'There's a Hole in the System. Israel Became a Haven for Suspected Jewish Sex Offenders'
The case of Malka
Leifer, one of 65 suspected sexual offenders allegedly seeking refuge in
Israel, has highlighted how Israeli law and the insular world of the
ultra-Orthodox can at times shield them from justice, activists and
prison officials tell Haaretz
Y. grew up the 13th of 14
children in a Hasidic family where money and parental attention were in
short supply. He says that when he was 12, a rabbi who taught at his New
York state yeshiva sexually abused him.
The trauma he still
lives with began with the teacher buying him ice cream and later
invitations home for lunch — seeming kindnesses that, Y. alleges,
morphed into sexual abuse.
Years passed, but
when he was 27, Y. (Haaretz is in possession of his real name) says he
saw his alleged abuser again when he came to Y.’s father’s shivah.
Something snapped inside. Y., now 38, recalls feeling a surge of rage
and approaching the rabbi. “If I did not forget, you still remember,” he
recalls telling him.
When Y. then started
making his allegations known within the community, he says the rabbi
moved to Israel. Activists say the man eventually got a job in
Jerusalem, again teaching boys, until they made the accusations against
him public.
Also in New York
state, A., 29, alleges that an older cousin started abusing him when he
was 6 and the cousin was also a minor. The two were part of the Chabad
community and in 2013, A. won a U.S. lawsuit against his cousin, who was
ordered to pay him $3.5 million in damages. But A. says his alleged
abuser immigrated to Israel after the decision, aided by some of their
joint relatives and some members of the community, and the damages were
never paid.
“More than half of
my life has included dealing with the fallout from what this person did
to me,” A. tells Haaretz. “He never had to answer to anyone for the harm
he inflicted on me and was protected by our community and even by
members of my own immediate family. Despite this, and despite the
pressure that has been placed on me to just ‘move on,’ I took every step
possible to get justice and I’m proud of that decision — despite the
steep price I paid for it."
One of Israel’s foundational laws is the Law of Return,
which gives Jews the right to immigrate to Israel and become citizens —
unless they are deemed a danger to Israeli society, security or the
Jewish people. Israeli law, however, does not define what that means.
According to
advocates for victims of child sex abuse, it is the exploitation of this
law that has potentially made the country an unintentional haven for
Jewish alleged sex offenders who flee here.
This issue of Israel
becoming a haven, for those seeking citizenship or those who already
have it, has taken center stage with the high-profile case of Malka Leifer.
The headmistress of an ultra-Orthodox girls’ school in Melbourne fled
to Israel in 2008 after allegations surfaced of her sexually abusing
several of her female students. Leifer is facing possible extradition to
Australia on 74 counts of suspected sexual abuse, including indecent
assault of a minor and rape.
“The Law of Return
is basically why it’s so easy for people to come here,” says Shana
Aaronson, the chief operating officer of Jewish Community Watch — an
advocacy group for victims of child sexual abuse everywhere in the
Jewish world, with offices in the United States and Israel.
“There is certainly
more focus on whether or not the person is Jewish than there is on a
possible criminal record,” she charges, alleging that criminal
background checks run on individuals looking to immigrate are not as
thorough as they should be.
Interior Ministry
spokeswoman Sabine Haddad tells Haaretz that, in order to act, Israel is
reliant on information tipping it off about a potentially dangerous
applicant for immigration, such as an alert by an international
crime-fighting organization.
And if a convicted
sex offender manages to immigrate to Israel, officials say there is no
legal way for Israel to impose supervision — which would often be
mandatory if they were still living in their home country — unless they
are convicted of reoffending in Israel.
‘A hole in the system’
Jewish Community Watch says Leifer and Y.’s alleged abuser are among 65 people in the last decade, most of them either ultra-Orthodox or Orthodox Jews,
who they know fled to Israel. They were either already Israeli
citizens, began the immigration process here, or came and stayed here on
tourist visas. Though they say it is impossible to be precise about the
number of convicted or alleged child sex offenders seeking refuge in
Israel, they believe about half of those 65 faced criminal charges
concerning sexual abuse of children or have seen proceedings started
against them in their home countries. The other half have been accused
by alleged victims but not prosecuted.
However, the Jewish
Agency, which helps facilitate the aliyah process for many potential
immigrants, counters that its staff conducts what it calls “extensive
background research on applicants.” Every year, it says, cases are found
where some of the applicants have lied and their applications rejected,
although it could not say precisely how many were found to be lying in
any specific year.
The Israeli police do not keep data on such alleged child sex offenders, making it nearly impossible to verify their number.
Aaronson says that
of those alleged offenders who have faced criminal proceedings, some
have served time and others took plea deals that included parole time in
their home country or state — where they were supposed to be monitored
by local police under the terms of their probation.
It is illegal for
those on parole to leave their country of residence. Others, as a
condition of their release or plea deal, may have been ordered to be
registered on a sex offenders list. However, according to Aaronson, as
long as registered sex offenders provide a forwarding address, they are
legally allowed to move.
“The problem is the
forwarding address given in Israel in such cases is never accurate, in
my experience,” she says. “And the U.S. Registry is powerless to enforce
that in Israel, because it’s beyond its jurisdiction.”
When any such
individual is in Israel, the Israel Prison Service (which oversees
parolees) says there is no monitoring unless the person is convicted of a
crime in the Jewish state. “If the individual was never a prisoner in
our system, there is no supervision,” prison service spokesman Assaf
Librati tells Haaretz. “It’s a hole in the system — and it’s truly
problematic.”
1 comment:
The problem is the underlying thinking: the 614th mitzvah is to protect religious Jews from everyone else, but not to protect religious Jews from other religious Jews.
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