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Subtitles by Hannah Katsman, AMotherInIsrael.Com
After last week's program,
I got a letter from a worried mother
saying that a year ago, her son, Nehemia Ben-Zion,
and his young wife
fled the Lev Tahor community.
The mother is secular, the son returned to Orthodox Judaism,
he became a member of the haredi sect in Canada
he married his wife, a 16-year-old,
and after the wife became pregnant,
he began asking himself difficult questions
iirrelevant questions as far as other members were concerned,
for example, why do they take children from their parents and put them with other people?
At this stage, the grand rabbi declared him to be mentally ill, suffering from BPD,
and tried to force the couple to get divorced.
Nehemia understand that he has to leave
the the ground is burning
Via telephone conversations guided by his mother,
a psychologist, they decided one night to flee the community.
to save their marriage, to save their life.
The flight, the mother says, was like a military campaign
None of the cult members knew.
The two fled out night, taking only a few clothes,
and go right to the airport.
and to freedom from the nghtmare they had endured.
"True Face" with Amnon Levi
Hello and good evening.
Last week, we shared the touching story of Aryeh Laver,
who was abandoned at age 14.5 by his mother,
a zealous member of the Lev Tahor community in Canada.
Difficult testimonies that we brought here
described what is happening in the most extreme sect in the ultra-Orthodox world.
which includes, among other things, physical and psychological abuse,
underage marriage, removing children from their homes,
and sending them for re-education, and more.
The teenage Aryeh rebelled against the community and was sent to Israel.
He lived here alone. His mother wrote that she was breaking off contact
because he is wicked, and a heretic.
For seven years, he didn't hear a single word from her.
Two months ago, he went to Canada with two of our investigators
to meet his mother and two younger brothers that he has there
and to confront the community's leader,
the grand rabbi Shlomo Helbrans.
At the center of part two, that we are broadcasting tonight,
occurs the dramatic meeting between a mother and her son.
He is completely secular, a newly-released soldier,
who asks to renew the relationship with his mother.
she is a zealous member of a fanatic cult that most of the ultra-Orthodox world
has reservations about its extremism and even recoils from it.
How will this meeting of two such different worlds look?
Report by Ronen Bratten and Ohad Cohen
"To Aryeh, Since to our great disappointment you are not ready to accept
"and not only that you are wicked and they tell you that it's possible to prove the truth of the Torah,
"but it is convenient for you to stay with what you feel like, so I am breaking off contact with you"
How many years since you have seen her?
Seven years.
Would you want to travel there?
I would like to travel there.
Are you emotional?
What?
Listen, now that I'm making this trip
It's like . . .
It's exactly like what I did when I got there seven years ago.
It's like it's happening a second time.
At some point I have to close this circle
In order to continue in my life.
I'll get there, I'll do whatever I can
Essentially I'll give them an opening
so they'll know that I haven't forgotten them, that I am here
Whatever happens after that, is already not in my control.
the circle will close one way or another
for better or worse, but the circle will close.
Late at night, Aryeh Laver lands
in the Montreal, Canada airport.
The place is the same place, the time is the same time,
but everything in his life has changed in the seven years since he landed here the first time.
Then, he was an ultra-Orthodox 14-year-old, who came with his mother to search for a new life
in the most extreme community in the Jewish world.
Today he is a newly released soldier, completely secular
a young man who was rejected by his family
He attempted suicide four times after his mother wrote him a letter
in which she said that he was evil and she no longer wanted contact with him.
Since then he hasn't seen her, or spoken to her.
This place is traumatic for him.
It was at exactly this time. Now that I think about it.
Yes? Yes, look,
Now it's about 12
It was also around 12.
A man arrived with a car around 2.
Someone from the community who has that job, more or less
he transports the people who are coming and going
He picked us up from there.
Aryeh gets in the car with Ronen Bratten and Ohad Cohen
the program staff members who accompany him on his trip.
To remind you:
the Lev Tahor community, where Aryeh's mother lives,
resides in the village of Ste. Agathe, about 100 kilometers from Montreal
a small and picturesque resort town
where the community lives in a forest clearing
A few tiny streets, about 250 people
gathered around this man who calls himself the grand rebbe of Riminov
Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans
but who was born in Israel to a pair of former kibbutz members
who called him Erez Elbaranes
He became an Orthodox Jew
and became the leader of an extremely closed and ultra-Orthodox community.
