About this episode

Manny Waks shares his harrowing experience of sexual abuse within the Chabad community and his journey towards healing and advocacy.

Manny Waks was 11 years old when he was first sexually abused. Raised in the ultra-Orthdaox sect of Judaism known as Chabad, he lacked the education or vocabulary to understand what was going on. By the time he was studying for his bar mitzvah, he was molested by a second perpetrator. Both men were members of staff at his school - the Yeshiva Centre in Melbourne, Australia. In this searingly honest, compelling and sometimes angry conversation with Olly, he recalls how he was groomed, abused, disbelieved, and shunned - and recounts the moment he decided, aged 18, to turn his back on Hasidic Judaism for ever - and join the Israeli Defense Force... In 2016, Manny confronted his first abuser, Velvel Serebryanski, in New York. In 2013, Manny's second abuser, David Cyprys, was sentenced to eight years for sexually abusing Manny and eight other boys. His book, ‘Who Gave You Permission?’, is out now. This interview https://www.modernmann.co.uk/new/closuredisclosurehttps://www.modernmann.co.uk/new/closuredisclosure as part of our regular magazine show. Now remastered and with an update from Manny, we've chosen to pair this with our most next episode, due September 10th. Content warning…

People in this episode

Host: Olly Mann

Guest: Manny Waks

Topics covered

• sexual abuse
• Judaism
• personal trauma
• survivorship
• mental health

Keywords

• sexual abuse
• Judaism
• Manny Waks
• trauma
• survivorship
• mental health
• child abuse

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Chabad, Yeshiva Centre, Stop it Now! UK and Ireland, Survivors UK, Samaritans

Books & works: Who Gave You Permission?

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