Breaking a cultural code of silence on abuse
ABC
7:30 Report
Hosted by Leigh Sales
Reporter: Norman Hermant
4 February 2015
A man abused at a Jewish school says he was ostracised by his community for speaking out. Now he wants to use the Royal Commission as a template to reveal abuse in the Jewish community globally.
Transcript [link to video is available at the link below to the ABC website or here]
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The Royal commission into child sexual abuse has for months been hearing heartrending evidence about the treatment of children in a range of religious institutions. This week its attention has turned to the ultra-orthodox Jewish Yeshiva centres in Sydney and Melbourne. Over the last three days, A story of widespread abuse has emerged, with claims four rabbis actively covered up numerous incidents of child sex abuse reported to them by several people starting in the late 1980s. There could be dozens more victims who've not yet come forward with disturbing revelations about abuse at the Yeshivah College in Melbourne. One survivor and his family have gone public about how they've been shunned by their own community after breaking its code of silence to expose systemic abuse. Social affairs correspondent Norman Hermant has the story.
MANNY WAKS, ABUSE SURVIVOR: My full name is Menachem Lev Waks. I am known as Manny. My date of birth is 10th April, 1976. I'm the second eldest of 17 children.
NORMAN HERMANT, REPORTER: This has been a long journey for Manny Waks.
Not just because of the 36 hours of travel from his new home in France to his hometown, Melbourne, but the 25 years it's taken for his full story to be told.
MANNY WAKS: I'm actually coming to Australia because the Royal commission is happening. I've literally been working towards this goal, even subconsciously, for decades.
NORMAN HERMANT: Manny Waks was a student in the late 1980s at Melbourne's Yeshivah centre, run by the ultra-orthodox Jewish movement called Chabad.
He was abused here from the age of 11 by two of the centre's staff.
MANNY WAKS: Before I realised what was happening, I was pretending to close my eyes while he was starting to rub his hands along my legs, my thighs and then on top of my pants and slowly made his hands on my genitalia.
NORMAN HERMANT: One of Manny's abusers was never charged. The other, security guard David Cyprus, was jailed for eight years in 2013 for sexually abusing nine boys. Another staff member, David Kramer, pleaded guilty to molesting four boys.
In court, it was revealed the Yeshivah centre helped Kramer leave Australia when allegations were first raised against him in the 1990s. He was later jailed in the US after raping a 12-year-old boy.
MANNY WAKS: This has been consuming me in every perspective - financially, emotionally, physically, the family, friends - I've lost many family and friends who just don't want to associate with us anymore. A lot easier it would be to get up and leave. But at this stage, all the while that I can handle this, I will continue to do it.
NORMAN HERMANT: Manny grew up in the Chabad Jewish community. Its ultra-orthodox beliefs call for strict adherence to Jewish law, including the code of Mesirah, which prevents Jews from informing on other Jews to civil authorities.
Manny Waks say many in the community still blame him for going to the police.
MANNY WAKS: There is still a significant group of rabbis, mainly within the ultra-orthodox community, and within the Yeshivah Chabad community, who would not support victims to go to the police.
NORMAN HERMANT: Manny and his father Zephania have their own legal team representing them at the Royal commission. They are confident the testimony of abuse victims will lay bare the culture of intimidation in the ultra-orthodox Jewish community.
MANNY WAKS: It causes untold damage. The reality is that we're not even sure of the exact damage it does because we don't know how many victims are out there who are now thinking, "I better not go because it might cause all sorts of things."
NORMAN HERMANT: Manny Waks quit Chabad ultra-orthodox Judaism 20 years ago. He and his father now worship at an moderate orthodox synagogue where Mann's brother, Schnear, is the rabbi. His family's treatment, says Manny, is a warning to others.
MANNY WAKS: If they internally fight the system, they will be shunned, just as my parents were, their children, much more difficult to get married, much more difficult to get a job within the community.
NORMAN HERMANT: Like other men who adhere to Chabad customs, Zephania does not trim his beard. He hasn't cut it in 45 years.
Now, he's taken a step to break from Chabad and Hasidim, or ultra-orthodox Jewry, forever.
Alright. You have obviously trimmed your beard and this is significant. Explain to us what you've done and why you've done it.
ZEPHANIA WAKS, FATHER: Hasidimin in general and Hasidimin Chabad in particular have full beards. They don't touch their beards at all. It's even a problem just trimming your moustache to be able to eat properly. I'm no longer part of that. I'm specifically not part of it anymore. In particular, not of Chabad, but of Harediism in general. I consider it to be a bit dangerous, in fact, the way it's being practiced today.