Detailed testimony turned over to police
say that the community practices cruel physical punishment
underage marriage, shunning, and physical and mental abuse.
Before the journey Aryeh was informed
that his 18-year-old brother Yochanan
married to Helbrans' daughter,
and at his young age already has two children.
Now, on this long trip, he's flooded with conflicting feelings.
nostalgia, anger, hate, hope.
I need to go there out of love, not anger
because if I show anger, they'll respond with anger
and I won't show them, what they showed me.
They showed me anger and hate, and if I'll come from that same place,
then I won't get anything out of this, and no one will get anything out of this.
Very early the next morning,
Aryeh prepares for the meeting with his mother.
The plan is to arrive early in the morning, when all the men are at the synagogue.
and then he can find his mother at home alone
and speak to her.
Aware of the difficulty in filming in the community's premises,
He wears a hidden camera.
Say, isn't it strange to wear a hidden camera when visiting your mother?
Listen, it's something that we have to do.
But the idea, that it's hidden
Strange, of course it's strange.
This is the hidden camera? -Yes, this.
This is the hidden camera? -Yes, this.
Ah. . . . -This is the hidden camera.
As soon as she sees me, she'll get anxious. That's for sure.
That's why that at this stage, I should go in alone.
But you need to be . . . You know, on standby . . .
Do you think there will be something? -There's no way to know.
I haven't been there in a long time,
I don't know what levels of craziness they have gotten to already
We have to be prepared for everything.
This will do, this thing.
I think.
Are you tense? -No.
You seem tense. -Not tense, in suspense.
A son goes to meet a mother who abandoned him, whom he has not seen in 7 years.
while he is wearing a hidden camera under his shirt.
This fact drives home the ambivalence surrounding this meeting.
Aryeh misses his mother, he very much wants to meet her
to return her to Israel
but he has a job that is no less important.
to document what is happening within Lev Tahor.
Wow, what fog.
Aryeh gets to the cult's complex and meets the son of the grand rabbi, Nachman
He asks him to tell him where his mother is living,
but Nachman is wary of cooperating.
Precisely because of my job, I don't want to get in trouble,
Get in trouble how? Because a son wants to see his mother?
Afterward they'll say that she didn't want to
Who will say? -She will, she'll be angry with me.
All I'm asking is to talk to her
And if you don't want to bring me to her, bring me Yochanan.
Bring me Yehoshua, my brothers.
Bring him to talk to me. Let's hear what Yochanan has to say.
You saw him. You didn't speak to him. -Who did I see?
You saw Yochanan. -Which is Yochanan?
He passed by you, he did like this.
You didn't speak a word to him. -Who?
Aryeh is in shock. His younger brother,
the boy who grew up with him, who was with him throughout childhood,
passed by, and he didn't even recognize him?
Call him over for a minute, I want to see who it is.
You saw him. -I didn't see him.
You think that I know . . . that I recognized him?
You see, he passed in front of you, he did like this to you, you answered like this, he went.
He didn't know it was me. -I thought you didn't want to talk to him.
Okay, can I again . . .
He's in the study hall now. -Can you call him for a minute?
Aryeh waits, hoping they will call his brother
but then something even greater happens.
From out of the heavy fog, a Hasid appears with a phone in his hand.
Aryeh's mother is on the line.
The first conversation after a rupture of seven years.
Hello, mother?
Hi, what's new?
Good.
I'm here in your neighborhood. I want to see you.
I want to talk to you.
I want to talk to you, you're my mother. Let's talk about it.
Let's talk about it, you're my mother.
Right? Wait, you . . . You agree that you are my mother?
Ronen and Ohad, from our staff, are listening to the conversation from the side.
They don't hear Arye's mother.
But from Aryeh's words, they gather that the conversation is not going in the desired direction
The mother doens't want to meet him.
She claims that he spoke against the grand rabbi that she admires.
He took you from me. -No, he didn't take me.
He didn't take anything. He didn't take anything.
