Tel-Chai Nation

ABC in Australia has the story of how some of Haredi felon Malka Leifer was discovered faking mental illness to avoid extradition back Down Under to face justice for her crimes against a number of students at the Haredi school she taught at, which investigators in disguise managed to discover:

The filming is part of an undercover investigation organised by the global anti-child abuse organisation Jewish Community Watch (JCW) after Ms Erlich and her sisters met with Israel-based JCW coordinator Shana Aaronson in Jerusalem late last year. They showed her a grainy photo of Ms Leifer attending a public gathering for the Jewish holiday of Lag B'Omer last May.

"To me, it's felt like the system has been getting played," Ms Aaronson told Australian Story.

"Anyone with common sense can see that this is a sham."

She hired a firm called Amit Investigations to shadow Ms Leifer and prove she was lying about her incapacity.

Knowing it would be impossible to blend into Immanuel, where everyone knows everyone else, Mr Tsahi's team of investigators disguised themselves as construction workers.

"We decided that we will look like workers, builders, that are working there and they live their life there," Mr Tsahi said.

"The people in the community of Immanuel never talked to the builders."

Using zoom lenses and cameras hidden in car keys and water bottles, they recorded Ms Leifer's every move for two weeks.

She was filmed sitting on her balcony at her home, taking phone calls, waiting for the bus, shopping and buying groceries and toys for her grandchildren.

The footage captured by Mr Tsahi and his team was handed to Israeli police in February and, after a separate investigation, Ms Leifer was arrested.

In its judgment last month, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that Ms Leifer had been obstructing justice by feigning a mental illness and ordered that she be kept in custody. She will be brought before the court on Wednesday as the extradition proceedings resume.

The school she taught at played a part in helping her flee the law:

While the sisters are excited by the latest developments, they cannot forget the role played by their former school in helping Ms Leifer flee 10 years ago.

"I think if the school hadn't spirited Malka Leifer out of the country, we wouldn't be here where we are today," Ms Erlich said. "An apology is needed not just for myself, but for the other people that have been affected."

While the Adass Israel school has expressed sorrow for what Ms Erlich and her sisters have been put through, the board has not apologised for the actions of the two school board members who made the decision to buy Ms Leifer and her family one-way tickets to Tel Aviv within hours of the abuse allegations surfacing.

Former board member Abe Weiszberger said the rest of the school board was not aware of the allegations at the time.

"Whatever happened in the 48 hours of this saga … was a decision made by two people on the board," he said.

Former premier Ted Baillieu, who has been helping Ms Erlich and her sisters, is not satisfied with the board's explanation.

"I think the school's got to understand they need to have 100 per cent accountability for everybody involved," he said.

Dassi Erlich has been working with the current board in an attempt to obtain a public apology for what has happened, but she has now decided to walk away from what she began last year.

"I feel bitterly disappointed that the process has been so convoluted and lengthy," she said.

In response, the board provided Australian Story with the following statement: "The board of Adass Israel School wishes Ms Dassi Erlich well. We prioritise the importance of her receiving an apology. We anticipate that this will be forthcoming in the near future."

Since the scandal surrounding Ms Leifer first broke, the school has taken measures to protect its students, including installing security cameras in every room.

"We have a child safety officer; we are trying our absolute hardest to ensure child safety," Mr Weiszberger said.

But the Adass Israel school still refuses to teach sex education.

And that surely is a problem. It's really no shock they don't have what it takes to say they're sorry and admit they practically all played a role in helping Leifer flee the law.

ABC also has the following news about the school itself and what kind of so-called parents the women were raised by. It says:

"Our way of following Judaism has its roots in 19th century Eastern Europe, when the reform movement was gaining traction," says Abe Weiszberger, Adass Israel member.

"We wanted to maintain a strict adherence to Jewish law."

The real definition should be that their parents wanted strict adherence to how the Haredi communities see fit to raise their subjects, which is little better than how the Reform do theirs.

Dassi recalls that, when she went to the dentist in a neighbouring suburb, her parents made her close her eyes so she wouldn't see the immodest billboards along the way.

Adass men wear dark pantaloons, long black coats and fur-trimmed hats known as shtreimels. Married women cover their heads with wigs and scarves, wear sleeves to their wrists and are covered down to their ankles. Adass children live by strict religious rules from the moment they wake up to the second they fall asleep. Exposure to world events is so limited that, in September 2001, Dassi, Nicole and Elly had no idea there had been attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York until the following day.

For Adass girls, all roads lead to the official matchmaker and a future as "a perfect Jewish wife and mother". To that end, modesty is everything, even at home. Elly remembers they weren't allowed to walk around in pyjamas. "We had to cover up if we wanted to get out of bed to go to the kitchen to get a drink." The sisters never even saw each others' bodies. From the age of three, boys and girls are separated and girls are not allowed to speak to any male to whom they aren't related. For teenage Dassi, marriage was more important than school. In a speech that Dassi gave in December 2017, she recalled how she felt as a teen: "I just need to fill up my time until the matchmaker calls my parents with someone she feels may be a good husband for me. I don't really need VCE to get married and be a good religious wife and mother."

IMHO, the parents of these girls should be ashamed of themselves, ditto the gurus who overlorded and dictated this crap to them. Such insularity can and has ruined many a mind, and I'm sure the gurus know it.

I hope the Israeli authorities will hurry up and get the creep of a woman back to Australia to face justice Down Under. And the school should have its license revoked if they broke the law by aiding and abetting a fugitive. The victims themselves did the right thing to leave the insular lifestyle they had the misfortune of being raised under.

Labels: Australia, haredi corruption, Israel, misogyny, Moonbattery