Guatemala rescues 160 children - fundamentalist Jewish cult
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"Based on the statements of the complainants, the evidence obtained, and the medical examinations, it was possible to establish that there are forms of human trafficking against these minors, such as forced marriage, abuse, and related crimes," Nancy Paiz, a prosecutor at Guatemala's Prosecutor's Office Against Human Trafficking, said at a press conference.
Lev Tahor ("Pure Heart" in Hebrew) has faced multiple allegations of kidnapping, child marriage, and physical abuse since it was founded in the 1980s.
Founded in 1988 in Israel, Lev Tahor practices an austere form of Judaism with interpretations of Jewish law that include long prayer sessions and arranged marriages.
The community settled in Mexico and Guatemala between 2014 and 2017. In 2022, a Mexican police operation in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on the Guatemalan border rescued a group of children and adolescents from a Lev Tahor camp, whose members were arrested on suspicions of participating in abuses against minors.
Jewish community reacts
The Jewish Community of Guatemala in a statement said the sect was foreign to its own organization and expressed its support for Guatemalan authorities in carrying out necessary investigations "to protect the lives and integrity of minors and other vulnerable groups that may be at risk."
It called on the "government and diplomatic corps of countries from whose nationalities make up members of Lev Tahor, to join forces to protect those whose rights may be violated."
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I hope this won't spark a wave of Judeophobia in Guatemala.
I hope folks in Guatemala realize that "fundamentalist Jews" are not the only category of religious people who occasionally get busted for this sort of thing. Reminds me of some sects of fundamentalist Mormons, for example.
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Another religious movement notorious for forced marriages is the fundamentalist "Christian Patriarchy" / "Quiverfull" movement. See Kansas fundamentalist group tied to Duggars tries to force teens to get hitched: "A bunch of internet activists stopped a Kansas church from a retreat meant to arrange marriages for teenagers," by Amanda Marcotte, Slate, May 6, 2016.
That was in the U.S.A. The OP's news story was in Guatemala.
In 2015, Guatemala raised minimum age for marriage to 18. Before then, Guatemala's minimum age for marriage was 16 for boys, 14 for girls.
In most religious groups of the kind that push their kids (especially girls) to marry young, the motive is a belief that they are obligated to have as many babies as possible; hence women should start young.
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- Autistic in NYC - Resources and new ideas for the autistic adult community in the New York City metro area.
- Autistic peer-led groups (via text-based chat, currently) led or facilitated by members of the Autistic Peer Leadership Group.
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