Rabbi Eliezer Berland, the head of the ultra-Orthodox Shuvu Banim sect in Jerusalem, was released from prison Wednesday after serving a month and a half in prison for defrauding his followers and money-laundering.
He had been sentenced to 18 months in jail following his conviction for exploiting his position to extract money from people in distress on the promise that he had special powers that would solve their problems. His time in jail was reduced by time served while he was in custody prior to his conviction as well as additional credit that he was given to relieve prison overcrowding.
A separate arrest warrant was issued last month against the 84-year-old Berland while he was in prison, on suspicion of his involvement in the killing of Nissim Shitrit and Avraham Edri in Jerusalem about 30 years ago. Under interrogation, he admitted that he had ordered their attack by his community’s modesty guard for alleged romantic relationships that they had with women in Jerusalem. He later recanted his confession.
During the investigation, Berland ordered another suspect in the case, Baruch Sharvit, to admit to killing Shitrit. Sharvit did so and was charged with the murder. Binyamin Ze’evi, another member of the community who was the son of the late cabinet minister Rehavam Ze’evi, was also charged with murder in the case.
According to Ze’evi’s indictment, Ze’evi and Sharvit, who is still a member of Shuvu Banim, assaulted Shitrit in an apartment in Jerusalem, after which they drove him to the Eshtaol Forest near the city, where they and other members of the sect’s “modesty guard” beat him to death. After they had buried him, they reported the murder to Berland.
Berland’s followers greeting him at his home in Jerusalem, on Wednesday.Emil Salman
Berland allegedly instructed his son-in-law, Zvi Zucker, who was in charge of the modesty guard at the time and is also a suspect in the case, to assault people who had strayed from what he perceived as religious norms and transgressions against the community’s laws of modesty.
The killing of Edri, who disappeared but whose body has never been found, is still under investigation. The current mayor of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Betar Ilit, Meir Rubinstein, has been arrested in connection with that portion of the case. According to the police, the evidence against him is stronger than that against the other two suspects in that case. The mayor, who has denied the suspicions, was arrested last month in the municipality’s offices and released on house arrest two weeks ago, before then being allowed to return to work.
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In 2017, Berland was released from prison after serving a year after being convicted for indecent acts and assault. Prior to his arrest he fled the country to Africa with some of his followers to escape trial in Israel. He was arrested in the Netherlands in 2015 and was found extraditable to Israel, but he escaped and returned to South Africa.
In the aftermath of his criminal cases, many of his followers abandoned Shuvu Banim, which now has about 2,000 adherents. It is affiliated with the Bratslav Hasidic community.
