The Jerusalem District Court on Thursday sentenced Elazar Rumpler, a senior figure in the Lev Tahor sect, to two years in prison for his role in a violent assault on a 10-year-old boy carried out within the closed community.
Rumpler was convicted of aggravated assault causing serious injury after the court found he took part in an incident in which the child was stripped, placed on a table and beaten on his back and buttocks in front of other children. The charges were first filed in 2020.
The court also convicted Rumpler of violating a lawful order after he fled the country in breach of a court-ordered travel ban, despite knowing that an indictment had been filed against him abroad.
Rumpler was arrested about a year ago in Guatemala, where the Lev Tahor community had been based until a police raid in December 2024. He was extradited to Israel in proceedings handled by the State Attorney’s international department.
In sentencing arguments, prosecutors stressed the severity of harming a defenseless minor within a closed community while exploiting authority and trust. The court adopted the plea arrangement presented to it and described the facts of the assault as “harsh and chilling.”
In addition to the prison sentence, the court imposed a suspended sentence, fined Rumpler 10,000 shekels and ordered him to pay 12,000 shekels in compensation to the victim.
Rumpler, a former school administrator in the Lev Tahor community, is also charged in a separate case with severe abuse of minors allegedly committed while he was in Canada. His lawyer informed prosecutors in 2020 that Rumpler had fled to Guatemala despite the travel ban in effect at the time.
Lev Tahor, from which about 200 children, teenagers and women were removed in Guatemala in December 2024, has long been accused by authorities of operating under a regime of threats and abuse. The sect was founded in Jerusalem in the 1980s by Shlomo Helbrans and later moved to the United States, Canada and Guatemala following investigations and criminal cases involving child abuse and abductions.