Fugitive Hasidic Rabbi Gets 18 Months for Sex Assault
Israeli Rabbi Eliezer Berland. Image by Getty
— A rabbi who was extradited to Israel from South Africa after years on the run was sentenced to 18 months in prison for sexual assault.
Rabbi Eliezer Berland, the 79-year-old founder of the Shuvu Bonim religious seminary in Israel, was sentenced on Tuesday afternoon in Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court a week after he admitted to two counts of indecent acts and one of assault under a plea bargain that cleared him of other molestation charges.
He was also ordered by the court to pay about $6,500 to three of his victims.
“I sincerely regret, from the bottom of my heart, all that I have done to harm a man or a woman, I regret every harmful act that was caused by me, whether directly or indirectly. My regret is sincere,” said Berland, a leader of the Breslov Hasidic movement, according to Ynet.
Berland was returned to Israel in July after being arrested four months earlier in Johannesburg. He had spent a year in South Africa along with dozens of followers.
He fled Israel in 2013 for Morocco when allegations that he molested two female followers, one of them a minor, were first published in the Israeli media. Berland also lived in the Netherlands and Zimbabwe with followers.
He had been held in custody since returning to Israel since he was deemed a flight risk.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
