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Poughkeepsie, New York – Three brothers running a vile sex cult referred to by many as the “Jewish Taliban” have been sentenced to over a decade behind bars each for trafficking children, feds say.
The sentences marked the end of a years-long kidnapping case that began in New York and ended in Mexico.
A federal jury convicted 34-year-old Yakov Weingarten, 28-year-old Shmiel Weingarten, and 36-year-old Yoil Weingarten in March on charges of kidnapping and child sexual exploitation. On Wednesday, a judge issued Yakov and Shmiel 14 years for the abhorrent crimes, while Yoil received only a 12-year sentence.
The case stems from the 2018 abduction of 14-year-old Yante Teller and her brother, 12-year-old Chaim Teller, from their home in Woodridge, New York. Prosecutors asserted that the kidnapping was carried out after the children’s mother, Sara Helbrans, had fled the ultra-orthodox Lev Tahor community—an internationally reviled fundamentalist cult—which operates in the shadows of numerous countries, including rural Guatemala.
The kidnapping operation was said to have involved elaborate disguises, forged documents, and encrypted communications apps. Yante—just 12 years old at the time—was arranged to be married to an 18-year-old. After a three-week search involving hundreds of members of international law enforcement, the children were finally located in Tenango del Aire, Mexico, and safely returned to their mother.
In court, the siblings were said to have remained “unrepentant,” while downplaying the case as an antisemitic attack on their religious group. Yoil and Yakov had a firm belief that the Torah sanctioned their actions. Despite the seriousness of the crimes, the unidentified victim testified in favor of the brothers, who claimed their incarceration was “causing her distress.”
“The sentencing of the Weingarten brothers holds them accountable for kidnapping children from their mother in the middle of the night, including for the purpose of coercing a child into a sexual relationship with an adult.” He then emphasized his office’s commitment to protecting children and prosecuting those who exploit them.
Lev Tahor, a particularly heinous sect of Jewish extremism, was founded in Jerusalem in 1987 and now has roots in the US, Canada, and Mexico. The sect is said to arrange child marriages between young minors and adults, force children to give birth and conceal their ages from non-Jews, and even orchestrate violent public floggings
“Lev Tahor leaders instructed child brides to deliver babies inside their homes instead of at a hospital to conceal the mothers’ young ages from outsiders,” read a statement made by the Southern District of New York.
Described as “unadulterated Judaism,” the group’s extreme adherence to ancient customs and rituals is baked into Lev Tahor’s doctrine, requiring prepubescent girls to wear Burka-like coverings and for religious “studies” to take up a vast majority of the day. It’s also strictly “anti-Zionist” in the sense that they believe all Jews should remain in exile until the return of the Messiah.
Federal authorities have asserted that Lev Tahor’s abuse of children is so horrendous that it often results in members fleeing the cult in search of a better life. Their antics have also soured relations with the indigenous Mayans of Guatemala, who once demanded that the government physically remove them for imposing their religion and customs on the native people.
“The rabbi’s speech every morning sometimes lasts six or seven hours. I used to not eat breakfast or lunch every day, since the speech could easily last until night,” said Jacob Shamsian, a man who managed to escape Lev Tahor after being abused by leaders as a child.
“Every other Jewish book is excluded. It’s the chumash (five books of Moses) and their own studies, that’s it. No other outside studies. They don’t learn Talmud. They don’t teach Rashi. They literally burn every Jewish book that has a symbol of Chabad,” he continued. “They made us believe Lev Tahor is the only authentic form of Judaism in the world, and that it’s better to die than to leave.”
Other cult survivors would go on to assert that Yoel Weingarten had once locked young children inside an old, broken commercial freezer for up to three months at a time. When they emerged, he would beat them, accounts say.
Additionally, those who fell ill would often not be allowed to go to a hospital and would reportedly die from basic infections or other easily preventable ailments.
The despicable actions of all three Weingarten brothers drew outrage on social media, with many users recalling the now infamous New York City “tunnel jew” story that ran in January.
At the time, the eyes of a discerning public were squarely on Brooklyn’s orthodox community after a religious in-fight regarding Synagogue access led to the condemnation of a series of mysterious hand-dug tunnels that threatened the structural integrity of the Big Apple.
It also revealed that the Orthodox had what appeared to be soiled mattresses and other children’s equipment kept underground, leading many to wildly speculate as to why they were there in the first place.
“Who could have seen this coming?!? If only there were signs, or bloody mattresses, or tunnels, or ritual circumcisions involving mouths, or mass pedophiles in Israel. What a shock,” read a comment made by one user on X, formerly Twitter.
“Did any of this stem from the tunnels under the synagogue? Why did reporting on those tunnels go away so quickly,” read another, while another user concluded, “Not letting your kid be raped by a Jewish person is antisemitic.”
It would not be the first time Jews have been implicated in acts of violence or predatory sexual abuse that targets young children.
In June, it was reported by Israeli media that a Jewish-American woman had attempted to drown two Palestinian kids at an area swimming pool in Euless, Texas. Police asserted that the suspect, 42-year-old Elizabeth Wolf, was drunk and angry over Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza and had launched a race-based tirade against the family.
Shockingly, Wolf was let out on bond the same day despite the hefty charge of attempted murder. Thankfully, she was later rearrested after a court upped her bond amount to a much more appropriate $1 million, and hate crime charges were applied.
In January, 41-year-old Gershon Selinger, a Hasidic sex offender infamous in the Jewish community for speaking with a comedian in an interview about his crimes, pled guilty to a new child sex abuse charge. According to reports, Selinger had already been convicted in 2015 and 2008 for abusing a 6-year-old and would be sentenced to only ten years probation for the crime.
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