[3][10][11][12] The group has moved frequently, being located in Israel from 1988 to 1990, the United States from 1990 to 2000, Israel again from 2000 to 2003, Canada from 2003 to 2013, Guatemala in 2013 (after fleeing Canada),[1][13] Mexico since around 2017,[13] and in late 2021 - early 2022 they moved between several Eastern European and Balkan countries: in February 2022 they were present in North Macedonia after a short stay in Sarajevo in Bosnia after already being deported from Romania, Turkey, Albania and Moldova.

[20] Helbrans and his followers settled in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, but the members of the group with children left Quebec in November 2013 for Chatham-Kent amid allegations of child neglect.

[1] Nachman Helbrans and four other leaders of Lev Tahor were arrested in Mexico in December 2018 in a joint operation between Interpol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

[29] Members of Lev Tahor applied for political asylum in Iran in 2018, and swore allegiance to the state's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

[30] In November 2021 a group of about 70 members reached Kurdistan region of Iraq in an attempt to make their way to Iran, but were detained by Iraqi officials and deported to Turkey.

[8] In the Lev Tahor community, prayers are twice as long as is the norm among other Haredim, and adherents pronounce each word loudly, slowly, and with great emphasis.

[35] According to Ontario Superior Court Judge Lynda Templeton, the traditional way of life of members of the Lev Tahor community is not: "merely a matter of personal preference, but one of deep religious conviction, shared by an organized group, and intimately related to daily living ...

Religion is not simply a matter of theocratic belief, but pervades and determines their entire way of life, regulating it with detail through strictly enforced rules of the community ...

The adoption and practice of the Torah to the extent perceived by members of Lev Tahor as desirable or necessary in their daily lives include the type of clothing to be worn at all times; their food preparation and consumption; their language; their moral and social conduct; and their education.

[39][40] In an interview with Blackburn Radio on 31 March 2014, Dave Van Kesteren, MP for Chatham-Kent—Essex, Ontario, described the Lev Tahor saga as a "political issue".

In April 2013, the leaders of the Lev Tahor community developed a contingency plan in the event that the authorities would initiate action and seek to apprehend the children.

[42][43] Quebec police issued search warrants in relation to allegations that members of Lev Tahor sect inflicted psychological and physical abuse on teenage girls.

One woman said she was struck with a belt and a coat hanger, and a pregnant 17-year-old girl said she was beaten by her brother, sexually abused by her father and married by force to a 30-year-old man when she was 15.

[44] On 6 March, an Ontarian judge ordered that the 14 children of the two families that fled be placed in foster homes in Ontario, while they waited for the appeal to be heard in court.

Two days later, six children of Lev Tahor from two families, their parents, and another adult, were repatriated in Canada after fleeing to Trinidad and Tobago.

An FBI agent stated in a court document that two children, a 14-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy, were kidnapped from their mother's home in Woodridge, New York and transported to Scranton, Pennsylvania.