Malka Leifer Reportedly Molested Her Students In Bnei Brak Before She Went to Australia and then again after she Fled Back to Israel

by Ittay Flescher

A prayer of thanks – that was my first reaction to the guilty verdict of Malka Leifer. It’s a sex-abuse case I've followed for over 13 years years as a former teacher at Melbourne's Adass Israel School, then as a member of the city's Jewish community and a friend of the victims, and later as a journalist in Israel with Plus61J Media.

 I still remember the shock when journalists Ashley Browne and Naomi Levin broke the story in 2008, writing in The Australian Jewish News that Leifer had fled to Israel in the middle of the night with the help of the school's leaders. 

I remember how many people criticized the brave victims who came forward and the journalists who told the women's stories; they were charged with sinat hinam and lashon hara – baseless hatred and slander.

 I remember the civil court case in 2015 where the Supreme Court of the state of Victoria ordered the school to pay more than 1.1 million Australian dollars ($740,000), with Leifer having to pay AU$150,000, one of the largest sex abuse payouts in Australian history.

 I remember the concerns that many people raised – that talking about this story would stoke antisemitism and harm the Jewish community's reputation, or damage Australia-Israel ties.

 In 2018, as I entered the courtroom on Jerusalem's Saladin Street for the first hearing in the Leifer case that I attended, I was struck by the fact that the only ultra-Orthodox Jews there were family and supporters of Leifer's campaign to avoid justice in Australia. Some were holding mezuzahs or reciting Psalms, while others were holding texts with writings from the kabbala. 

Leifer's sister would often hold an image of Reb Shaya'la of Kerestir up toward the judge, as this Hungarian rabbi who died a century ago was believed to possess the power to heal the sick and comfort the afflicted.

 Leifer's lawyers – Yehuda Fried, Tal Gabay and Nick Kaufman – would also sometimes have a Talmud on the table as they made their arguments.

 Seeing Leifer sitting in the courtroom wearing a headscarf, I was reminded of the values and lifestyle that she once tried to instill in girls at the school, and of the many innocent childhoods that she destroyed in her failure to adhere to her calling. 

When I was a teacher at the boys’ school, every lesson had to be vetted to ensure that no images of women appeared. Also verboten were discussions on sexuality, relationships or anything to do with modernity and Western culture. The school completely opposed all forms of sex education and discussions on sexual identity, which made it impossible for LGBTQ students or staff to come out without being humiliated for defying the word of God and the honor of the community. 

Like Dassi Erlich, Elly Sapper and Nicole Meyer at the girls' school, all the children at Adass grew up with no television, radio, internet, secular books, newspapers or magazines. Not even a sales catalogue entered the home.

 Overall, the boys at Adass seemed happy with their lives, especially in contrast to students at secular schools where I later taught, where the consumer culture reigned.

 In the Jerusalem courtroom for nearly four years, any talk of children's welfare was replaced by a discussion about Leifer's welfare and whether she was feigning mental illness. This was the center of the arguments between a state prosecutor, Matan Akiva, and Leifer’s attorneys, after footage obtained by private investigators working with the group Jewish Community Watch was revealed. Jewish Community Watch had hid cameras in the ultra Orthodox settlement of Immanuel where Leifer lived starting in 2017. The footage showed her freely taking part in the life of the community.

 One of the most shocking incidents in Israel before Leifer's extradition occurred in March 2018. Rabbi Yitzchak David Grossman came to court to speak on her behalf and offered to watch over her in his home, even though he had never met her. “It would be a humiliation for Ms. Leifer to remain in custody,” he said, promising that if she left his house “even for a second, we will take her straight to the police.” 

In a ruling that seemed unfathomable to me, Judge Ram Winograd agreed with the Israel Prize-winning rabbi, ordering Leifer to be released to his home in Migdal Ha'emek in the north, a decision that was overturned a week later by the Supreme Court. 

Another outrageous aspect of the trial was the involvement of ultra-Orthodox politician Yaakov Litzman, who was health minister for much of the second half of the last decade. For years Litzman denied any wrongdoing in the case, but he later struck a plea deal and was convicted of breach of trust. A psychiatrist whom health-system sources said was pressured by Litzman, Chief Jerusalem District Psychiatrist Jacob Charnes, changed his conclusion on Leifer’s mental health three times during the case, signifcantly delaying the extradition. For the pain and suffering that Litzman caused Leifer's victims, and the damage he did to the reputation of both Israel and Judaism, he was fined 3,000 shekels ($835).

 “I think in so many ways, and for so long, so many people have protected Malka Leifer and protected her from facing us,” Erlich said after the guilty verdict was announced in Melbourne on Monday. Holding hands with her sisters Nicole and Elly, Erlich added, “We have sat in this court for nine weeks now. It was a frightening process, every single day, hearing people tear us apart, calling us liars. At the same time, we were able to stand strong and look at each other and say, she abused us, and she is being held accountable now.” 

The jury found Leifer guilty on 18 of 27 counts, including six counts of indecent assault, three of sexual penetration of a child aged 16 or 17 and five of rape. 

After the verdict came down, Manny Waks, the chief executive of the Israeli group VoiCSA – Voice Against Child Sexual Abuse – called on the Adass school to “issue an unequivocal public apology to Dassi, Elly and Nicole for its horriffc failure to protect them when they were under its care.” He added: “What has happened at the Adass Israel School is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the prevalence of child sexual abuse in Jewish schools and institutions globally. In recent years in Australia alone, we have received many disclosures from members of the community who have been sexually abused while attending communal institutions. “The Jewish community, like all communities, must acknowledge what is happening and put a stop to it. The greatest danger to the safety of the Jewish community comes from within Jewish institutions and not from external threats. Yet this is barely spoken about and inadequately addressed at a communal level.” 

Looking back on what has happened over the past two decades, I think there are three main lessons to be learned.

 1. Israel's Kan public broadcaster has reported on allegations that Leifer touched children inappropriately during her time as a teacher in Tel Aviv suburb Bnei Brak before she became the Adass school's principal. There have also been allegations that she abused children after she fled Australia and moved to Immanuel. 

Adass has denied any knowledge of such allegations before it sponsored a visa for Leifer to come to Australia in 2000. But could this tragedy that happened in two countries have been avoided if there was greater awareness of child-protection protocol and sex education in ultra-Orthodox schools? 

2. Sadly, this won't be the last cover-up in Israel. Millions of dollars were spent on stellar legal teams that included Fried and Gabay in Israel and Ian Hill in Australia. If anything can be learned from this case and similar high-profile ones in Israel – of Yehuda Meshi-Zahav and Chaim Walder – it's that whatever fears the victims may have in coming forward, the price of staying silent is always greater for the wider community. 

3. Australia is home to one of the most loyal and Zionist communities in the Diaspora. Its leaders very rarely criticize Israel, with a notable exception the negligence that took the lives of four Australians in the bridge collapse at the 1997 Maccabiah games. Yet the Leifer trial exposed disappointment in the community, especially after it was learned that Litzman was involved: 

 One can only hope that the Leifer case will be remembered as more than another sex-abuse cover-up. All children have the right to feel secure at school, at home and in summer camp. This also goes for those entrusted by their parents to learn the most important Hasidic teaching: “Depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.”