SOUTH AFRICA
Haaretz
Jeremy Gordin Jan 30, 2016
A fugitive rabbi on the run from Interpol 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.
South African Police Service officers, acting on a request from Interpol, 10 days ago 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, one of the leaders of the Bratslav Hasidic movement in Israel and head of Yeshivat Shuvu Bonim 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.
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