Who took you? -No one took me.
I got here . . .
Let's talk about it. -No, I don't want to.
You don't want to? -No.
So essentially, as a mother, you are saying
that you don't want to see me?
And you gave birth to me, right? Yes, I gave birth to you.
Right, does it embarrass you?
Does what embarrass you? -That you gave birth to me.
Yes. -Yes, it embarrasses you? -With the way you are acting now, yes.
With the way I am acting now?
So why did you break off contact seven years ago already?
Why did I break off contact? -Yes.
And when you . . .
and when you became Orthodox, did your mother break off contact with you?
No. -Right,
So why, so why when I . . . -That's how it is.
Listen, I came especially from Israel for you, because you are my mother.
I only want to see you, that's all.
I'm not asking for more than that.
You don't have to talk. I just want to see you.
Give it to me as a last favor, from a mother to her son.
I just want to see you, don't talk.
I just want to see you, to see your face.
You . . . No, no, you are my mother and . . .
That's the only thing I'm asking.
How will it help? I think about you all the time.
I think about you all the time because I am your son.
I dream about you.
And I want to see your face after seven years.
The conversation gets more difficult the longer it goes on.
Truly heart-breaking.
I want to see you because you are my mother.
You have to understand, you don't have to think about it too much.
You're my mother, I'm your son,
And your son wants to see his mother.
That's it. That's all he wants.
At least bring me Yehoshua and Yochanan, I want to see them.
Show me my nephews and nieces, that I didn't know existed.
I want to see them.
They are my family, they are my family. You are my family.
And it doesn't matter where I'll be, and it doesn't matter where you'll be,
It doesn't matter what path you take, it doesn't matter what path I take,
We're family. And that, no one can evade.
True.
Give this to me as a favor for the good years we had together
Until we got here, I was with you all the time.
It's hard to listen to this conversation. It lasts nearly a quarter of an hour
And Aryeh is begging his mother, while she remains cool and firm.
She doesn't want to meet with him.
Only when she understands that he won't leave without seeing her,
she accedes to his request.
She told me to come, she wants to tell me what she thinks.
So I'll go. -Are you emotional?
Yes. -Yes? -Yes.
When Aryeh speaks to his mother,
a young man is watching from the side.
It's Yochanan, his younger brother.
Aryeh was shocked when he heard, in Israel, that his brother was married
and that he already has children
and that's one of the reasons that he wanted to go on this journey.
Once, these two brothers were very close.
Now, Yochanan is watching from afar, listening to the conversation, but not identifying himself.
Only at the end, when Aryeh rushes off to his mother's house,
does Yochanan approach.
Aryeh.
Peace and blessing. -How are you?
I didn't recognize you.
We passed here, I didn't recognize you.
I don't remember which one you are.
I'm Yochanan. -Oo-ah.
I passed by the yeshiva, I don't remember, didn't recognize you.
I know, I also didn't recognize you.
Now I'm starting to.
Growing up, eh?
Growing up, changing.
How do you feel?
Okay. -How did the conversation go?
Okay. What are you doing now?
What are you doing now?
I just now finished the morning learning. I'm studying, what . . .
Can you come with me to mother? Maybe we can talk to her together?
You want to speak with mother, together? -Maybe we can speak together.
We'll talk a little together, okay?
Okay.
I'd also like to see your children.
Ah yes. -They're my niece and nephew, you know.
Yes. Sure, sure, sure.
The little girl is also afraid of me, you know?
Why is she afraid? I have no idea.
She's so sensitive. -Yes? -Very sensitive.
So you want to take a little spin? Let's go, we'll sit a little with mother.
and we'll see your children and then I'll leave?
You want to go in the car?
You want . . . -She lives right here . . .
You want to walk? -Yes, yes, let's go.
How are the children? -Thank God.
They make me happy, they make me happy. -They make you happy?
I'll tell you something. I came here so broken and shattered, completely,
from all the . . .from life, you know.
Yes.
that I would have a family with children, that would be my only comfort.
What can I say.
Look, anger is something that remains your whole life.
but it also destroys you.
and I also wanted to come here
to free myself from these angry feelings, you understand?
I wanted to come here in order to, you know.
