I"t's Official: Gur Enticing Tens Of Youths To Leave Homes Of Parents Who Joined Rabbi Shaul’s Breakaway Faction

 

Haaretz investigative reporter Aharon Rabinowitz, who exposed Chaim Walder’s actions to the public, claims in a new report that the Gur chasidus is actively working to entice youths to leave the homes of parents who joined the community of Rabbi Shaul Alter.

Rabinowitz received taped messages as well as talking with different members of the chasidus and concluded that the case of the Sandik family, whose two daughters refused to return home when their parents left the chasidus, is not a singular event. At least ten youths both male and female have left their homes with the encouragement of the Gur central committee and hundreds more families have been torn, with parents against children as well as brothers against their own brothers.

Gur’s central committee, headed by Rabbi Avraham Zilberberg, spearheads the struggle with the breakaway faction of Rabbi Shaul. In a discussion with a 17-year-old youth who presented himself as a child whose parents had joined Rabbi Shaul, Rabbi Zilberberg told him that “if your father would weaken his commitment to Torah and you were afraid he would influence you, you would leave, right? If there is a 1% chance he will influence you, then you must  do what good Jews do when they’re in danger. Your father must know that you will leave the house if this happens.”

When the boy raises concern of police interference, Rabbi Zilberberg dismisses him, stating that all is fine “unless you say that somebody persuaded you to leave.”

Zilberberg was concerned that the discussion had been recorded and stressed that he was only giving advice and not an imperative.

A pamphlet distributed by the Gur chasidim explained that they are trying to prevent families from splitting up. The pamphlet charged that Rabbi Shaul’s community is splitting the families.

In a recorded phone call which reached Haaretz staff, the head of the committee explained to a worried mother whose son had left home that “you decided to do what you did, this is a direct result of your actions so decide where you want to be and then you can ensure that he will return home.”

Gur’s information hotlines which chasidim call in order to hear the directives of leaders are an integral part of the struggle to maintain the chasidus’s unity. On the women’s hotline, Rivka Ehrenreich said that “everyone must understand that rebelling against the ways of our Rebbes cannot be forgiven. Our position is – total detachment, no communication. No participation in simchas, no Shabbos and festivals. Whoever is thinking in this direction should realize that he is losing his family, parents, brothers, sisters – everyone. Don’t think that they will make up in the end, they won’t. In our eyes this is kefira, no worse than desecration of Shabbos.”

Similar directives were published on the men’s hotline, where youths were told that “many of you have a great connection to the tzadik but at the same time a father who is enticing you to come with him and you don’t know what to do. One needs to know that one doesn’t leave a rebbe for any price in the world. One doesn’t question him or rebel against him for any price, irrespective of who is telling a person to do this.”

Leah Sandik, whose girls left her home, feels that this is incitement. “It’s not nice to say but what is happening in the schools is like a Hamas summer camp. No father and mother, just listen to the committee.”