ISRAEL
Arutz Sheva
03/05/18
On Wednesday evening, Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu announced that he was banning Rabbi Eliezer Berland from making his annual pilgrimage to the Lag Baomer festivities at Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s Tomb in Meron. As Rabbi Eliyahu is Tzfat’s Chief Rabbi, the going-ons at the nearby tomb in Meron fall under his purview.
According to Rabbi Eliyahu, the fact that Rabbi Berland had been convicted under a plea bargain agreement to two counts of sexual assault would have made his attendance at the Lag Baomer event into “an abomination.”
“Mount Meron is a holy place and thousands of people from across Israel who come do not want to seek impurity on this day,” Rabbi Eliyahu told Arutz Sheva. “Such a person who impersonates a hassidic rabbi is an abomination and he should be removed from Meron.”
Berland, 81, is the founder of the Shuvu Banim yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem and was a prominent figure in the Breslov community. After the allegations of sexual misconduct came to light in 2012, Rabbi Berland fled the country, traveling Europe and Africa while evading arrest and extradition.
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