Israeli authorities extradited a woman to Australia this week, where she faces 74 charges of rape and child sexual abuse. Malka Leifer reportedly committed the crimes while she was the director of a school for Jewish girls in Melbourne between 2004 and 2008.
“The victims are absolutely relieved and ecstatic to achieve their goal,” Manny Waks, CEO of VoiCSA, an organization based in Israel that is dedicated to combating child sexual abuse in the global Jewish community, told CBS News. Leifer’s victims. “But let’s not forget that this is just the beginning. Now their case really starts in Australia.”
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Leifer fought his extradition for six years. The 54-year-old’s defense team claimed that she was not healthy enough to withstand a trial. But last year, a panel of Israeli psychiatric experts determined that Leifer was lying, which triggered his extradition.
Leifer’s long legal battle included more than 70 court hearings, says Waks. But on Monday, local media showed her boarding a plane chained at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.
“His extradition sends a strong message of hope and encouragement to survivors around the world,” Shana Aaronson, executive director of Magen for Jewish Communities, an Israeli organization that tracks American pedophiles and works to bring them to justice, told CBS News. “I think it is so important that other victims see this and are motivated and inspired to fight for their own rights and justice.”
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Israel has become a haven for Jewish sex offenders around the world. AN CBS News investigation last year he discovered that the problem is widespread. Bringing what is wanted for men and women to justice can be difficult, as they often exploit a process called the Law of Return, by which any Jew can move to Israel and automatically obtain citizenship.
Since Aaronson started tracking accused pedophiles, she says more than 60 have fled the United States for Israel. She says that because her organization is small and has limited resources, the actual number is probably much larger.
“The same thing that is happening in the Catholic Church now worldwide, exactly the same thing is happening in our (Jewish) community,” Meyer Seewald, founder of Jewish Community Watch (JCW), an American organization that tracks pedophiles, said to CBS News during our investigation. “The cover-ups are the same, the stigma, the shame.”
Via Interpol
CBS News was there while JCW helped track down convicted pedophile Jimmy Julius Karow in Israel. He fled the United States after being accused of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl in Oregon. Once in Israel, he continued his abuse and in 2002 he was convicted of child sexual abuse. We were there when JCW confronted him with the Israeli police. In September, he pleaded guilty in an Israeli court and was convicted in other cases on multiple charges of rape, sodomy and indecent acts.
Karow is awaiting your sentence.
Months after the investigation was aired, Israel changed its procedures to require all Americans immigrating to the country to undergo an FBI background check.
But activists like Aaronson, Waks and Seewald say there is an endemic problem that helps these perpetrators to get help from within their communities to escape and escape justice.
“There was a mechanism behind this campaign to prevent Malka Leifer from being extradited to Australia,” said Waks. “What we saw in her case is a lot of veteran rabbis knocking her in place.”
Aaronson says that many difficult questions now need to be asked to ensure that this never happens again.
“How did she manage to manipulate the justice system on the grounds of mental illness? Did someone in a government role play a role in protecting her and, if so, what kind of transparency and oversight is needed to ensure that something like this never happens again?” told CBS News. “What can be done to streamline this process, so that victims do not have to wait so many years simply for the opportunity to face their attacker and leave this difficult chapter behind?”