completely normal, didn't ask how the child was doing and didn't even ask to see him. There was only one thing she wanted. She said that they have a very important and precious amulet, which is valuable, and she wanted to leave it with the child. That is the only thing she said." The amulet was not found.
Israel issues international warrant against sect
leader suspected of child abuse
By Uri Blau, Yair Ettinger and Jonathan Lis, Haaertz Correspondents
Haaretz- April 11, 2008
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/974081.html
The Jerusalem police on Friday issued an international arrest warrant against Elior Chen, a spiritual leader who is suspected of orchestrating the worst case of systematic child abuse in Israel's history.
At the beginning of this week, Haaretz reported that Chen had fled to Canada with one of his disciples after the arrest of a Jerusalem mother, apparently another of his disciples, on suspicion she severely abused her eight children at Chen's bidding. The mother was indicted for allegedly burning her toddlers, making them eat feces and locking them in a suitcase for days at a time, among other charges.
Chen was planning to meet other members of his spiritual sect in Canada, who had not yet been arrested, and the group was apparently planning to hide there together. One of Chen's friends, who was acquainted with other members of the group, told Haaretz that the entire group was headed for Canada, where one of the members' family lives.
The police hope that the arrest warrant will facilitate the extradition and apprehension of the fugitives.
During a search of Chen's home on Thursday, police found evidence that appears to link the spiritual leader to the abuse, including journals that document the violence.
The remand of the mother currently held in custody was extended Sunday until April 14.
Two of the mother's children, ag