Manny Waks

Manny Waks, born Menachem Lev Waks ^[1] in Israel in 1976, is a Jewish-Australian community activist known for his advocacy of Jewish child abuse victims. He is the founder and CEO of Tzedek. In early 2015 when the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse examined institutional response to child sexual abuse, Waks played a "central role" as the Sydney and Melbourne Yeshivah centres of the Orthodox Chabad sect of Judaism were publicly scrutinized for their handling of child sexual abuse cases.^[2]

Early life and education

Although born in Israel, Waks was raised primarily in Australia. He is one of 17 children in an Orthodox Jewish family who were part of the Chabad-Lubavitch, Hasidic community in Melbourne, Australia. Before they were eventually ostracized for reporting child sexual abuse within the community, Waks, his parents and siblings were viewed as a "poster family for the Australian Chabad movement." ^[3] Manny returned to Israel when he turned 18, where he served in the Israel Defence Forces.^[4] Waks is currently no longer an observant Jew as a result of the sexual abuse that he suffered in the Jewish community and the unwillingness of the community to respond appropriately.^[5] Waks' family featured in the 2003 SBS documentary Welcome to the Waks Family.^[6] After returning to Australia following his service in the IDF, he obtained a degree in International Relations. He completed internships with a federal parliamentarian and the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney.

Career and volunteer work

Waks was appointed Executive Officer at the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission in 2006. In 2009 he was appointed to an executive position with Australia's Office of Transport Security.

Waks is the Founder and President of the Capital Jewish Forum, an organization dedicated to promoting "discussion and engagement with intellectuals, dignitaries and leaders on topics which are relevant to the contemporary Jewish community globally. Waks is a Founding Director of the Online Hate Prevention Institute. In 2012 he founded Tzedek, an organization dedicated to providing support and advocacy forfor Jewish victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. Waks has served as President of the Canberra Jewish Community, as Vice President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and as Governor of the New South Wales Jewish Communal Appeal Board of Governors. In 2009 he was a speaker at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and served as Convenor of the Australian Association of Jewish Studies 2011 Conference. Waks served on the PresenTense 2012 Global Institute Committee and is an alumnus of the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship (2011) and the PresenTense Global Institute (2010).^[4]

Activism against sexual abuse

Waks is an advocate against child sexual abuse within the Jewish community. In 2012 he founded Tzedek, an Australia based organisation advocating for a Jewish community free of child sexual abuse, after having brought his own experience of Child sexual abuse in Australia within the Jewish community^[5] into the public domain in July 2011. Waks featured in the ABC documentary Code of Silence in 2014; the documentary shows how Manny Waks breaks the "code of silence" in Melbourne’s Chabad-Lubavitch community by publicizing his story about being sexually abused at the Chabad-Lubavitch Yeshivah College, an Orthodox Hasidic Jewish school for boys.^[7]

Personal experience with abuse

In the late 1980s Waks attended Melbourne's Yeshivah centre, run by the Chabad ultra-orthodox movement of Judaism. Starting at the age of eleven, he was sexually abused by two members of the staff at the centre. Waks reported sexual abuse by two different pedophiles to the Yeshivah leadership and to the police in 1996. When no action was taken, Waks went public in 2011 with his story of being sexually abused in his Chabad community, being pressured to keep the abuse quiet and with no consequences for the abusers. Indeed, he and his family suffered further abuse when then complained. "You might think Manny Waks would be a hero for breaking the silence about child sexual abuse within Melbourne's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community this year," wrote the Sydney Morning Herald, but instead of the Chabad community thanking Waks for ensuring pedophiles were caught and jailed, Yeshivah rabbis "railed against the whistleblowing Waks" and claimed that Waks and his father had "a vendetta against the centre." Some Orthodox communities, particularly in Israel and the US, abide by the prohibition against mesirah (a Jew reporting another Jew to non-Jewish authorities). Those who do can be ostracized or otherwise punished within the community.^[8]

One of the Yeshiva staff members who abused Waks was never charged. The second, David Cyprus, who was a security guard, was sentenced in 2013 to eight years in jail for sexually abusing nine boys. David Kramer, another staff member, pleaded guilty to abusing four children. In court, it was revealed the Yeshivah centre assisted Kramer in leaving the country when allegations against him were filed in the 1990s. He was later incarcerated after raping a 12-year-old boy in the United States.^[1]

