Former Jewish School Principal Found Guilty of Sexual Assault in Australia

In a case that rocked the Jewish communities in Australia, Israel, and around the world, a former principal of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne, Malka Leifer, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two sisters. The victims, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper, had accused Leifer of raping and indecently assaulting them in a series of incidents between 2003 and 2007 when they were teenage students at the Adass Israel School, where she was head of religion and later principal. The judge cleared Leifer of nine other charges, including several relating to a third sister, Nicole Meyer. Leifer, who had fled to Israel in 2008 to avoid being arrested, pleaded not guilty to 27 charges. The judge will sentence her at a later date. The verdict came after a seven-week trial and a yearslong public campaign led by the sisters to extradite Leifer from Israel and bring her to justice. She was brought back to Australia in 2021 after a court in Israel determined that she had feigned mental illness in order to avoid extradition.