AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
December 13, 2017
By Melissa Davey
Melissa Davey spoke to Manny Waks and other advocates about the end of the royal commission and the path ahead
Manny Waks, a survivor of sexual abuse who exposed crimes against children that occurred within the secretive Jewish Yeshivah community, describes the work of the child abuse royal commission as “life-saving” and “life-changing”.
On Thursday morning the six royal commissioners led by Justice Peter McClellan will sit for a final time in front of abuse survivors and advocates, many of whom followed the commission’s work around the country. Guardian Australia spoke to Waks and other advocates and experts about the commission’s work over the past five years and what they hope will change once its work is done.
Waks was the first abuse survivor within the Yeshivah community in Australia to publicly call out his abusers and those who concealed their crimes. His whistleblowing saw him shunned by many in his community. His former peers ostracised him, verbally abused him and attempted to discredit his abuse. Speaking to Guardian Australia from where he now lives in Israel, Waks says it was the royal commission’s interrogation of Yeshivah authorities that helped to validate his story, along with the stories of of dozens of others abused within Jewish institutions.
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