Yad L'Achim, a Jerusalem-based anti-cult organization, announced this week that the dangerous Scientology cult is actively pursuing new members among religious and hareidi women. At Diskin St. 17, one of the tall buildings whose "shorter sides" face the hareidi neighborhood of Shaarei Hessed, dozens of women can be seen entering the offices of the Shachar Institute, where courses are offered in reflexology, holistic healing - and Scientology. Shachar is directed by a religious-looking woman who denies any connection to Scientology - despite the fact that the main Scientology office in Tel Aviv told Yad L'Achim that she is their Jerusalem representative.
Yad L'Achim says that the cult has an interesting way of attracting the religious women. A college named Tif'eret advertises that it is looking to hire a secretary, and candidates who arrive for an interview are told at the end that if they want to be hired, they must take a course in "dianetics" - a method that is claimed to get rid of "the hidden part of your mind that stores all painful experiences and then uses them against you." Dianetics is a central method of Scientology, which has been described as the "world's most dangerous cult."
Justice Anderson of the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia, wrote,
"Scientology is evil; its techniques are evil; its practice is a serious threat to the community, medically, morally, and socially; and its adherents are sadly deluded and often mentally ill... [It is] the world's largest organization of unqualified persons engaged in the practice of dangerous techniques which masquerade as mental therapy."
One-time British Health Minister Kenneth Robinson said,
"The government is satisfied that Scientology is socially harmful. It alienates members of families from each other and attributes squalid and disgraceful motives to all who oppose it; its authoritarian principles and practice are a potential menace to the personality and well being of those so deluded as to become followers; above all, its methods can be a serious danger to the health of those who submit to them..."
Yad L'Achim plans to publicize the dangers of Scientology and the Jerusalem courses in the hareidi newspapers in the coming two weeks.
Yad L'Achim Chairman Rabbi Shalom Dov Lifschitz said, "We have here a cynical attempt to entrap innocent hareidi women who are not aware of the many dangers inherent in this destructive cult. These women want only to learn new psychological methods... This is a clever method of entrapment that should be thrown out of the Holy City."