NORMAN HERMANT: Manny's father and his wife moved to Israel last year. Now he's trying to sell the house where he raised 17 children in strict accordance with kosher law.
ZEPHANIA WAKS: Well, over on this side over here, we've got the dairy kitchen. Over there we've got the kitchen which is not milk and not meat. And over here we've got the meat kitchen.
NORMAN HERMANT: It's a home designed for an orthodox family in the heart of the orthodox Jewish community. But there are no buyers. Zephania believes no-one wants to be seen as helping the Waks family.
ZEPHANIA WAKS: This would be like talking to me in public, making a statement, buying the house and giving us goodness would be a statement. I'm not just attributing malice; there is malice.
NORMAN HERMANT: This week, Zephania revealed for the first time publicly the abuse in his household went beyond just Manny.
ZEPHANIA WAKS: Three of my sons were sexually abused by members of the Yeshivah College and centre community.
NORMAN HERMANT: Zephania alerted the Yeshivah Centre to David Kramer's abuse back in the 1990s. But he never told the police. He testified he felt bound by the code of Mesirah not to talk to outsiders.
ZEPHANIA WAKS: It wasn't that I thought, "Mmm, I want to report it to police, but I can't because it's Mesirah." It just - this was the reason - Mesirah and the whole community culture was the reason. Not that I said, "I'm going to go and report it to the police." It didn't even get to that.
NORMAN HERMANT: This week's testimony has revealed a family where three boys were abused by several trusted figures within a closed religious community.
MANNY WAKS: I'm sorry, I just - I feel like I need to read it.
NORMAN HERMANT: Since he decided to publicly expose abuse and reveal himself as a victim, Manny Waks hasn't wavered.
MANNY WAKS: I felt that many people, including adults and teachers at the school and centre, knew what had happened to me and tolerated me being bullied about it. I thought this because no-one intervened or helped me.
NORMAN HERMANT: Manny Waks' appearance before the Royal commission won't be the end. He's now trying to take his campaign global by seeking backers to establish a worldwide inquiry into sexual abuse in the Jewish community. This Royal commission is the model.
MANNY WAKS: I felt the incredible empowerment and validation that it gives me as a victim and I've seen the same for every victim I've spoken to who has gone through that process. So, what it shows me is that this model is something that we should seriously consider in setting up for the global Jewish community, for Jewish communities around the world.
LEIGH SALES: Norman Hermant with that report.
Originally published at ABC.
Transcript [link to video is available at the link below to the ABC website or here]
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The Royal commission into child sexual abuse has for months been hearing heartrending evidence about the treatment of children in a range of religious institutions. This week its attention has turned to the ultra-orthodox Jewish Yeshiva centres in Sydney and Melbourne. Over the last three days, A story of widespread abuse has emerged, with claims four rabbis actively covered up numerous incidents of child sex abuse reported to them by several people starting in the late 1980s. There could be dozens more victims who've not yet come forward with disturbing revelations about abuse at the Yeshivah College in Melbourne. One survivor and his family have gone public about how they've been shunned by their own community after breaking its code of silence to expose systemic abuse. Social affairs correspondent Norman Hermant has the story.
MANNY WAKS, ABUSE SURVIVOR: My full name is Menachem Lev Waks. I am known as Manny. My date of birth is 10th April, 1976. I'm the second eldest of 17 children.
NORMAN HERMANT, REPORTER: This has been a long journey for Manny Waks.
Not just because of the 36 hours of travel from his new home in France to his hometown, Melbourne, but the 25 years it's taken for his full story to be told.
MANNY WAKS: I'm actually coming to Australia because the Royal commission is happening. I've literally been working towards this goal, even subconsciously, for decades.
NORMAN HERMANT: Manny Waks was a student in the late 1980s at Melbourne's Yeshivah centre, run by the ultra-orthodox Jewish movement called Chabad.
He was abused here from the age of 11 by two of the centre's staff.
MANNY WAKS: Before I realised what was happening, I was pretending to close my eyes while he was starting to rub his hands along my legs, my thighs and then on top of my pants and slowly made his hands on my genitalia.
NORMAN HERMANT: One of Manny's abusers was never charged. The other, security guard David Cyprus, was jailed for eight years in 2013 for sexually abusing nine boys. Another staff member, David Kramer, pleaded guilty to molesting four boys.
In court, it was revealed the Yeshivah centre helped Kramer leave Australia when allegations were first raised against him in the 1990s. He was later jailed in the US after raping a 12-year-old boy.