To close the circle. -Yes.
and I think that on some level, mother wants it too.
Even though she won't say it.
And I came here especially, to break free from all this.
It's difficult, it's difficult.
I came into the house.
there's the entrance, and then the stairs going down.
Yes, come.
He wanted to come together
Good morning.
I came in and she looks at me.
I . . . and I see she doesn't say anything.
I wanted us to come together, to talk,
and that's all.
I see how he grew, I didn't recognize him.
I asked her if I could come down, could I come to the house?
She said to me, "Yes." We went into the house.
Then we stand across from each other.
Okay, good, shall we sit a little?
She simply came and sat down . . .
No handshake? Nothing? 7 years? -Nothing, nada.
She just went and sat down. I asked, can I sit down?
So she tells me, yes, sit down.
and then we started all the discussion.
Did you believe that I would come here?
I thought that maybe you would come one day.
Did you think that I would let you know in advance?
Or you knew I wouldn't let you know.
I knew you wouldn't.
The mother and the two brothers sit to talk.
In the background, the phone doesn't stop ringing.
The small community is in an uproar over the unexpected visit.
And everyone wants to know what is happening in the family home.
How does a conversation go, after such a long time?
During the first few minutes, the mother sits on the side immersed in silence.
and the awkwardness is broken by her two sons, ultra-Orthodox and secular
who seem to be feeling their way toward one another.
How do you feel now, when you see me after so many years?
It's hard. It's hard? It's hard, I . . .
It's hard? Yes. Do you recognize me?
Now I recognize you, yes. It's hard to recognize, yes . . .
People change.
So now you are called, the son-in-law of the grand rabbi. -Yes, exactly.
Does it make you happy? -Yes, why not?
It's a kind of privilege? -Yes, it's called a privilege, yes certainly
How is his daughter? Your wife? Excellent, terrific . . .
Yes? Excellent.
How old is she? She's my age. She's a little bit older.
She's in Shevat, and I'm in Nissan [2 months difference]
How old are the children? What? Your children, how old are they?
My children . . . I married at 16, so,
I have Menachem Mendel and Sheina Baila.
So Menachem Mendel is about, let's say . . .
Two and . . . He was born in Sivan.
What?
Yes, he's about . . . a year and three-quarters
and my daughter was born 3 months ago.
A year and three-quarters? And you're now 18?
I'm 18. 18 and a half, a little more.
Yochanan says he was married at 16.
Aryeh suspects that his brother married much earlier, marriage of children is common in this group.
and Yochanan feels the need to justify himself.
Our way, like they explained to me, and the way that I wanted,
is that . . . not to get married, I . . .
It's easier for us to get married at an early age, to build a life early,
and all that. And . . .
Let's say that I got married around 16, I already have thank God two children but
I don't think I committed any great sin.
Aryeh listens to Yochanan, but all of his desires are toward his mother.
When he sees she won't volunteer to speak, he steps up a gear
and tells her something that will make her talk in the end.
They say there is nothing like a mother's love.
Right. So how can a mother, one day, send a letter
in which are written only bad things. And that's it. To cut off contact with her son.
A mother can stifle her feeling, and act according to logic and the way of the Torah, that's what happened.
It's not logical, it's according to the way of the Torah.
At least say that you believe in God, and that you belive in Judaism,
but a person, who denies the Holy One, you know we are Jews and we . . .
I almost committed suicide four times after that
that's essentially what she did to me
She caused me to almost commit suicide.
If not, I don't think it would have occurred to me
to say in my head, "Stop it,"
That's it, I wouldn't be here.
I'm telling you with all seriousness, that's what happened.
Yes. -Four times.
So because I don't believe, suddenly that makes me, I'm not a son?
I'm not a person? I become nothing the minute I don't believe?
We didn't say that, we want you to believe in God
You want me to, I can't.
What happened?
I told her not to answer.
There is . . . it is written in the Torah.
I can't believe, but I can't believe after everything I went through, and you only
and you've confirmed it even more, look where following the Torah leads
that a mother will break off contact with her son.
But it says that one must stay away from someone who . . .
an evil person.
I'm not wicked. I'm sorry I'm really, really not wicked.
