In this series, we are discussing some past events of sinas chinam and most likely Chillul Hashem, as well, and bemoaning the fact that we can’t get them to go away. The most painful thing is that, in all three cases, the primary tool was a blanket distortion of Halacha displayed by people who claim to be the very guardians of Halacha.
The first example was the witch hunt against sincere and concerned people who question the safety and advisability of the new experimental vaccines. At the forefront of this witch hunt stands HRHG Asher Weiss, Shlita, who brought very flawed Halachic arguments to vouch for this dangerous vaccine. Details in my initial post (HERE).
The second example is the anticipated resurgence of a very irresponsible Kol Koreh which is meant to open the door to indiscriminate mesira. Sometimes these measures are called for but other times, or dare I say, most times, they are not called for, and they cause irreversible needless damage. It is driven by a distortion of the mitzvah of לא תעמוד על דם רעיך and misquoting the teshuvos of past Gedolim. This monstrosity is spearheaded by Harav Shmuel Fuerst and has the blessings of quite a few other distinguished people such as Rav Yitzchok Breitowitz, Rav Yitzchok Berkowitz, and Rav Doniel Neustadt. All the links to the halachic rebuttals can be found in my previous post (HERE).
We now arrive at the third and most serious fountain of perpetual sinas chinam that just keeps on flowing. This is the Malka Leifer episode.
For those who are not familiar with the episode, I refer you to the relevant post in my discussion of the Four Horsemen (HERE). This was Horseman number 3. This post is very comprehensive and contains a timeline of events as well as a list of all the halachic conundrums that are involved in this case. In addition, it also spells out some of the prime targets of the Sapper sisters’ sinas chinam campaign. I listed some of these targets as follows:
On the other side of the aisle, people who stood up for due process of law, for basic compassion, and for the kavod of Torah and Halacha and kedushas Eretz Yisrael, and who were basically doing their moral and civic duties, were publicly defamed and maligned. This includes Mrs. Leifer’s legal team, Rav Yitzchak Grossman, Rav Mendel Shafran, Rav Yaakov Litzman and even yours truly.
Okay, this goes back to Sept. 2022.
The saga finally came to a conclusion in April 2023 when the Australian court convicted Mrs. Leifer on 18 out of 74 90 29 27 counts. Finally, in August of 2023, the sentence was announced. 15 years minus 5.6 years for time served with a possibility for parole after about another 6 years.
Hooray! Now we can all go home (except for Mrs. Leifer) and forget about this whole mess. The poor “victims” need to heal. If nothing else, these “victims” (i.e., accusers) can at least become civilized and stand back from all the motzi shem rah and sinas chinam they have been generating for years. It is no longer relevant.
Once again, wishful thinking. As they say, one cannot have a dialogue with these people.
As we know, Dassi Ehrlich had to come out with her devious and dishonest book in early 2024. As I described in a full series of posts, the book was built on theatrics, half-truths, hypocrisy, misrepresentation of facts, some blatant lies (e.g. that the Adass community supported Malka Leifer and that the women who heard the rumors took no action), plenty of sinas chinam and just as much chillul Hashem.
The question persists: Was the book really done for altruistic reasons, i.e., to help fight against child sexual abuse, or was it done primarily for the fame and fortune that the girls crave for?
I analyzed this question in my post about Winners and Losers. My conclusions were that the book is really more about mental illness and personality disorders than it is about sexual abuse. As such, it is not very likely to have much impact on the subject. Its main accomplishment is to lionize Dassi Ehrlich and to demonize the Adass community and her critics.
For us observant Jews, this is nothing to celebrate.
Sadly, I cannot expect better from Dassi Ehrlich or Ellie Sapper. They both abandoned Judaism. As such, where there is no yiras shamayim, there are no boundaries. As for Nicole Meyer who pretends to be observant, I can try to be dan l’kaf zechus that she was merely an [un]willing accomplice to the book. The general impression I get is that Dassi was the main ringleader to this entire debacle and the other two sisters were beguiled by her vengeful energy.
But, okay, Dassi was working on this book for quite a long time, so she had to see it through to the end. It’s hard to shelve a project even if it’s damaging. But now, once she got it out of her system, do we need even more of this sinas chinam and chillul Hashem?
