< Continued from page 1

About.com Rating



According to investigators, it isn?t uncommon for some Hasidic families, already consisting of nearly a dozen children, to ?take in? yet another child from the outside. The child may come from another city or even another state ? it doesn?t matter. What matters is that the child needs an ultraorthodox environment. Providing such a child with this environment is considered a mitzvah, or religious obligation.


That the child might have been kidnapped doesn?t matter because the ends justify the means ? that is to say, fulfilling what they regard as God?s Will justifies pretty much any action.

The criminal attitude of Helbrans and his followers runs deep. He offered Shai?s natural father $50,000 for back-dated custody papers which would make the kidnapping retroactively legal (fortunately, Shai?s father had no intention of taking the money and recorded the attempted deal ? but the D.A., of course, just ignored the evidence). Shai?s step-father was brutally attacked and almost killed ? he lost finger and had to have two others reattached.

There seems little to distinguish between the actions and attitudes of these ultraorthodox Hasidic Jews and some of the worst stereotypes attributed to destructive cults one sometimes reads about in the news. This is especially true when considering the fact that Shai was, it seems, actually brainwashed. Before being kidnapped he wrote in a school assignment that he loved his mother so much he would die for her ? when he returned, however, he falsely accused her of beating him regularly with a broom handle and worse.

He lied, openly and obviously, both in court and to the police ? all in an attempt to justify and defend the actions of Helbrans.

The actions of Helbrans and his followers also serve to reinforce some of the worst stereotypes of Jews. Many of those who objected to Hana?s fight wanted to sweep these events under the rug in an effort to avoid fueling anti-Semitic bigotry ? but they ended up accomplishing just the opposite. By not helping bring such atrocities to light, they invite further criminal acts and do all Jews a disservice. The Hasidim involved do not much care, however, because they consider themselves to simply be above the law.

This book, more than many others on similar topics, helps reveal to what degree a person?s religious beliefs can substantially warp their ability to make sound moral decisions. All that Helbrans cared about was an imagined duty to God to raise other people?s children in the way he saw fit ? the actual suffering experienced by them meant nothing whatsoever to him. He and others actively lied to investigators in order to cover up their crimes because, quite frankly, they never acknowledged that the police held any legitimate authority.

Denholtz?s book is not simply a record of events in this case. The author is a playwright and constructs the book as if it were a suspense novel. She spent several years gathering information and interviewing as many people as she could; nevertheless, many conversations simply had to be reconstructed. This is a strength and a weakness ? a strength, because it helps make the book a quick and riveting read, but it is a weakness because you can never be sure if people really did say quite what you see on the pages. Overall, however, it is a good book, even though the story itself is incredibly disturbing.

« Back...