Aryeh sits opposite his mother
tells her that he tried to commit suicide 4 times
and she doesn't address it.
Instead, she again says,
that she has to break off contact, because he is a wicked man.
as it says in the Torah.
I have to admit, that this is one of the most shocking conversations I've ever heard.
Aryeh describes, how before his mother joined Lev Tahor,
she was a stellar mother.
a protective mother, a loving mother,
and now, his suffering doesn't move her in the least.
But Aryeh, you have to get to know him, he's not one to give up easily.
He'll try another tack. He'll tell her that he found a partner,
that he is planning to get married in the spring,
to build a home in Israel, a Jewish mother no?
Maybe it will change something in her heart,
Short break (till 24:00)
7 years after his extremist ultra-Orthodox mother broke off all contact,
Aryeh Laver sits opposite his mother in her home,
with the Lev Tahor sect in Canada,
his younger ultra-Orthodox brother also takes part in the meeting
In the meantime, the conversation is disappointing.
The mother is cool, reserved,
but Aryeh does not give up.
Here's the continuation of the story:
Aryeh always believed that when his mother would see him, her body would remember.
His mother would know that she loved him
Now he sits in front of her, and nothing like that is happening.
Because I don't believe, that's it, suddenly I'm not a son?
I'm not a person, I'm nothing from the moment I stop believing?
We didn't say that, but we want you to believe in the Holy One.
You want, I can't.
What happened? [asking for translation of Yiddish] I told her not to answer.
There is . . . it is written in the Torah.
But I can't believe I can't believe after everything I went through, and you . . .
and you've demonstrated it even more, look where the Torah has brought you.
to a mother cutting off contact with her son
But it's written that one must stay away from someone who . . .
is wicked. -I'm not wicked, I am really, really not wicked.
Who went and denied, denied
It doesn't make me wicked.
No, you're not able to . .. -I volunteered for two years in a place for autistic children
I've helped people in every way possible
In the army I was the resident psychologist.
Whoever was having a bad time, I went and sat and talked to him.
The mother says the son is wicked, because he's secular, because he's a heretic.
Aryeh, on his part, defends himself. I'm not wicked, I help people
The two speak using different concepts, different languages.
This is what a dialogue between the deaf sounds like.
And only Yochanan, the younger brother, tries to return the two to the personal.
Do you know how long after you left Mother's eyes were like this?
Yes, because she really didn't want to do it.
What? Because she wasn't wholly comfortable with her decision
It hurt her.
You weren't comfortable with breaking off contact with me. I'm not . . .
She was sure, but it caused her pain
It hurt her that she had to do that to her son. -Right.
I asked her:
I asked her, Do you love me? And she kept trying to avoid answering.
saying, I don't love you in your way.
She didn't tell you, in any way, that she loved you?
No, she avoided it.
I told her, answer with Yes or No,
Each time, she avoided the question.
She didn't agree to say, "Yes, I love you . . ."
No. -" . . . but I want you to change?"
No. No.
She said, "If you would change, then it would be something else."
She didn't answer Yes or No, she didn't answer directly.
She kept on avoiding it, and I asked her a bunch of times.
We want you to believe.
We want you at least to believe.
And that's it.
And if I won't believe, it will stay like this forever?
You will believe, think very hard about it
You don't have to think a lot.
I remember when you would throw off your yarmulka, and you would say I'll be this, and this, and this.
And I would say, no, no, no I will die if you will be like this.
If what is good for me, is my way,
so why won't you give this good to me? -But it's not good, it's a bad thing. -In your eyes.
I'm shattered. I'm shattered until today.
Even though I have a family that adopted me
I built my life, I'm about to get married,
I've arranged my life, but I'm still broken.
I'm broken. It will never be healed.
It won't be healed. It will never be healed.
As the conversation continues, it becomes clearer that there is nothing to talk about.
Even the mention of the upcoming wedding doesn't elicit any emotion from Aryeh's mother
If Aryeh won't believe, from their point of view he doesn't exist.
So, see you.
Tomorrow I'll come to say goodbye before I leave.
Here too, Yochanan makes every effort to keep his brother close.
At the end of the conversation, he invites him to visit him at home
to meet his wife and children.