I guess we do.
As in many works of fiction, it seems like someone bought the movie rights and turned the book into a motion picture. That “someone” is Stan Streaming. This is an Australian online streaming service for movies, online TV, sport events and documentaries. This is the same assortment of garbage from all ratings levels that you get on modern airplane monitors.
Stan is apparently the fourth biggest such trash provider in Australia. It is a subscription-based service like Netflix. Unlike many of these, it does not even offer a 7-day free trial period.
To somebody like me, this would not make a difference. Stan streaming is geo-blocked. This means that you can only see their content if you actually live in Australia. It won’t work anywhere else, unless one uses the common VPN trick to access an Australian server. My Rimon filter does not allow VPNs.
Stan uses a common title opener for their string of documentaries which is “Revealed”. Hence, in October 2025, they released a “documentary” about the Malka Leifer affair named, “Revealed: Surviving Malka Leifer.” It is only available on Stan. Hence, it is only available in Australia. I cannot get to it even if I was foolish enough to pay for a subscription. The most I can access is a 1.5-minute-long trailer clip on YouTube. You can see it HERE.
So, what does this say to us (or, what does it say to me)?
This says that this “documentary” is not intended for the Jewish community. Certainly not the world-wide Jewish community. It is not available on any public forum, nor anywhere outside of Australia, so all the rhetoric about raising awareness of sexual abuse and how victims should speak out and fight for justice is all hot air. It is not meant to reach any genuine active or potential victims, especially Jewish ones.
It is intended for the entertainment of the largely anti-semitic Australian public who are willing to pay for it. More immigrant Islamic r^pists will watch it than will law-abiding Jews. The Sapper sisters are pursuing fame and fortune, not “justice” and deterrence.
As for the trailer itself, there are three things that it tells me. One is that the documentary is going to have at least as much motzi shem rah and sinas chinam as the book. Secondly, that Nicole Meyer, the “observant” one, is a key player in this venture. I can’t be dan l’kaf zechus anymore. The third, I will mention in a few more paragraphs.
I assume that this documentary is a lot like the book and there is not a whole lot new that I would learn from it. I still want to see it. Why?
I want to check out if this is a “journalistic” documentary or a “propagandist” documentary.
What is the difference?
A journalistic documentary is meant to convey facts without being slanted. If the subject is controversial, the documentary at least makes an attempt to get the perspective of both sides. If there are opponents and critics to an issue, the opponents are given the opportunity to make their case. Even if they don’t get “equal time” they get some time. If nothing else, there needs to be some measure of pushback against the claims of the protagonists. This is called balanced reporting.
A propogandist documentary is blatantly one-sided. No attempt is made to contact those being maligned for any kind of balance. All the protagonists’ claims go unchallenged. It is intended to sway peoples’ opinions.
The book In Bad Faith was Dassi’s personal project. It reflects her own sentiments, so there is no reason to expect any kind of balance. But this documentary is produced by an independent producer, one Adam Kamien. It’s his second major work. The first one dealt with an isolated event that occurred 45 years earlier, so it does not have any propaganda value. Can we say the same now?
Firstly, I can say this. It is certain that the documentary has choice things to say about Mrs. Leifer, her legal counsel, Adass community members and Rabbi Litzman. It’s also a safe bet that if Mrs. Leifer, her lawyers, or Rabbi Litzman were contacted for a statement, that they would decline to respond. Still, you can never know for sure, so it deserves a try. Regardless, I know one thing for certain. In terms of uninvolved analysts of the episode, there is nobody more critical and outspoken than I am. And nobody attempted to contact me for any perspective.
The sad truth is, I don’t need to guess the answer to my question. This is the third thing that I was able to see from the 1.5-minute trailer. And it comes out of the mouth of none other than Nicole Meyer. But, since it deserves a hard look, it is too much to elaborate in this post. It will have to wait for a future post.
You may ask, how do I even know about this documentary?
The answer is that, for this documentary which is only accessible to the non-Jews and secular folks in Australia, Nicole Meyer, the “observant” one, had to fly all the way to New York to promote it. She arranged a presentation in a popular shul in Monsey sponsored by Zvi Gluck and the Amudim organization. The name of the shul is Beis Medrash Ohr Chaim and it is presided by Rabbi Daniel Coren, Shlita.
