Malka Leifer, a former headmaster, and professor of religious studies at Adass Israël school in Melbourne was recently found guilty of 18 charges, including the rape of two sisters by the Australian court justice.
Although she was cleared for nine charges this Monday, Malka Leifer was imputed with 9 other charges, including rape and sexual assaults on minors she was taught at the Addas Israël School of Melbourne.
Context
This scandal is both a 2008 criminal case and an extradition dispute regarding an accusation of child abuse in a religious school in Australia. After moving to Israel, a former student of the Australian school, Dassi Erlich expressed her recurrent night terrors concerning events occurring in her high school to her therapist who later contacted a senior at the Melbourne school. After being confronted, the teacher denied the accusations several times.
After a warrant was issued for at least 74 offenses on at least eight attendees, and despite criticism held by Israeli activists, the dual Israeli-Australian citizen Leifer fled to Israel and lived a peaceful life in the illegal Israeli settlement of Immanuel, Notwithstanding the court ruling that claimed she was not mentally fit for hearings.
Leifer’s Defense
Although she denied all accusations to her former colleagues at the Addas Israël school, claiming that the accusations “would destroy her reputation,” the mother of eight children was very discreet since 2008. She refused to come to any extradition hearings claiming she was experiencing panic attacks and anxiety.
The Sentencing
After living for years on an electronic tag in Immanuel, she was found guilty of 18 charges including misconduct with pupils by the court of the State of Victoria. According to the prosecutor Justin Lewis, Leifer has indeed demonstrated a pattern of sexual misconduct towards young girls, and used her position of principal and the vulnerability of the two sisters to misbehave, “Knowing that they were neglected at home, she pretended that she loved them and told them that she was helping them,” said Mr. Lewis. After holding hostage the victims for years, they expressed their relief to Australian media: “Today we can start to take that power back that she stole from us as children.”
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