Straight, right? 1575? -Yes.
Okay, good. Listen, I am telling you again, I want to wrap things up tomorrow.
Yes. -So, even if I say something that you don't like,
that we'll end on a good note. So when I go back to Israel, I'll know that . . .
Okay. No, no, don't worry. I didn't intend to yell at you in order to . . . -No, no.
I came with good intentions.
But shortly afterward, he calls and cancels the appointment.
As long as Aryeh is secular and a heretic, there's nothing to talk about.
Or in other words, he got instructions from higher up.
After 7 years of not seeing each other,
Aryeh leaves his mother's house with a very heavy heart.
You know it's as if she did me a big favor by coming to see me
She, that's it, it's not her anymore, she completely changed
How does it feel? -It feels terrible.
As if . . . there's nothing else to say about it.
It only tells me, the extent to which she
the cult changed her life, her whole way of thinking,
it's not natural that a normal mother,
whose son was with her all the time, her oldest son,
she will tell him such a thing. It's not natural.
It just shows how much the cult changed her life there.
That night at the hotel, sad and withdrawn,
Aryeh writes three letters.
Parting letters to his mother and to his brother Yochanan
and an angry letter to the grand rabbi, Shlomo Helbrans.
Early in the morning, he goes with our staff to distribute the letters.
I wrote letters to my mother and to my brother Yochanan
I didn't write to my youngest brother, I'm not sure he will understand at all.
He doesn't really remember me.
"Mother, I'm a failure from your point of view, since I don't believe.
"I want to tell you, that as far as I am concerned, and those around me, I succeeded.
"I've succeeded in a major way,
"In a few months I'm getting married, and plan to build an exceptional home,
"In contrast to the home where you live, and the cult you live in.
"I came here to close the circle after seven years,
"And with this letter, I'm closing the circle.
"I wish you happiness, and success, and health,
"and that one day you will leave there, and have a normal life.
"From me, Aryeh"
I also wrote at the end:
"I've included my picture, if you want to remember me one day."
This is my closing the circle, yes.
Mother?
Next to the door,
There's a kind of step,
I put the letter there
and, that's it.
You won't come here again? -No.
I have nothing to come back for.
From his mother's house, Aryeh goes to the home of his brother and of the Grand Rabbi.
He wants to give them a letter, but it turns out not to be so simple.
The Hasidim prevent him from approaching their house.
During the whole trip, Aryeh held himself back
And now for the first time, we see him full of anger
and showing his feelings.
Can you call Yochanan?
If you don't leave here, I'm calling the police.
Call Yochanan Laver for a moment, I'm giving him a letter and leaving.
This is private property, private property.
I want to give a letter to Yochanan. A letter, and then I'm going.
No, he's my brother. Call my brother.
Property of. . . private property, private property.
Call . . . -I'll call, it's private property.
Okay, all right. It's private property. He's my brother.
Good, I'll call. -Okay? Call him.
I want to bring him a letter. That's all. -Good. -A letter, and I leave.
So call him, I'm waiting.
Tell me, does the rabbi have a mailbox?
Does the rabbi have a mailbox?
They're all cowards, believe me.
Yochanan is my brother, okay? -Yochanan, yes, he's your brother?
So call him, I want to give him the letter.
Without the camera. -Okay, okay, he's there.
The camera is there. -No, no, no.
The rabbi's mailbox . . . -No, no, no
The rabbi's mailbox? -No, no, no, I don't want to, I don't want to.
In the end, the Hasidim give up, and send Yochanan outside.
He goes out to his brother, and the meeting is heartbreaking.
They both understand that the small chance they had for a relationship, is lost.
Who knows if they will ever meet again.
Yochanan approaches Aryeh and stands across from him.
The Hasidim are following the conversation from afar.
Yochanan, who wanted so badly to keep the connection with his oldest brother,
knows that now, everyone is watching him.
What will he dare to say, in this parting conversation?
Short break. Resume at 35 minutes.
Aryeh comes to his brother's house, to give him a parting letter.
The Hasidim don't let him get close.
and only when they understand that he's not moving,
They let Yochanan, the younger brother, go outside.
