Abuser Sentenced

JERUSALEM — A self-proclaimed rabbi who counselled his followers to commit acts of child abuse and abused children who lived with him was sentenced to 24 years in jail last week. The judge in Jerusalem District Court also ordered Elior Chen to pay damages of $192,000 to his victims, eight children of the woman he lived with, a follower whose husband had given her over to the charismatic leader. He fled Israel for Canada and then Brazil in 2008, and was extradited back to Israel a few months later, after he counselled followers to severely beat and burn the children in order to rid them of the devil. Some were made to drink alcohol and turpentine until they vomited, and to eat their own feces. They were often locked in suitcases and other small spaces.

More Israelis Pulled From Rubble In N.Z.

WELLINGTON —Two more Israeli bodies were identified in New Zealand, and at least two others remain missing since last month’s devastating earthquake.
The dead Israelis, Ofer Levy and Gabi Engel, 22-year-olds from Rehovot, were found in Christchurch March 1 by New Zealand search and rescue personnel, Israeli officials confirmed. The families were notified the same day in Israel.
Israel is now mourning three nationals killed in the Feb. 22 earthquake. The body of 23-year-old Ofer Mizrachi, from Kibbutz Magal near Haifa, was identified Feb. 27 and was returned to Israel for burial.
A two-minute silence was held across New Zealand exactly one week after the disaster. The official death toll has risen to 155, but police are estimating that it could run as high as 240.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Wellington confirmed that two other Israelis, reportedly from Dimona, remain unaccounted for, although one was last sighted on the north island. Neither has contacted his family since the quake ripped through the south island’s largest city last week.
Meanwhile, two Torah scrolls buried under the rubble of Christchurch’s Chabad house were saved last week by a non-Jewish police detective who had heard that the Torahs were buried and dug it out himself.