ANT KATZ with SUNDAY TIMES

The most recent attempt to arrest Berland, a fugitive on the run from Israel (and who skipped bail in Holland) occurred a week ago on Shabbos night January 22. The rabbi‘s furious followers blamed SA Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein for the Shabbos raid, an accusation SA’s Jewish communal leadership denied with a single voice this week.

It has been an eventful week following the raid, during which time:

• Jewish Report discovered the whereabouts of Rabbi Berland and some 500-odd of his followers (although he is on the run again since the raid);
• Both SAPS and Hawks spokesmen at first denied any knowledge of the raid, later claiming it was carried out by Interpol, SA Crime Intelligence, and finally admitting to it having been SAPS on an Interpol warrant;
• Berland’s fanatical followers, quoting a rabbi, put a rodef (basically, a Jewish version of a fatwah) on Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein – which they later claimed to have withdrawn, saying it was not a threat and blamed it on an error in translation (although it remains on their blog);
• The Sunday Times ran a major story today titled “Fugitive rabbi’s death threat to Jewish chief” (see below);
• Israeli mainstream daily Ha’aretz also carried a major story today entitled: “Fugitive Rabbi Accused of Sex Crimes Issues Death Threat Against South Africa’s Chief Rabbi”; and
• Israel National News has just published a story entitled: “Fugitive rabbi threatens SA’s chief rabbi”.

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Reprinted from Sunday Times

Fugitive rabbi’s death threat to Jewish chief

A fugitive rabbi on the run from Interpol (acting on behalf of Israel, and Holland where he has jumped bail) has issued a death threat against the Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Warren Goldstein. The threat, made by followers of the Jewish sect’s leader in his name and on his website, has rattled the South African Jewish community.

Ten days ago, South African Police Service officers, acting on a request from Interpol, raided a hotel in Samrand, north of Johannesburg, where 78-year-old Rabbi Eliezer Berland has been staying on and off for five months with a number of his disciples.

Berland is one of the leaders of the Breslov Chassidic movement in Israel and head of the Shuvu Banim Seminary in Jerusalem – and considered a holy man by his followers – has been on the run since 2012 when allegations were made by female followers in Israel that he had sexually harassed or raped them.

He has managed to live under the noses of authorities from Morocco to the Netherlands and Zimbabwe. In South Africa he has been staying at hotels and golf estates. He is followed by about 40 families, to whom he is a spiritual guru. The men study with him all day and teach the younger boys while their wives take care of the many children and cook. They may not eat the food or use the crockery and cutlery at any of these establishments since the hotels are not kosher. They cook in their rooms.

RIGHT: This eight-year-old boy was apparently traumatised by the police raid

Sect members – most of whom speak Hebrew only – were this week adamant that the rabbi would return in two weeks’ time or so when things were “calmer”. They said they were upset about the police raid on the hotel on Friday night last week and said their children had been “traumatised”.

Hila Nakesh, whose mother was born in Greenside, Johannesburg, said she saw a policeman pull an oxygen mask off her eight-year-old son, Nathan, who has Down’s syndrome, and who was “traumatised” by the “assault” and had to be taken to hospital in Pretoria.

LEFT: Male followers are all full-time Torah  students and are in SA as tourists. None of them work.

Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, national spokesman for the police, denied that the boy had been touched. Berland – who has eluded the SAPS on at least two other occasions – apparently escaped from the hotel just before the raid. He is now in hiding.

His followers, especially those in Israel, have blamed Goldstein for setting the police on Berland. They went further this week and claimed that Goldstein should be subjected to din rodef (“law of the pursuer”), one of the few provisions in Jewish religious law that permits extrajudicial killing.

Taken from the Babylonian Talmud, the relevant passage speaks of “one who pursues his fellow to kill him” – this would include informing on “his fellow” to the police – and says that such a pursuer or informer may legitimately be killed.
Using the religious legal opinion of a well-known Johannesburg rabbi, the group’s spokesman posted on Berland’s website: “The police were sent in an attempt to arrest Rabbi Berland on Shabbat https://www.sajr.co.za/images/default-source/People/single/st-berland-full.jpg” class=”sfImageWrapper”>
ABOVE: The Sunday Times story that ran on page 5 today

ABOVE: The Haaretz headline this morning 

A picture of Rabbi Eliezer Berland posted on his blog this month when he believes he was no longer on the run from the authorities

Related Reads on SAJR Online:

• COPS BUNGLE THIRD TRY TO ARREST FUGITIVE R BERLAND
• DID MISTAKE LEAD TO UNINTENDED DEATH THREAT

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