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

As part of their effort to eliminate child sexual abuse in the Jewish community, Manny Waks and his father, Zephaniah Waks testified before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. As Zephaniah Waks shared evidence about the abuse his sons, the president of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia, Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant, sent a text message to the Australian Jewish News accusing him of “destroying Chabad” and labelling him a “lunatic”. Kluwgant resigned the next week after child sexual abuse victims told him his position was "untenable."^[9]

During the testimony it was found that Rabbi Yosef Feldman had discouraged Chabad members from reporting abuse to the police without consulting him first. When the Australian Jewish News published e-mails he had sent to that effect, he was furious with the paper. He emailed other rabbis explaining why the public attention being given to Chabad's difficulties bothered him so much: “I felt that the hype has been causing phoney attention seekers to come forward like Manny Waks and this should be stopped.”^[10] As Zephaniah Waks shared evidence about the abuse his sons, the president of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia, Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant, sent a text message to the Australian Jewish News accusing him of “destroying Chabad” and labelling him a “lunatic”. Kluwgant resigned the next week after child sexual abuse victims told him his position was "untenable."^[9]

In her testimony before the Royal Commission, Nechama Bendet, former general manager of Yeshivah College, said it was a mistake that Yeshivah College had never apologised to Manny Waks directly. She acknowledged that Waks had done nothing wrong by reporting the child sexual abuse to police and to the press, that his activism had been a positive contribution to the community, and she acknowledged and condemned "the harassment and intimidation of Mr Waks and his family." Don Wolf, former director of Yeshivah College's committee of management, testified that the school should have done more to prevent the Yeshivah community from vilifying the Waks family for reporting the abuse to the police.^[11]

As a result of the Royal Commission hearings, three rabbis were forced to resign. In addition to the resignation of Kluwgant, Rabbi Yosef Feldman, the former director of Sydney’s Yeshivah Center, home of the Chabad headquarters there, was delisted after suggesting in his testimony that pedophiles who had not sexually abused children for two decades should be treated with leniency. Rabbi Avrohom Glick, who had been principal while the child sexual abuse was taking place in the 1980s and 1990s, resigned from the spiritual committee of the Yeshivah Center.^[12] Waks then joined 10 other abuse victims to demand the resignation the resignation of the Board of Trustees and Committee of Management of the Melbourne Chabad Yeshiva.^[13]

Based on the investigation and testimony at the Commission, Philip Dalidakis, Southern Metropolitan Member of the Victorian Legislative Council, called on the Prime Minister and Premier to initiate action making the Chabad Yeshiva more accountable. He proposed that financial support from the government be withheld until all leaders who helped cover up abuse resign. He further demanded the production of all reports, letters and emails related to the concealment of abuse, the creation and enforcement of clear, specific rules for Yeshiva leaders and the creation of a fund to compensate victims.^[14] Chabad headquarters in New York declined to speak to the press. The Sunday Herald Sun reported that Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, second in command in the Chabad hierarchy in N.Y., said he was in a meeting and unable to talk. He failed to respond to further correspondence and did not return calls.^[15]

The New York headquarters appoints and delists emissaries to Australia, and is responsible for the worldwide movement.

Waks commented on his willingness to speak about the abuse he endured, noting he wants justice and closure, for himself and for other victims. He wants the alleged perpetrators of the sexual crimes to be held accountable as well as the Yeshivah Centre, which he believes betrayed victims by convincing them to remain silent and not report crimes to the police.^[16]

Tzedek

Manny Waks founded Tzedek, an organization dedicated to fighting sexual abuse. The organization has received $300,000 in funding from the Australian Federal Government.^[17]

Global campaign

Waks is now working establish a global inquiry into sexual abuse in the Jewish community, using the Royal Commission as a model.^[1]

Lawsuits

Waks has initiated civil proceedings against Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne, Australia.^[18]

Personal

Waks is married and is the father of three children.^[4]

See also

• Child sexual abuse
  • Anti-pedophile activism
• Jewish Community Watch
  • Meyer Seewald

References