Former head of Adass Israel School board defended sending sex offender Leifer overseas without informing police

The Adass Israel School board acted “as any normal person would act” in helping sex offender Malka Leifer flee Australia, the board’s former president once said.

Victoria Police have reopened the investigation into the actions of board members of an ultra-orthodox Melbourne school and others who helped Malka Leifer fly to Israel in the middle of the night in March 2008. Picture: Ynet News

The Adass Israel School board acted “as any normal person would act” in helping sex offender Malka Leifer flee Australia, the board’s former president once said.

Victoria Police have reopened the investigation into the actions of the board members of the ultra-orthodox Melbourne school and others who helped Leifer fly to Israel in the middle of the night in March 2008 after learning of sexual abuse allegations involving her students.

Yitzhak Benedikt, then school board president, was part of a small group who a court said hastily arranged Leifer’s departure at a meeting on March 5, 2008.

Mr Benedikt met with then school board member Meir Ernst, the late ­barrister Norman Rosenbaum, psychologist Vicki Gordon and a teacher, Sharon Bromberg.

After hearing of multiple sex allegations against the school principal, the group called her to say she had been stood down and then arranged for her to catch a flight at 1.20am that night to Israel. Mr Ernst told a court in 2016 that the decisions taken that night were “collective”.

The group did not inform Victoria Police of the allegations. Their behaviour, described in 2016 by Victorian Supreme Court judge Jack Rush as “deplorable”, allowed Leifer to escape Australian courts for 15 years.

But in late-2016, when The Australian interviewed Mr Benedikt, he strongly defended the decision to help Leifer flee the country despite a count finding that he was aware of at least eight separate allegations of sexual misconduct against her.

“We have acted as any normal person would act, we have responsibilities for our children and for our community,” Mr Benedikt said.

“We could not allow a teacher like that to stay anywhere near the children. Don’t you agree with me that the best thing is that they don’t have any more to do with the children?”

But when Mr Benedikt was asked again in 2021 about his role in helping Leifer flee Australia he claimed “I don’t remember anything”, adding that he had suffered a stroke.

Another member of the group that arranged Leifer’s departure, former school board member Mr Ernst, told the court in 2016 there was a need to stand Leifer down “as quick as possible”.

Malka Leifer in 2006.

After the meeting Mr Ernst’s wife, Dassi Ernst, asked a local travel agent to open her shop at 10pm and to book an “urgent” plane ticket to Israel for Leifer. Less than four hours later, Leifer and four of her children flew to Israel. The school paid for her ticket.

“The conduct of the board is deserving of this court’s disapprobation and denunciation. I have no doubt that the conduct was deliberate,” Justice Rush said in his 2016 judgment in a civil case against the school.

“The conduct of Messrs Benedikt and Ernst on behalf of the board in facilitating the urgent departure of Leifer was likely motivated by a desire to conceal her wrongdoing and confine and isolate the conduct and its consequences to within the Adass community.”

Victoria Police last week backflipped and decided to reopen the investigation into Leifer’s departure, despite earlier ruling it out on the grounds of insufficient ­evidence. The move came after a fiery letter to Chief Commissioner Shane Patton from former premier Ted Bailleu, saying there had been “enormous disappointment across the community” by the police decision not to pursue the case.

“If a person or persons sought to pervert the course of justice, ­ignored previous allegations of sexual abuse, ignored mandatory reporting obligations, prolonged the suffering of victims by 10 years-plus, cost Victorian taxpayers millions of dollars … funded the escape of a serial sex offender and sought to cover up serious crimes, Victorians would at the very least expect a full and thorough Police Investigation,’ the letter, written by Mr Bailleu and former Victoria trade minister Philip Dalidakis, said.

Malka Leifer, a former Australian teacher accused of dozens of cases of sexual abuse of girls at a school, arrives for a hearing at the District Court in Jerusalem. Picture: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP

The move to reopen the investigation was welcomed by one of Leifer’s victims, Dassi Erlich, who said: “It’s crucial that the board’s role is thoroughly examined and addressed to send a clear message to those that aid and abet perpetrators will not escape scrutiny.”

Ms Bromberg declined to comment, while Ms Gordon did not return messages from The Australian, and attempts to contact Mr Benedikt and Mr Ernst were unsuccessful.

In April, Leifer was found guilty of sexually assaulting Ms Erlich and her sister Elly Sapper in a trial, which had been delayed for more than a decade as the government and the sisters fought to have Leifer extradited from Israel to Melbourne to face trial.