Night of Healing speech
Manny Waks
Melbourne, Australia
27 March 2017
Distinguished guests, community members,
I'm delighted that the leaders of the Australian Jewish community have embraced my proposal to hold this historical night, and I thank them for it. I'm extremely honoured to be here and to address you.
In recent years, the public revelations that many children have been sexually abused over decades within multiple Jewish institutions, has caused our community a great deal of pain, confusion and division. Our community is very good at uniting when it is impacted as a group by external factors such as tragedies affecting members of our community, threats of antisemitism or the unfair targeting of Israel. But the child sexual abuse scandal is quite different. It has often involved members of our community committing unspeakable crimes against other members of our community, powerful community leaders covering up and/or enabling these crimes, and well known Jewish institutions which had been a source of pride and that have received significant Jewish donor and Government funding being shown to have failed miserably in their responsibilities to protect Jewish children. Our community as a whole, has not responded well. It has been unsure whose side to take. This has compounded the already unimaginable pain for many - for victims and survivors, for our families, for our advocates and supporters, and indeed, for the broader community.
I recognise that not every victim is happy about what is happening here tonight. Not everybody is ready to forgive or to trust, and not everybody is currently in a position to think about the future. Often, victims and survivors of child sexual abuse live with the impact of the crimes committed against them, and the trauma from the response of their family or community, every day of their lives. They do not heal in an hour or in an evening. But I am confident, that every victim and survivor of child sexual abuse wants to ensure that what happened to them never happens to anyone else and that, if (or sadly, when) it does, their community, its religious and lay leadership, responds in a completely different manner to which it has in the past.
Tonight is not about pointing fingers. It's not about any specific institutions, specific victims and survivors, or any segment of our community. It's about our entire community coming together, acknowledging and accepting collective responsibility for the massive failures of the past, and committing to support the recently-commenced process of addressing the issue of child sexual abuse within our community.
We must confront the reality that around one in five children experience some form of child sexual abuse - many in institutions, but many more within the family environment. That's around 20% of the population. As we have seen, our community is no different. That’s our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, friends who go off to participate in activities within Jewish institutions or environments in which they should be safe, only to have their lives shattered forever. Child sexual abuse has been and remains the single greatest threat to the lives of members of our community today, and it needs to be recognised and treated as such. Our community needs to draw a line in the sand and address it. With the right focus, education and funding, things can change.
We must focus first on prevention through raising awareness and education. We have organisations like Tzedek who are prepared and equipped to deliver the sort of training required to institutions and to parents. There are age-appropriate educational programmes, which need to start in our primary schools and go all the way through to the end of high school. We need to consider the funding which our community allocates to child sexual abuse prevention. Consider the community funding for the Community Security Group, clearly a necessary and worthy expense, but how do we justify the discrepancy between the funding directed towards external threats, versus the funding directed to internal threats, which have caused so much more damage?
Over the last few years, our community organisations have been relatively silent, leaving victims and survivors to speak up and to approach the media and the Royal Commission, with little if any communal support, and at times, with outright hostility. This has to change. Our leadership must speak out in a clear and unified voice. Indeed, we must all speak out in a clear and unified voice.
The broader lay and rabbinic leadership must be prepared to oversee the policies, procedures, practices and culture of all institutions within our community who have children under their care. They must ensure that everything possible is being done to avoid repeats of the past. In this context, we must acknowledge that some good work has already been done by a number of organisations within our community.
We must give victims and survivors, and their families, our unequivocal support. We must help them to hold perpetrators of abuse to account, as well as those who were involved in covering up these horrific crimes or attacking victims, and who remain in positions of authority. We must speak up against those who have hurt members of our community, just as we would in relation to any person or group outside of our community, who had hurt and continues to threaten the wellbeing of innocent members of our community.
On a personal note, I’d like to express my profound appreciation for the community support that I have been afforded, especially in more recent times, which has culminated in this evening. I feel as though we have turned a corner and I hope this will continue, not only towards me, but all other victims and survivors must know that the community stands with them. When this Night of Healing concludes, many of us will continue to hurt and suffer. But tonight's event, with the support of our roof bodies, plays an important role in our collective healing. So a sincere thank you to everyone here for taking a public position, and for showing that you care.
But if tonight is to be more than simply symbolic, it needs to be the start of concrete steps to address the issue of child sexual abuse in our community - both through education and prevention to avoid repeats, and through support and advocacy for victims and survivors who are still suffering and in some cases still battling to hold individuals and institutions to account.
And importantly, all victims and survivors within our community should not feel unsafe to disclose their abuse at a time and to a person of their choosing. I say to the many who have experienced child sexual abuse: It was not your fault. You did absolutely nothing wrong. Please reach out to appropriate support services. If you can, please report your abuse to the police. And please do what is best for you.
Finally, as the Chair of the Royal Commission, Justice Peter McClellan, said last week in Sydney to our community leaders: “You each have a significant leadership role in your community and when we're finished, the community will look to all of you to continue in the direction that you've indicated you are now proceeding.”
It is now over to you – the leaders of our community. I believe that as a united community, we will eventually overcome all the challenges we continue to face to ensure justice for the past, and the safety of our children today and into the future.
