AUSTRALIA
The Australian Jewish News
Adass Israel teacher Malka Leifer was employed by the Adass congregation, not its school, its barrister said today, in closing arguments in a lawsuit before the Supreme Court of Victoria.
The Israeli educator, who has been back in Israel since 2008, is fighting extradition to Australia to face criminal charges over her alleged sexual abuse of several Adass students.
The ultra-Orthodox Adass school in Melbourne is fighting the lawsuit against it by a former student who claimed the sexual abuse she suffered had marred her life.
The court has heard evidence of Leifer’s alleged sex abuse, and how she was rushed back to Israel after the allegations were presented to an emergency meeting of the Adass board in March 2008.
Counsel for Adass, Christopher Blanden SC, argued to the court today that the Adass school provided a general education and Leifer had been hired in 2000 by the congregation to provide a separate Jewish education, so the school was not liable for her alleged offences.
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