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Satire for Sanity
Malka Leifer Guilty of Sexually Abusing Students, Australian Court Finds
The 56-year-old ex-principal managed to flee Australia for Israel in 2008, after being indicted. She was extradited back following a prolonged legal battle
The Leifer affair began in 2007 when Dassi Erlich, a young Orthodox woman from Melbourne, told her therapist about years of abuse she endured at the hands of the principal of the Adass Israel school, where she was first a high-school student and then a young employee.
After an investigation in the community and by Australian authorities – in which it emerged that not only Erlich but her two sisters, Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper, were also allegedly abused by Leifer, the Haredi educator was indicted on 74 counts of rape and sexual assault.
After allegations were first raised against Leifer in 2008, she fled to Israel. When she was charged in 2014 it triggered a years-long tussle over whether she would be extradited. She was brought back to Australia in 2021 following a lengthy extradition process.
Last August, former health minister and United Torah Judaism lawmaker Yaakov Litzman was convicted in an Israeli court for obstructing justice and pressuring ministry employees to alter psychiatric evaluations to make it appear that Leifer was unfit to stand trial.
In Israel, public awareness of the case had sharply increased when Litzman’s alleged criminal involvement was revealed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose then-governing coalition relied heavily on the support of Litzman’s UTJ party, had remained largely silent on the matter.
https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2023...rt-finds/00000187-45ba-df9b-a9d7-c5beab400000
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