Thank you, and may the healing continue.
I'm delighted that the leaders of the Australian Jewish community have embraced my proposal to hold this historical night, and I thank them for it. I'm extremely honoured to be here and to address you.
In recent years, the public revelations that many children have been sexually abused over decades within multiple Jewish institutions, has caused our community a great deal of pain, confusion and division. Our community is very good at uniting when it is impacted as a group by external factors such as tragedies affecting members of our community, threats of antisemitism or the unfair targeting of Israel. But the child sexual abuse scandal is quite different. It has often involved members of our community committing unspeakable crimes against other members of our community, powerful community leaders covering up and/or enabling these crimes, and well known Jewish institutions which had been a source of pride and that have received significant Jewish donor and Government funding being shown to have failed miserably in their responsibilities to protect Jewish children. Our community as a whole, has not responded well. It has been unsure whose side to take. This has compounded the already unimaginable pain for many - for victims and survivors, for our families, for our advocates and supporters, and indeed, for the broader community.
I recognise that not every victim is happy about what is happening here tonight. Not everybody is ready to forgive or to trust, and not everybody is currently in a position to think about the future. Often, victims and survivors of child sexual abuse live with the impact of the crimes committed against them, and the trauma from the response of their family or community, every day of their lives. They do not heal in an hour or in an evening. But I am confident, that every victim and survivor of child sexual abuse wants to ensure that what happened to them never happens to anyone else and that, if (or sadly, when) it does, their community, its religious and lay leadership, responds in a completely different manner to which it has in the past.
Tonight is not about pointing fingers. It's not about any specific institutions, specific victims and survivors, or any segment of our community. It's about our entire community coming together, acknowledging and accepting collective responsibility for the massive failures of the past, and committing to support the recently-commenced process of addressing the issue of child sexual abuse within our community.
We must confront the reality that around one in five children experience some form of child sexual abuse - many in institutions, but many more within the family environment. That's around 20% of the population. As we have seen, our community is no different. That’s our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, friends who go off to participate in activities within Jewish institutions or environments in which they should be safe, only to have their lives shattered forever. Child sexual abuse has been and remains the single greatest threat to the lives of members of our community today, and it needs to be recognised and treated as such. Our community needs to draw a line in the sand and address it. With the right focus, education and funding, things can change.
We must focus first on prevention through raising awareness and education. We have organisations like Tzedek who are prepared and equipped to deliver the sort of training required to institutions and to parents. There are age-appropriate educational programmes, which need to start in our primary schools and go all the way through to the end of high school. We need to consider the funding which our community allocates to child sexual abuse prevention. Consider the community funding for the Community Security Group, clearly a necessary and worthy expense, but how do we justify the discrepancy between the funding directed towards external threats, versus the funding directed to internal threats, which have caused so much more damage?
Over the last few years, our community organisations have been relatively silent, leaving victims and survivors to speak up and to approach the media and the Royal Commission, with little if any communal support, and at times, with outright hostility. This has to change. Our leadership must speak out in a clear and unified voice. Indeed, we must all speak out in a clear and unified voice.
The broader lay and rabbinic leadership must be prepared to oversee the policies, procedures, practices and culture of all institutions within our community who have children under their care. They must ensure that everything possible is being done to avoid repeats of the past. In this context, we must acknowledge that some good work has already been done by a number of organisations within our community.
We must give victims and survivors, and their families, our unequivocal support. We must help them to hold perpetrators of abuse to account, as well as those who were involved in covering up these horrific crimes or attacking victims, and who remain in positions of authority. We must speak up against those who have hurt members of our community, just as we would in relation to any person or group outside of our community, who had hurt and continues to threaten the wellbeing of innocent members of our community.
On a personal note, I’d like to express my profound appreciation for the community support that I have been afforded, especially in more recent times, which has culminated in this evening. I feel as though we have turned a corner and I hope this will continue, not only towards me, but all other victims and survivors must know that the community stands with them. When this Night of Healing concludes, many of us will continue to hurt and suffer. But tonight's event, with the support of our roof bodies, plays an important role in our collective healing. So a sincere thank you to everyone here for taking a public position, and for showing that you care.
But if tonight is to be more than simply symbolic, it needs to be the start of concrete steps to address the issue of child sexual abuse in our community - both through education and prevention to avoid repeats, and through support and advocacy for victims and survivors who are still suffering and in some cases still battling to hold individuals and institutions to account.
And importantly, all victims and survivors within our community should not feel unsafe to disclose their abuse at a time and to a person of their choosing. I say to the many who have experienced child sexual abuse: It was not your fault. You did absolutely nothing wrong. Please reach out to appropriate support services. If you can, please report your abuse to the police. And please do what is best for you.
Finally, as the Chair of the Royal Commission, Justice Peter McClellan, said last week in Sydney to our community leaders: “You each have a significant leadership role in your community and when we're finished, the community will look to all of you to continue in the direction that you've indicated you are now proceeding.”
It is now over to you – the leaders of our community. I believe that as a united community, we will eventually overcome all the challenges we continue to face to ensure justice for the past, and the safety of our children today and into the future.
Thank you, and may the healing continue.