The Case of Malka Leifer, Ner Israel, The Weinberg Family and Bnei Brak
Malka LeiferFrom The Awareness Center's Daily Newsletter
Also see the case of School Principal - Malka LeiferPolice: Bnei Brak has by far the highest rate of sexual offenses
Please note that it was learned that the case of Malka Leifer has connections to Ner Israel and the Weinberg Family. More information to follow soon.
By Roni Singer-Heruti
Haaretz
March 31, 2008
Police investigating suspicions that a sex predator is wandering about in Bnei Brak said Sunday that they believe there are more cases of sex-related crimes in that city than in any other locale in Israel.
"The number of sex offenses in the Bnei Brak area is higher than any other city by tens of percentage points, and it is clear to us that we do not know about many cases that are not even reported because of the well-known fact that in the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, there is great reluctance about reporting such incidents," a senior police officer in the Tel Aviv District said.
The Dan Region police received reports of 10 sexual assaults of girls in recent months. Two cases involved rape; the rest were instances either of attempted rape or indecent assault. In all cases the girls, aged approximately 12, gave a similar description of their assailant, who they said wore the garb of a specific Haredi community, and used the same modus operandi in his assaults. The suspect followed his victims and then attacked them in the yard or the lobby of a residential building.
However, police are also exploring the possibility that more than one assailant is involved.
In recent months the police have been tightening their relations with rabbis in Bnei Brak as a way of countering the attacks. According to police sources, the cooperation has often been successful and the rabbis have encouraged parents to complain about sexual assaults perpetrated on their children.
"Contrary to the past there is greater trust in the police [among the Haredi community] and less shame in filing a complaint. We recognize these phenomena that occur occasionally, and recently there have been many publications in the city, which have warned children about sexual predators," a senior public figure from Bnei Brak told Haaretz Sunday.
"Now the approach tends to be inclined toward involving the police as soon as possible after we learn that the attack has taken place. More than ever there are reports in various places, especially in schools and in letters to the parents, warning against the phenomena that threaten the children," the local source added.
He explained that there are mediators whose role is to liaise between the families and the police.
However, police sources still say that "the number of complaints that are filed is far from being high," adding that they are aware that in reality, there are many more instances of sexual assault which police only learn about through their intelligence sources.
The information is often received from "messengers" who are members of the religious courts of individual rabbis, and who disseminate rumors, recommending that the police investigate them.
A week ago, a 33-year-old resident of Lod was arrested in Bnei Brak on suspicion of sexually assaulting a teenager who returned home late one night. The suspect, who has been indicted, followed the teen and her friend, and assaulted one of them. As they fled, he chased one of them and attacked her in the lobby of the building where she lived. Her father and brother heard her screams and came to her aid, and the assailant was arrested.
Police say that "this is a widespread phenomenon and children are harmed by it. The problem is that this is a closed community where it is not customary to report such cases. Thus sexual assailants, and other kinds of criminals, know they can operate without fear in Bnei Brak, and know that the chances that complaints will be filed against them is minimal."
Nonetheless, police stressed that "the community in Bnei Brak knows the situation a lot better than us."
posted by Jewish Survivors at Sunday, March 30, 2008
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The London Jewish Chronicle has confirmed that Malka Leifer is hiding at her parents house in Bnei Brak.
Head flees over school scandal
London Jewish Chronicle
19/03/2008
by Dan Goldberg Sydney
http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?AId=58901&ATypeId=1&search=true2&srchstr=Malka%20leifer&srchtxt=1&srchhead=1&srchauthor=1&srchsandp=1&scsrch=0
An Israeli principal at the centre of an alleged lesbian sex scandal at a strictly Orthodox girls’ school in Melbourne has fled the country amid allegations of molestation.
Malka Leifer, head of the Adass Israel Girls’ School for five years, flew home on March 5 — less than 24 hours after the school board confronted her with allegations of sexual misconduct.
She denied any wrongdoing, according to Binyomin Koppel, the president of the Adass Israel community.
At least three alleged victims are believed to have come forward to counsellors. The JC understands that they are recent graduates who became teachers at the school.
Mrs Leifer, who is in her late 40s and has eight children, is believed to have gone into hiding at her parents’ home in Bnei Brak.
The school has engaged a number of psychologists to counsel the 250 students, as well their parents, former students and staff.
It is also alleged that, before fleeing, Mrs Leifer borrowed up to $A100,000 (£46,000) from Adass members who were unaware of the scandal.
The school’s spokesman, Norman Rosenbaum, said he knew nothing about that allegation. But he strenuously denied any inference that the school paid for Mrs Leifer to flee.
The school had acted “responsibly and expeditiously”, he said.
“The school’s first priority is the welfare and safety of all persons affected by her. The mere allegation [of sexual misconduct] has gone to the very core of the Torah principles, ethos and practices of that whole community,” Mr Rosenbaum said. “It is devastating. This has shattered people.”
Raizl Fogel, an Adass member whose daughters have graduated from the school, said she was devastated.