MANNY WAKS: This has been consuming me in every perspective - financially, emotionally, physically, the family, friends - I've lost many family and friends who just don't want to associate with us anymore. A lot easier it would be to get up and leave. But at this stage, all the while that I can handle this, I will continue to do it.
NORMAN HERMANT: Manny grew up in the Chabad Jewish community. Its ultra-orthodox beliefs call for strict adherence to Jewish law, including the code of Mesirah, which prevents Jews from informing on other Jews to civil authorities.
Manny Waks say many in the community still blame him for going to the police.
MANNY WAKS: There is still a significant group of rabbis, mainly within the ultra-orthodox community, and within the Yeshivah Chabad community, who would not support victims to go to the police.
NORMAN HERMANT: Manny and his father Zephania have their own legal team representing them at the Royal commission. They are confident the testimony of abuse victims will lay bare the culture of intimidation in the ultra-orthodox Jewish community.
MANNY WAKS: It causes untold damage. The reality is that we're not even sure of the exact damage it does because we don't know how many victims are out there who are now thinking, "I better not go because it might cause all sorts of things."
NORMAN HERMANT: Manny Waks quit Chabad ultra-orthodox Judaism 20 years ago. He and his father now worship at an moderate orthodox synagogue where Mann's brother, Schnear, is the rabbi. His family's treatment, says Manny, is a warning to others.
MANNY WAKS: If they internally fight the system, they will be shunned, just as my parents were, their children, much more difficult to get married, much more difficult to get a job within the community.
NORMAN HERMANT: Like other men who adhere to Chabad customs, Zephania does not trim his beard. He hasn't cut it in 45 years.
Now, he's taken a step to break from Chabad and Hasidim, or ultra-orthodox Jewry, forever.
Alright. You have obviously trimmed your beard and this is significant. Explain to us what you've done and why you've done it.
ZEPHANIA WAKS, FATHER: Hasidimin in general and Hasidimin Chabad in particular have full beards. They don't touch their beards at all. It's even a problem just trimming your moustache to be able to eat properly. I'm no longer part of that. I'm specifically not part of it anymore. In particular, not of Chabad, but of Harediism in general. I consider it to be a bit dangerous, in fact, the way it's being practiced today.
NORMAN HERMANT: Manny's father and his wife moved to Israel last year. Now he's trying to sell the house where he raised 17 children in strict accordance with kosher law.
ZEPHANIA WAKS: Well, over on this side over here, we've got the dairy kitchen. Over there we've got the kitchen which is not milk and not meat. And over here we've got the meat kitchen.
NORMAN HERMANT: It's a home designed for an orthodox family in the heart of the orthodox Jewish community. But there are no buyers. Zephania believes no-one wants to be seen as helping the Waks family.
ZEPHANIA WAKS: This would be like talking to me in public, making a statement, buying the house and giving us goodness would be a statement. I'm not just attributing malice; there is malice.
NORMAN HERMANT: This week, Zephania revealed for the first time publicly the abuse in his household went beyond just Manny.
ZEPHANIA WAKS: Three of my sons were sexually abused by members of the Yeshivah College and centre community.
NORMAN HERMANT: Zephania alerted the Yeshivah Centre to David Kramer's abuse back in the 1990s. But he never told the police. He testified he felt bound by the code of Mesirah not to talk to outsiders.
ZEPHANIA WAKS: It wasn't that I thought, "Mmm, I want to report it to police, but I can't because it's Mesirah." It just - this was the reason - Mesirah and the whole community culture was the reason. Not that I said, "I'm going to go and report it to the police." It didn't even get to that.
NORMAN HERMANT: This week's testimony has revealed a family where three boys were abused by several trusted figures within a closed religious community.
MANNY WAKS: I'm sorry, I just - I feel like I need to read it.
NORMAN HERMANT: Since he decided to publicly expose abuse and reveal himself as a victim, Manny Waks hasn't wavered.
MANNY WAKS: I felt that many people, including adults and teachers at the school and centre, knew what had happened to me and tolerated me being bullied about it. I thought this because no-one intervened or helped me.
NORMAN HERMANT: Manny Waks' appearance before the Royal commission won't be the end. He's now trying to take his campaign global by seeking backers to establish a worldwide inquiry into sexual abuse in the Jewish community. This Royal commission is the model.
MANNY WAKS: I felt the incredible empowerment and validation that it gives me as a victim and I've seen the same for every victim I've spoken to who has gone through that process. So, what it shows me is that this model is something that we should seriously consider in setting up for the global Jewish community, for Jewish communities around the world.
LEIGH SALES: Norman Hermant with that report.
Originally published at ABC.