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On reflection – Manny Waks post the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse yeshiva and yeshivah hearings

February 17, 2015 by Manny Waks

Nearly four years ago, when I publicly disclosed the sexual abuse I endured as a child at Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre, I did not envisage that today so many around the world would know exactly what had happened to myself and so many other children at that institution.

I knew that there were other victims and that someone within the Jewish community had to take a leadership position in the fight for justice. There is no way I could have imagined that those first steps I took in 2011 would lead to multiple convictions, a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, public acknowledgements of past wrongs, apologies to the victims, community awareness, and so much more.

The past few…