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Jewish abuse victim welcomes Royal Commission
Alison Caldwell reported this story on Thursday, November 15, 2012 18:21:00
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MARK COLVIN: Jewish victims of abuse have joined the broader welcome for the Royal Commission on institutions and child sexual abuse.
In Victoria, police have told the state's child abuse inquiry that their research has turned up 69 offences in the Jewish community, with 18 distinct victims over the past 50 years.
One victim is Manny Waks, who says he was sexually abused at his Jewish school in Melbourne in the 1980s.
Manny Waks spoke to Alison Caldwell.
MANNY WAKS: I was abused by two separate perpetrators within the ultra-orthodox Yeshivah centre, and not only was I abused but also when I did raise the issues of abuse later on, these were attempted to have been covered up and ignored and basically the suffering continued.
ALISON CALDWELL: What sort of reaction has there been in the Jewish community to the idea of the Royal Commission?
MANNY WAKS: Generally speaking, it's been very welcomed. Publicly, all organisations are making all the right sounds and noises and welcoming it.
There is though a very big difference in a practical sense to see how these organisations will actually cooperate with a Royal Commission. Up until now, the Yeshivah centre and its leadership have been very uncooperative.
Victorian Police, in courts, have made that very clear and I can tell you as a victim, and my family have been victimised, harassed and intimidated, and of course, many within the Yeshivah community who are absolutely appalled by Yeshivah's handling of this, but that doesn't make it all that much easier when my father cops abuse simply because he's standing up, strongly supporting his son who was abused over many years and many within the community were aware of it and did absolutely nothing about it.
ALISON CALDWELL: The people who are criticising you - on what basis are they criticising you? Are they saying, you know, you've brought shame to the community or to the college? What are they saying?
MANNY WAKS: Certainly, that would be a part of it. A lot of them say, "Let's deal with things internally."
Within the ultra-orthodox community, there are also elements who believe in the concept of nasira (phonetic), which is not informing the actions of fellow Jews to the external authorities.
Really, these issues pre-date contemporary times, when anti-Semitism was rife in Eastern Europe and there were pogroms. Unfortunately, that type of attitude still prevails among segments of our community.
The point is, last year in July when I went public with my case, as a direct result from that, we're now in a position where we've had a committal hearing for 12 victims with the one perpetrator, 41 charges, and we'll be awaiting trial next July. And the issue of cover-up is becoming much more clear by the day.
ALISON CALDWELL: There have been allegations in the Catholic Church at least of perpetrators just being moved offshore, moved to different diocese or actually moved overseas.
Certainly you say that's happened in the Jewish community as well.
MANNY WAKS: Absolutely. We have two cases that we know of - David Kramer for example, at the moment. He's a former teacher at Yeshivah.
When allegations surfaced in the early 90s about what he had done, the response was initially Yeshivah was going to do nothing about it, but ultimately, after parents threatened to go to the police, action was taken to dismiss him and he was sent overseas.
Initially, my understanding is, he went to Israel. Allegations have surfaced there that there were some abuses going on there, and then he ended up in the US in St Louis where he ended up abusing children there, or at least one case for which he was charged, and he's now just finished a seven year sentence in a US jail, and Victoria Police is in the process of extraditing him from the US.
MARK COLVIN: Jewish abuse victim and community leader, Manny Waks, speaking to Alison Caldwell.
PM tried to contact Yeshivah College for a comment but no one has returned our calls.
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