A correspondent tells me that Malka Leifer, the principal of the Adass Yisroel girls high school in Melbourne, Australia, is…
…married to a Gerrer hasid. (I have not confirmed this yet.)
The correspondent, very familiar with the haredi world, emphasized that the various Gerrer rebbes, including the current one, it seems, strongly urge their students to "stay away" from their wives.
Details on Gerrer sexual practices.
Is this a variant of the old cruel to the kind, kind to the cruel reaction pattern? If you make sex evil and urge your students to abstain from it, does that emphasis push some students (and their wives) over the edge?
It is interesting to note that three of the four most notorious haredi pedophiles are Gerrer hasidim: Avrohom Mondrowitz, Leizerovitz, and Malka Leifer. And all three fled arrest to seek refuge in Israel, to be protected, it seems, by the politically powerful Gerrer rebbe.
Insane sexual strictures do not cause pedophilia. And haredi pedophilia is by no means confined to Ger.
But, still, the link between Ger and so many pedophiles raises questions – questions that should be answered.