Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Israeli Rabbi Fleeing Charges of Sex Crimes Arrested Near Amsterdam

A well-known Israeli rabbi who fled the country after being accused of sex crimes was arrested near Amsterdam.

Eliezer Berland, 77, was detained by police at Schiphol Airport, Het Parool daily reported.

The founder of the Shuvu Bonim religious seminary in Israel, Berland, a member of the Breslov Hasidic sect, fled to Morocco last year and from there to Zimbabwe and South Africa after being accused of sexual assault by two young women, both wives of his followers.

Berland left South Africa in a hurry after police began looking into his actions and was apprehended at Schiphol because Israel has requested his extradition, which the Netherlands is likely to perform, according to the Het Parool report Friday.

During his seven-month stay in Morocco, the charismatic Berland drew dozens of followers from Israel to join him there, and hundreds more showed up on holidays. He left after community officials complained he was drawing unnecessary and negative attention to the country’s Jews, though community officials deny that their complaints influenced his his decision to leave.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.