“I was totally blinded by it. People are up in arms about it. It’s havoc in our community.”
Since the story broke in last week’s Australian Jewish News, it has been seized upon by the mainstream media. “Principal ‘molested schoolgirls’,” screamed the front-page headline in The Age newspaper in Melbourne last Friday. “Fury over girls’ school sex claims,” thundered The Australian on Saturday.
Mrs Leifer was told on March 4 that she would be suspended pending a full investigation. According to Mr Rosenbaum, she denied the allegations but said she “may as well resign”.
Victoria Police were aware of the allegations but would neither confirm nor deny whether any girls had reported claims against Mrs Leifer or whether a police investigation was underway. A spokesman said all information about the case was suppressed under the Children and Young Persons Act.
The Adass Israel is a tight-knit community of about 1,200 strictly Orthodox Jews who speak Yiddish. They tend to marry within their own community, and have little contact with the outside world.
Arrested for ‘child abuse’, the veiled queen of modesty
by Anshel Pfeffer
London Jewish Chronicle
http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11&SecId=11&AId=59044&ATypeId=1
28/03/2008
Jerusalem--A mother-of-twelve belonging to a small strictly Orthodox sect was arrested on Tuesday in Bet Shemesh, on the suspicion that she had not reported cases of sibling incest, had beaten her children and prevented them from receiving medical treatment.
The 54-year old woman, whose name has not been published, was arrested following numerous complaints by neighbours and reports of children screaming within the house — and at least one case in which a young child was forced to spend the night outside the house wearing only a vest. When brought before the court, the mother denied the charges but said that she believed in beatings as an “educational punishment”. The woman refused to speak to the judge, saying that her beliefs forbade her to speak to men.
The woman, covered from head to toe in shawls and cloaks, was reported to be Rabbanit Bruria Keren, the leader of a small female sect practising an extreme version of the religious strictures of tzniut (modesty). Last month, the JC reported how this group of women believed in obscuring the shape of their bodies, covering their faces and having no contact with a man not their husband, practices frowned on by most Charedi rabbis.
According to police, most of the children had already left home, including at least one removed by the social services. Only a boy of 16 and an eight-year-old girl lived permanently at home. This week, they were also taken into care.
During the investigation, the boy allegedly told police that he had had sexual relations with one of his older sisters and tried to do the same with his younger sister. Police suspect that the mother knew but refrained from notifying authorities. At the court, she said that she was being persecuted for her religious beliefs.
People who know the family say that the mother was the dominant figure, with the father working mostly outside Israel as a fundraiser for religious organisations. On Wednesday he returned to Israel and was detained at Ben Gurion Airport for questioning.
You Can't Make this Stuff Up
Adass Yisroel is where Malka Leifer plied her trade.
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/107669.html
Published: 03/23/2008
Police are investigating an alleged assault at a kosher bakery in Melbourne.
Emma Forovski, an 84-year-old grandmother, was hospitalized last Wednesday with a fractured nose after she allegedly was kicked by a staff member at the Haymishe Bakery in Melbourne’s heavily Jewish Balaclava neighborhood. The dispute apparently began over the freshness of a cake that Forovski wanted to buy.
Forovski, a Russian immigrant, told Sky News, “She pushed me and then kicked me and I fell [and] there was blood.”
But the owner of the bakery, which is under the supervision of the fervently Orthodox Adass Israel community, has strenuously denied the allegations.
Eva Weisner told 3AW local radio that Forovski, who was with her 90-year-old husband, had racially abused staff.
“An old Russian lady came into the shop, bought a cake and then started yelling at the serving ladies, saying ‘You are a dirty Jew’ and ‘You should die today.’ ”
But Forovski, who is also Jewish, denied that she had racially abused staff.
Raizl Fogel, a spokeswoman for the bakery, said the incident was unfortunate.
"We wish her well," she said, "but we’ve always prided ourselves on excellent service.”
http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11s18&SecId=18&AId=58562&ATypeId=1
Kosher bakery owner jailed after feeding wife pills to kill unborn child
07/03/2008
By Dana Gloger
The owner of two London kosher bakeries and a kosher restaurant has been jailed for putting abortion pills into his wife’s breakfast.
Gil Magira, 36, from Hendon, North-West London, pleaded guilty to using an instrument to procure a miscarriage and was sentenced to three years and nine months at London’s Old Bailey last Friday. He has already served nine months, which will be discounted from his sentence.
It is thought to be the first offence of this type to be prosecuted since the Abortion Act came into force almost 40 years ago.
Magira, the Israeli owner of the Bonjour bakeries in Hendon and Stanmore and the Lemonade restaurant in Hendon, had a phobia of becoming a father.
On finding out that his wife Anat Abraham, 39, was pregnant in 2006, he begged her to have an abortion. When she refused, he bought abortion-inducing drugs over the internet.
In February last year, he crushed the pills into a sandwich that he made Ms Abraham for her breakfast.
Shortly afterwards, she began to experience stomach pains and asked Magira to take her to hospital.
