The fol­low­ing media state­ment con­cerns the lat­est rul­ing by Israeli author­i­ties con­cern­ing Mal­ka Leifer, for­mer prin­ci­pal of Melbourne’s Adass Israel School. To down­load this media release in PDF for­mat, click here.

MEDIA STATEMENT

31 Jan­u­ary 2017

ECAJ dismayed at latest Malka Leifer ruling

The Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry, the peak rep­re­sen­ta­tive body of the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty is pro­found­ly dis­ap­point­ed by the lat­est deci­sion by Israeli author­i­ties that Mal­ka Leifer is men­tal­ly unfit to face court hear­ings to deter­mine whether she should be extra­dit­ed to Aus­tralia to face 74 crim­i­nal charges of child sex­u­al abuse.
This deci­sion will cause fur­ther anguish to child sex­u­al abuse sur­vivors who have been demand­ing Ms Leifer’s extra­di­tion from Israel in their stead­fast quest for some mea­sure of jus­tice and clo­sure.
The ECAJ passed a res­o­lu­tion at its 2017 Annu­al Con­fer­ence which expressed “sol­i­dar­i­ty with all who may have suf­fered by rea­son of the con­duct of Mal­ka Leifer” and praised “the coura­geous activism of Das­si Erlich and oth­ers on behalf of all sur­vivors of child sex­u­al abuse.” We called for the extra­di­tion of Mal­ka Leifer with­out delay and we repeat that call at this time.
We will con­tin­ue to offer what­ev­er assis­tance we can pro­vide to Ms Erlich and oth­er sur­vivors of child sex­u­al abuse. We wish them con­tin­ued strength and deter­mi­na­tion in their right­eous strug­gle and hope that the Israeli author­i­ties will see sense to com­pel Mal­ka Leifer at long last to face jus­tice.
Con­tact:
Peter Wertheim AM | Exec­u­tive Direc­tor
ph: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904
e: pwertheim@ecaj.org.au | www.ecaj.org.au