The Malka Leifer case is symbolic of Israel's problems - editorial

Back in 2021, we wrote the following on these pages: “After six years of endless court dates that seemed to stretch into thousands of hours and dozens of appearances, with appeals and lawyers fighting over every aspect of the case, Malka Leifer has finally been extradited to Australia.”

Justice may be slow, but on Thursday, some 15 years after fleeing Australia for refuge in her native Israel, Leifer, 56, a principal at a Jewish school, was sentenced to up to 15 years in jail for sexually abusing two high school students, sisters Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper. She was acquitted of nine other charges, including five against the siblings’ older sister, Nicole Meyer.

Leifer was found guilty of 18 charges of rape and sexual assault against the sisters, who were under her care from 2003-2007 at the Adass Israel School.

The students would continue to be abused once they had become student teachers, as well. They were all between the ages of 16 and 19 at the time.

The sentencing was a welcome, if much delayed, conclusion to a case that has dogged the Jewish world and put a magnifying glass on Israel’s arduous extradition process.

For close to a decade Leifer sequestered herself in the haredi community in Israel, as the state dragged its feet on efforts to bring the alleged pedophile to justice. When the legal proceedings finally began, the state accepted claims that she was unfit to be extradited, only revisiting the issue years later when recordings emerged of her apparently living a normal life. Victims had to campaign for a decade.

Various excuses were rolled out during the extradition hearings, including more psychiatric experts being brought in to debate her mental fitness. Discussions were held as to whether Australia would provide the proper “religious” rights if there were a conviction there.

Litzman shamefully protected Leifer

Former minister and United Torah Judaism MK Yaakov Litzman played a shameful role in stonewalling the efforts to extradite Leifer. He was convicted of pressuring the Jerusalem district psychiatrist into falsely stating that Leifer was mentally unfit to be extradited to Australia to stand trial, and he was given a slap on the wrist with an eight-month suspended sentence and a NIS 3,000 fine.

Sapper, in reaction to the sentencing, told KAN Bet on Thursday that Litzman’s efforts caused unmeasured trauma to Leifer’s victims, beyond the scars left from the actual abuse.

Despite the obstacles and delays, Leifer was finally extradited after spending 1,129 days in Israeli custody. Since her return to Australia, she was in custody for 940 days. Both figures were taken into account by Judge Mark Gamble when handing down the sentence. She will be eligible for parole after 11 years.

Gamble called Leifer a “serious sexual offender” who had shown a “callous indifference” to the suffering of her victims. He added that she had abused her position within Melbourne’s haredi community and her “insidious offending” had scarred the sisters for life. He also said that “to have sexually abused the two complainants as she did, while a teacher and a principal, amounted to a significant breach of the trust that the students and the school placed in her.”

Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler said, “We stand by all of the survivors of Leifer’s abuse, and hope today will bring a measure of justice for them. The courage, dignity, and determination of Dassi, Nicole, and Elly inspired our whole community.”

The Leifer case is symbolic of a larger problem in Israel. For many years, the country has been a place to which suspected criminals have fled, and Israel has been accused of being a safe haven for wanted persons.

It is unclear why the country didn’t take the Leifer case – and other similar cases – seriously, and instead opened its gates for people who are accused of being predators abroad.

We hope that Erlich, Sapper, and Meyer will find some closure with the sentence, which will keep Leifer behind bars for years to come. And we also hope Israel has learned the lesson that it can’t treat cases of this severity with the same cavalier attitude that enabled Leifer to escape justice for so long.