Conviction Jewish institutions and contexts Other Jewish institution or hearing Jerusalem, Israel · 2016

Israel: Shuvu Bonim leader Eliezer Berland — convictions for indecent acts and for selling 'blessings' to the sick

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Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

leader of the Shuvu Bonim Breslov community, venerated by followers as a holy man

Organization

Shuvu Bonim (Breslov)

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

Women who could not refuse a man their community venerated as holy, and sick followers who paid for his blessings — sexual and financial exploitation running on the same authority.

Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
Spiritual healing or treatment
Prosperity, divination, or curse-removal claim

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2016-11-01 · two separate convictions on plea — both stand

Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, Israel. Eliezer Berland, leader of the Shuvu Bonim Breslov community, was convicted on plea in November 2016 of two counts of indecent acts and one of assault against female followers, receiving 18 months including time served after years as a fugitive across four countries. In June 2021 he was convicted again on plea — fraud, exploitation and money laundering for selling 'blessings' and 'cures' to sick and elderly followers — receiving a further 18 months. Both convictions stand; later cold-case questioning produced no charges and is not asserted.

Documented coercion mechanisms

guru-grade veneration by followers
sale of 'blessings' and 'cures' to the sick and elderly

Cited record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting plea and sentencing report The Times of Israel on the 2016 plea and sentence.: Reports the first conviction.
national newspaper court reporting sentencing report The Times of Israel on the 2021 fraud sentence.: Reports the second conviction and imprisonment.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://www.timesofisrael.com/sex-offender-rabbi-who-defrauded-followers-gets-18-months-in-plea-deal-report/ Corpus classification: national-newspaper-court-reporting; evidentiary role: plea-and-sentencing-report. SHA-256 b11c07714beb08bfcdcebb0816745c46719aad42feb7577bf908ba006b1a1c9d
Retrieval: 2026-07-27 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://www.timesofisrael.com/followers-mass-outside-prison-as-sex-offender-rabbi-set-to-start-sentence/ Corpus classification: national-newspaper-court-reporting; evidentiary role: sentencing-report. SHA-256 834144888616c2ee13f07572f038b50bdb2a88143a2850b3ba4b04522da86216
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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