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| Malka Leifer in Israeli custody in 2018 (JTA) |
In 2008 Leifer had been accused of rape and sexual abuse by three sisters that attended the Adass Israel School, a Charedi girls school in Melbourne, Australia - where Leifer was a principal and teacher. Upon being made aware of the accusations Leifer managed to escape arrest by fleeing to Israel. From JTA:
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence showing how Leifer managed to escape Australia, showing that members of the school’s board convene,d after learning of the allegations against her and that board members and Leifer booked tickets to Israel for later that night immediately after the meeting.
She settled into a Charedi lifestyle until Australia asked Israel to extradite her and face trial. (To the best of my knowledge Israel has no mechanism for trying cases of sex abuse that took place in a foreign country.) Leifer resisted - claiming to be mentally incompetent to stand trial. A claim bolstered by the following:
Last year, a former Israeli minister, Yaakov Litzman, admitted to abusing his powers to try to protect Leifer from prosecution. Litzman, a haredi Orthodox politician, resigned from the Knesset and was sentenced to probation and a nominal fine as part of his plea deal… (Litzman had been) accused of pressuring employees in the Health Ministry to alter the conclusions of psychiatric evaluations that had deemed the accused sex offender fit for extradition.
There was even a
campaign launched to raise funds for Leifer’s
legal defense.
All of these shenanigans were truly an outrage delaying justice unnecessarily for years. But even though justice was delayed. I think it is fair to say that – finally - justice has been served. From the Jerusalem Post:
Malka Leifer was found guilty of rape, indecent assault and sexual penetration of a minor, in the County Court of Victoria, Australia on Monday.
A jury found Leifer guilty of 18 of the 29 counts of sexual abuse charges against two sisters that she was on trial for but cleared her of all charges relating to a third sister.
This long journey has finally come to a just conclusion. Leifer likely faces a lengthy prison term for her crimes. (She has yet to be sentenced.)
There are several troubling questions that arise from this case. Why did the Charedi board of directors at Adass aid in her escape from prosecution? Why did MK Yaakov Litzman, a devout Gerrer Chasid attempt to help her by using his clout as a former health Minister to get that Ministry to alter conclusions of her psychiatric evaluation to to say that she was mentally incompetent? And What will the response of the Charedi leadership be to this verdict? Will they comment at all? Will they ignore it? Or worse condemn the verdict and claim that Leifer was an innocent victim of false charges?
I believe the answer to the last question is that they will ignore it - knowing the backlash they would get if they made their views public. My guess is that privately they will see this verdict as a travesty of justice since the verdict was carried out by a secular court, that has no jurisdiction over Jews.
And that answers all the other questions.
The Charedi Adass board wanted to prevent the devout Leifer from suffering the repercussions of abuse allegations that were very likely false. That demanded they do something about it quickly by aiding her flight to Israel to escape the machinations of a secular court.
I'm sure Litzman tried to block her extradition for the same reason. A Jew must never be subjected to the directives of a non Jewish court. Leifer may very well be innocent according to Jewish law. After all look at how devout she is!
One might ask the following question: What about the trauma suffered by her victims? They might respond by saying: What trauma? Who says we should believe the accusers? Only a Jewish court has the authority to decide her guilt or Innocence. Besdies - in the unlikely event that the accusations are true, the victims should just get over it and get on with their lives.
I can’t say for sure that is the reason. But that seems likely based on the laws of Arkaos Akum - secular courts. Litzman by all accounts is a devout Gerrer Chasid that would never violate Halacha. He must have felt compelled to act as he did precisely because he believed he was following it – and sparing an innocent Jewish woman an unjust and dismal future. It seems to me that this is the only viable explanation of Charedi behavior with respect to Malka Leifer.
How ironic it is that it is Ger whose rules about sexual relaitionhips with one’s own spouse - are among the most severe in all of Orthodox Jewry. So strict are they that legend has it - when the list of rules was shown to the Steipler Gaon - he rejected them in angry tones as un-Jewish. And yet when it comes to accusations of sexual abuse they just shrug and assume the an accused Jew as devout as Leifer appears to be could not possibly be guilty of what she was accused.
How sad that this once mighty Chasidus that produced the fine mind of the Sefas Emes, the Gerrer Rebbe of a previous genration - whose works on the Talmud are studied in Yeshivos all over the world has deteriorated into a sect that has gone so far astray on matters as sensitive as these.
I will end with the words of Rabbi Yakov Horowitz a real Charedi worthy of the name and a valiant warrior against sex abuse in the Jewish community. It is a lesson that Ger and many other Charedi communities – whether in the Chasidic or Yeshiva world - have failed to learn: In a 2019 article in the Times of Israel on this case he said the following:
Being kind to an alleged abuser is cruel to the victim -- and puts additional children at risk.