A doctor confirmed that she was not miscarrying, but the next morning Magira put the remains of the drugs into her breakfast cereal. He said that he feared that if he did not follow the instructions and use all of the pills, then the foetus might become deformed.
Three days later, Magira confessed his actions to psychologist Limor Abramov, who encouraged him to tell his wife what he had done.
Simon Mayo, prosecuting, said when Ms Abraham found out about the drugs, she finished the relationship and “was concerned for her own safety and that of her unborn child”.
Magira attempted suicide in May last year by taking an overdose of tranquillisers.
Despite her husband’s attempts, Ms Abraham gave birth prematurely to their son Matan on May 20 last year.
In a victim-impact statement, she said: “When I found out Gil had poisoned me I was in deep shock. I realised I had lived with a person for 10 years that I didn’t really know. The way it was done was inhuman.”
Defence counsel Jonathan Goldberg QC spent over two hours unsuccessfully trying to persuade the judge to pass either a community penalty or a suspended prison sentence.
He told the court that the relationship between Magira and his wife was “plainly truly destructive” and that he was frightened of her.
“She was more of a mother to him than a wife. She was the dominant personality. Certain Israeli women can be a tough breed,” he said. He explained that when the couple married in 1999, they agreed not to have children. Ms Abraham already had a 14-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.
But prosecutor Mr Mayo said that Magira had in fact agreed to have a child with his wife.
The defence argued that, since the birth of his son, Magira had accepted it and was “deeply ashamed of what he did.
“He now says he wants to play a part in his son’s life. He is ashamed of the scandal it has brought his religious family in Israel. He knows what he has done was wrong and that he has sinned against his own religious law and the criminal law,” Mr Goldberg said.
Sentencing, Judge Oliver Sells said that the maximum sentence for the offence was life. “This case merits a sentence of immediate imprisonment,” he said.
The three shops owned by Magira are now being run by Ms Abraham.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2008/03/12/4978131-sun.html
By ANDREW HANON, SUN MEDIA
Rape, humiliation, vicious beatings and even abortions are among the accusations in a lawsuit against the province on behalf of former students at Edmonton's Alberta School for the Deaf.
One house parent picked on him "because he was the only Jewish deaf boy in the school. He told Parker that Jewish was 'stupid.' "
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/03/05/0305epstein.html
She was MY principal, I left the school before she was uncovered, i am sill a high school student and I am shocked. I cried endless nights. I thought I could trust her, she was like our second mother. i guess I was wrong. i guess everyone was wrong.
When ‘dayanim’ and ‘rabbis’ use the Torah for their own power and commercial profit, this is the behaviour of a swine i.e. a Pig.
No other ‘rabbi’ will ever act against another ‘rabbi’ - even when he knows his colleague is clearly desecrating the Torah. Each rabbi is only worried about losing his own position.
Therefore, the ‘rabbi’ and ‘dayan’ will never effect justice. And he will never truly stand for the Torah or the Honour of Hashem. His pocket will always prevail.
The Torah must never be used for commercial gain and profit. Am Yisrael can only be lead by those who have the necessary love and respect of Hashem and the Torah.
1. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may use lies. They turn the innocent into the guilty, and the guilty, become the innocent. They will not hesitate to tell lies in the Synagogue.
2. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may steal. They steal and siphon off money for themselves, from the community and individuals.
3. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may shame a Jew in public, even repeatedly. This is one of the most vile acts of murder in Jewish law – and they know this.
4. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ will not hesitate to use Lashon Hara - the ‘Evil Tongue’ - to suit his own ends. Slander and gossip. This too, is one of the worst acts of murder in Jewish Law. Their slander is never challenged by the community, because they hold positions of power. And the slander may begin with the Rebbetzin herself.
5. The ‘dayanim’ and ‘rabbis’ worship idols and other gods. Their only god is Money. Especially the ‘Dayanim’ – the ‘Judges’ who sit on a Beit Din. They only care about their high incomes and retirement packages. They have little or no love for the Torah or Hashem.
In the case of Lubavitch/Chabad, all their rabbis are carrying out a form of Avodah Zarah – strange worship. They are using mediation and intercession. This is completely forbidden, and against the Torah. We are only allowed to pray to Hashem, directly ourselves.
6. When the NAME of Hashem has been taken in Vain – repeatedly - by reshaim, the ‘rabbi’ will turn a deaf ear and blind eye to the
CHILLUL HASHEM.
This is the abhorrent behaviour of a Pig.
This is an extremely severe and dangerous situation.
There is NO forgiveness for this evil sin and aveirah.
7. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may also offer large bribes, tell lies and bring False Witnesses – when he in fact has committed the crime. These are heinous acts of the most despicable kind. This is especially vile when the ‘dayan’ is sitting on a ‘Beit Din.’
8. The ‘rabbi’ may commit adultery. And when he gets divorced, he may spread slander about his own ex-wife, blackening her name – when in fact he was at fault.
9. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may also desecrate Shabbat – if it suits him. He will use physical violence to assault another Jew or Jewess at any time. This evil and venomous behaviour is 100% against the Torah.
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