Jerusalem Man Convicted After Teaching Under False Identity for 18 Months

A Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday convicted Malachi Israel Banias, 37, of Jerusalem, after he concealed his identity and prior sex-offense record and worked for about a year and a half as a teacher at a boys’ school in Kiryat Ye'arim.

According to the indictment, Banias taught fourth and fifth graders, earned a combined salary of hundreds of thousands of shekels, and at times invited some pupils to his home for social activities, while their parents were unaware of his criminal history as a sex offender.

The amended indictment, which he admitted and was convicted on, said Banias was subject to a supervision order stemming from a previous sex offense conviction. That order barred him, among other things, from working in settings that involve contact with minor boys. Despite that restriction, he applied for the job under the false name “Israel Spiegel,” used a forged identity card bearing another person’s photo and details, and was hired at a Talmud Torah in violation of the law.

He was convicted of violating a supervision order, working in an educational institution in breach of the law barring employment of sex offenders, receiving property by aggravated fraud, using a forged document, and impersonating another person. The article also notes that the 2013 indictment against him alleged indecent acts against eight children ages 5 to 15, some of them his students, while he worked as a teacher in Rehovot and Beitar Illit.