The two brothers stand opposite each other,
and conduct a parting conversation, while the Hasidim watch from afar.
I just want to bring you a letter.
Yes. I'm leaving here.
I wish you good luck. -Okay.
I also left Mother a letter, I don't know where she is.
Next time . . . I opened [the door] for a second
I left the letter on . . . there is a kind of stand there.
I put it there and left. -Okay, all right.
Okay? This, bring to . . . that one.
Okay. -Okay? -Okay.
Bye. -Thank you.
I wish you a lot of luck. -Thank you.
And it'll be all right.
It'll be all right, see you. -See you.
Only the letter to the grand rabbi is left.
It's clear to Aryeh that he won't see him face to face.
But he wants, at least, that they will give him the letter.
Only the Hasidim are not willing to help.
Rozner (the community administrator) doesn't want to.
Okay. -Can we put it next to the door?
He's not answering. I'm going to put it near the door.
Listen for a minute, how do I get this to him?
Listen, I . . . come come, I want to tell you something.
No. Who are you to tell me something?
You know that your rabbi,
You know that your rabbi is part of my family?
Wait, wait, stop for a minute.
Okay, stop the camera. -Listen, listen.
Stop the camera first. -Here, nu, stop the camera, Ronen.
Wait a minute but, wait.
Here, Ronen, put down the camera.
How can I get it to him?
Close it, close it. -This is a private place here.
I . . . -Close, close . . .
Call Rosner and ask him.
Rosner was here a minute ago. He's not speaking to us.
Call him. -Listen, I want to tell you something.
And tell him this:
The day will come, when you will pay for all you have done.
Tell it to your rabbi too.
Tell it to Shlomo (the grand rabbi)
I'll bring it to him directly.
The letters got to their destination. The journey is finished, but surely not over.
Aryeh, who was near tears when distributing the letters,
tries to collect himself, to joke, to be optimistic even now.
I feel like I'm living in a movie. -A movie?
I never dreamed I would come here,
Like this, you know . . . -To visit?
What, what do you mean visit? I'm here.
Exactly where I was before. One day I come back,
You know, but this time I return here
To close a circle. -To close a circle.
I return like a person . . . -Completely different.
a different person, who knows what he wants.
I feel good about myself that I did it.
Maybe it's time for me now
to repair the relationship with my adoptive family
which is anyway excellent,
but now I can accept for once and for all that this is my family and that's it.
because they are already lost
Aryeh returns home, sad but at peace with himself,
He just now got released from the army
and is starting to write a book about his life in Lev Tahor.
He wants to call the book, "Not All Black."
Aryeh has connected with other former members,
and is pressuring the Israeli police to pass to Canada testimonies given here.
and to ask for action against the cult.
The police told us again this week, (we called again)
they again insisted that all of the investigative material
was sent to the Canadian authorities
is being handled with the cooperative framework
between the enforcement authorities in Israel and Canada.
We'll wait patiently for the police to handle the situation
and we will also keep track.
Aryeh Laver himself will be available
on our Facebook page to answer questions on the Hebrew "True Face" page.
Regarding Lev Tahor. As we said they sent a response denying all claims.
We put up the entire response on our Facebook page
and it's still there. Tonight, they sent a new response
relating to Nehemia Ben-Zion, whom we mentioned
at the beginning of the program. They say:
"Regarding the couple who left, Lev Tahor was not the first framework
that Nehemia fled. He simply didn't get along in any framework
and the same thing happened again in his new home
and his first victim was his new wife. He decided to leave the community,
and as a result of his behavior, his wife went to her mother's home
who told her, that if he insists on leaving, he should grant a divorce.
Nehemia became a confused and dangerous animal, but changed his mind
and asked to remain in the community. The administration agreed to let him stay,
on condition that he grant his wife a divorce."
Regarding his diagnosis of BPD: "Nehemia himself said that he thought
that according to the symptoms, and how he knows himself, that he found the medical definition of his problem
and called it BPD. We have no medical authority, but in our opinion he did not err in his self-assessment."
That is the response, the complete response can be found at the Lev Tahor website, levtahor.ca
This is the end of the segment on Lev Tahor.
Translation by Hannah Katsman www.AMotherInIsrael.com