The Adass community in Melbourne is made up of about 250 families. They’re an ultra-Orthodox exclusive and insular group, who don’t generally mix with the wider public or even other Jewish communities.

There’s no TV, radio, internet, or newspaper. They don’t allow anything that can bring in influence from the outside world, and young women are taught to remain modest so they remain ‘pure’ for marriage. Words like ‘sex’ and ‘romance’ aren’t even in their vocabulary.

Dassi Erlich and her sisters, Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper, grew up in that community.

WATCH: The sisters appeared on Australian Story in 2018. Post continues after video.

“My understanding of sex aged 16, 17 and 18 was that of a four or five-year-old,” Dassi told  Fairfax Media in 2017.

The girls came from an abusive home, one where they lived in constant fear.

They all attended the community’s all-girls Adass Israel School. They were allowed to read books, but large parts of the text were blacked out.

“We couldn’t even have an understanding about what a relationship between a man and woman is,” explained Dassi.

When Dassi was in Year 8, Malka Leifer became the new school principal. Her husband was a rabbi, and as a result, she was a highly-esteemed member of the community, someone everyone respected and looked up to. The couple had eight children together.

The sisters trusted her, and eventually opened up to her about their home situation, telling her how scared they were of their mother and her punishments. She became a confidant and a friend.

Leifer began inviting Dassi over to her house, and into her office with the blinds closed. She would beg Dassi to reveal her most private thoughts. Sexual abuse allegedly followed. Little did a 15-year-old Dassi know her sisters were allegedly experiencing similar things.

Elly and Nicole also report that the instances of abuse occurred when they were teenagers, aged about 16 and 17 years old.

The sisters allege 74 charges of rape and child abuse in total, perpetrated by Leifer during their teenage years. Dassi told Fairfax she personally knows of eight other alleged victims, and believes there are up to 15.

In 2008, Dassi admitted to a social worker in Israel, where she was living at the time with her new husband, that she'd been abused.

As soon as the allegations started to emerge, the school bought Leifer plane tickets and flew her and her family to Israel, where she has remained ever since.

Dassi and her sisters formally pressed charges in 2011, a decision which forced them out of a community in which they would now be perceived as 'traitors'.

In 2017, Dassi started a campaign to bring awareness to the fact her former principal was continuing to avoid extradition courts in Israel, by claiming mental illness.

"[She is] living an unrestricted life in a community similar to the one I grew up," she told Fairfax at the time.

The three sisters have met with politicians, rape crisis centres, and Jewish organisations, over the years, attempting to rally support.

Using the hashtag #bringleiferback, Dassi has never stopped campaigning, while also pursuing a career in nursing and raising her daughter.

In February 2018, Leifer was arrested in Israel, accused of faking mental illness for three years in order to avoid extradition to Australia. She has remained in prison ever since, awaiting a decision on extradition.

In May 2020, the Jerusalem District Court accepted a unanimous decision by a psychiatric panel that 53-year-old Leifer is fit to face an extradition trial.

"Too many emotions to process!!! This is huge," Dassi, who is now in her 30s, wrote on Facebook.

"This abusive woman has been exploiting the Israeli courts for 6 years! Intentionally creating obstacles with endless vexatious arguments that have only lengthened our ongoing trauma."

Australian Attorney-General Christian Porter said the Australian government welcomed the ruling.

"Whilst today's decision can be appealed, it is a positive sign and means that formal extradition proceedings can now lawfully commence, subject to any orders relevant to any possible appeal," he said in a statement.

Mr Porter said the government remained strongly committed to ensuring justice was served in the case.

"I travelled to Israel last year to make that case to Israel's attorney-general," he said.

Huge media pack and supporters here to listen to @dassi_erlich and her sisters speak, alongside former Victorian Premier @TedBaillieu. Alleged child sex abuser Malka Leifer found fit on an Israeli court to face extradition. @10NewsFirstMelb @Studio10au #auslaw #springst pic.twitter.com/qEb1aFMK4h

— Candice Wyatt (@CandiceWyatt10) May 26, 2020

In September 2020, a court in Jerusalem ruled Leifer can be extradited to Australia.

It was the 71st hearing that has been held in Israel to decide on a decision for extradition. 

Erlich told an AAP reporter in Israel after Monday's court decision it was "a victory for justice."

"A victory not just for us, but for all survivors. We truly value every single one of you standing with us in our refusal to remain silent. Today our hearts are smiling!" she said.

Leifer attended the court hearing via video link from an Israeli jail and refused to lift her head off a table when the judge asked her to do so.

Leifer's defence team is expected to appeal the verdict in the Israel Supreme Court.

Relations between Israel and Australia had been strained by the Leifer case, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison telling Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in February that Australia had a strong desire to see justice served.

One of the main things Dassi wants to ask her alleged abuser is "why?"

Last year, she wrote on Facebook: "In 2003 I never imagined it would end. I'm so grateful I survived. There are many scars, but I grew up, I gained my independence and I found my own power."

- With AAP.

Feature image: Australian Story/AAP.