NEW YORK – Three leaders of Lev Tahor, an extremist Jewish sect based in Guatemala, have been convicted of kidnapping a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl from their mother in Sullivan County and transporting the girl outside the United States to continue a sexual relationship with her adult “husband.”
The three remaining leaders of the sect to be convicted are Yoil Weingarten, Yakov Weingarten, and Shiel Weingarten.
“With this verdict, all nine Lev Tahor leaders and operatives charged for these heinous crimes have been held accountable,” said US Attorney Damian Williams. “The defendants’ conduct – which included forced child marriages, physical beatings, and family separations – is unthinkable and has caused irreparable harm to children in their formative years. Whether in the name of religion or any other belief system, subjecting children to physical, sexual, or emotional abuse will never be tolerated by this office.”