Interestingly, Rabbi Coren is a signatory on the ill-conceived Kol Koreh that I wrote about in my previous post. In his brief contribution to the presentation about the 1:23:00 mark, he totally contradicts its message. Go figure.
Anyhow, the event took place on March 8, 2026, which is close to three months ago. The entire event was videoed and posted onto YouTube. It lasts 1 hour and 52 minutes. You can see it HERE.
I don’t remember if I stumbled on it or if it was sent to me. Regardless, since I follow All Things Leifer, I viewed the whole thing and even took notes. The fact that it was misrepresented as some kind of a Torah-diga endeavor was appalling. It was just another one-sided firing squad of more lies, motzi shem rah, and sinas chinam.
I plan to elaborate on this in the upcoming posts.
I explained in countless previous posts exactly why the Sapper sisters as well as any of their supporters are guilty of mesira l’mehadrin and gonev ish u’mecharo. The supporters may all be passive participants, but the Sapper sisters and some others carried out these capital offenses with their very hands, hearts, and souls. And it doesn’t matter how much the ladies were truly molested by Mrs. Leifer until 2006 (if at all). Any Jew who sincerely considers himself a shomer Torah u’mitzvos will agree with me.
This applies to Nicole (Nechama) Sapper Meyer, no matter how holy a sheitel she wears and how tzniusdig are her clothes. She saw everything I wrote since 2016 and she always knew that it is all forbidden. She has never claimed to have asked any recognized posek whether, in her case, it is permitted to report a Jew living in Israel to Australian authorities and to actively facilitate an extradition of a Jew away from Eretz Yisrael. No recognized posek has ever sanctioned it and she has not named one. She cannot claim, “I didn’t know it’s forbidden” or “a Beis Din heard the case and ruled she should be extradited”.
As such, there is no justification to give a moser and gonev nefesh any kind of platform whatsoever in any Jewish setting. And certainly not to help proliferate all the lies, motzi shem rah, sinas chinam, chillul Hashem, and the actual blood libels that she is telling the sonei Yisrael. Anybody who does so is obviously a supporter of these horrendous capital crimes.
Regrettably, this includes Kol Koreh supporter Rabbi Daniel Coren and, even more regrettably, Amudim Director Rabbi Zvi Gluck. I sent both of them emails detailing what the problem is and what the sinas chinam is and implored them to cut it out. Nobody responded.
One cannot have a dialogue with these people.
Until this event, I thought a lot higher of Rabbi Gluck. I thought he was different than all those other, self-righteous, fanatical CSA advocates. I thought he used his head instead of his emotions. It pains me to see him prove he has fallen to the same sitra achara as the rest of them.
Those emails were not sent in confidence. I want to review them in the coming posts.
I still haven’t seen the “documentary” and don’t think I ever will. About a month ago, I sent an email to all three Sapper sisters asking them if there is any way I can actually see the documentary, preferably without having to pay for it. I was surprised that one of the ladies (not telling which one) actually responded to my inquiry. She wrote:
Are you actually joking?
My response:
Yes, I really want to see it. Preferably without having to pay for the privilege.
Why do you doubt me? I read Dassi's book cover to cover, didn't I? (I paid for that.)
What have I ever joked about (besides some well-placed wisecracks)??
I haven’t heard from any of them since.
To close this post, I want to reprint the Storyline blurb from one of the hosting sites.
[Surviving] Malka Leifer explores a harrowing abuse scandal in Melbourne. Sisters Nicole, Dassi and Elly grew up adhering to the structures of their ultra-orthodox Jewish community. Isolated from the evils of the world around them, their fate is predetermined: arranged marriage, children, homemaking. In 2008, allegations surface that the three sisters were abused by their headmistress Malka Leifer. With a public relations disaster on their hands, members of the local community allegedly help Leifer flee, with her boarding a plane to Israel with three of her eight children in the dead of night. For the sisters, the escape sets in motion a decade of anger, frustration, and determination to bring Leifer back to face her crimes. When they are finally successful, having stared down pressure from their community, political corruption and endless legal manoeuvring, the question is: at what price?
I have been asking this very question since 2016.
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