AUSTRALIA
The Age
[with video]
April 22, 2016
Beau Donelly
Melbourne’s most secretive Jewish sect, the ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel community, has opened its doors to the public for the first time.
Made up of about 200 families who live over a square kilometre block in Ripponlea, the conservative religious group honours ancient rituals dating back to biblical times and follows the strictest interpretation of the commandments in the Torah.
The men wear mink fur hats and black silk coats. Women cover their hair in public. Boys and girls are segregated from kindergarten. Arranged marriages are common. Children in some families number in the teens. During the Sabbath, they refrain from using electricity – no phones, cars, lights. They don’t own televisions. Most shun the internet. …
The documentary briefly touches on the child sex-abuse scandal that has in recent years plagued the ultra-orthodox community’s reputation.
A court last year ordered the Adass Israel Girls School in Elsternwick to pay more than $1 million to a woman abused by former principal Malka Leifer, who fled overseas with the help of school authorities after allegations against her first surfaced.
In the film, retired importer and Adass elder Shlomo Abeles defends the community’s handling of the Leifer case, saying she was removed “the second we found out about it”.
“Whatever way we got rid of her, it’s correct or not so correct, but we got her away from the kids,” he said. “We didn’t want her in the community trying to abuse any more kids.”
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