Shlomo Helbrans

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

Helbrans was convicted and served a prison term for the 1992 kidnapping of 13-year-old Shai Fhima Reuven, a Bar Mitzvah boy he was tutoring. [cite news
author = Joseph P. Fried
title = Rabbi Given Prison Term In Kidnapping Of Teen-Ager
publisher = New York Times
date = November 23, 1994] [cite book
last = Denholtz
first = Elaine
title = The Zaddik: The Battle for a Boy's Soul
date = September 2001
publisher = Prometheus Books
isbn = 978-1573929202 ] His case also gained attention because he successfully convinced New York prison authorities to waive their requirement that all prisoners be shaved for a photograph upon entering prison, a violation of strict Jewish law, and to accept instead a computer-generated image of what he would have looked like clean-shaven. [cite news
author = George James
title = Computer Replaces Razor For Rabbi's Prison Picture
publisher = New York Times
date = December 29, 1994]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.israel613.com/books/ELBRANDS_DAAT_TZVI_CHADASH-E.pdf A Statement from a Haredi Community in New York critical of Shlomo Helbrans]
* [http://jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com/2004/12/rabbi-shlomo-erez-elbarnes-aka-rabbi.html A blog entry critical of Helbrans]