Who Gave You Permission: the advocacy of Manny Waks
ABC Radio National Life Matters
Cassie McCullagh
5 October 2016
Manny Waks
Click here to listen to the full interview.
When Manny Waks decided to go public with allegations of child sexual abuse within Melbourne’s tight knit ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, he writes that he knew had crossed a line, and “there was no turning back now.”
Manny’s one of seventeen children, raised in a Chabad household - the most common form of ultra-Orthodox Judaism.
The children attended religious schools and spent a lot of time at the Yeshivah, a religious study centre, where much of Manny’s abuse took place. He says community leaders turned a blind eye.
Now an advocate for survivors of child sexual abuse, he campaigned successfully for a public hearing into Australian Jewish Institutions at the Royal Commission, and has written a book called “Who Gave You Permission - the memoir of a child sexual-abuse survivor who fought back."
Originally published at ABC Radio.
When Manny Waks decided to go public with allegations of child sexual abuse within Melbourne’s tight knit ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, he writes that he knew had crossed a line, and “there was no turning back now.”
Manny’s one of seventeen children, raised in a Chabad household - the most common form of ultra-Orthodox Judaism.
The children attended religious schools and spent a lot of time at the Yeshivah, a religious study centre, where much of Manny’s abuse took place. He says community leaders turned a blind eye.
Now an advocate for survivors of child sexual abuse, he campaigned successfully for a public hearing into Australian Jewish Institutions at the Royal Commission, and has written a book called “Who Gave You Permission - the memoir of a child sexual-abuse survivor who fought back."
Originally published at ABC Radio.
