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‘Justice feels sweet’: Abuse victim celebrates settlement with Jewish school

Manny Waks left Australia as a result of "intimidation and bullying" against his family.

Manny Waks left Australia as a result of "intimidation and bullying" against his family. Photo: Getty

Sexual abuse survivor and victim advocate Manny Waks has reached a confidential agreement in his six-year civil case against Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre and says “justice feels sweet”.

Mr Waks told AAP on Friday he will be able provide for his family and continue his advocacy for abuse victims with the compensation paid to him by the orthodox Jewish organisation that operated Yeshivah College, where he was sexually abused as a boy.

“Nothing will completely take away the pain and suffering,” the 42-year-old said in a statement.

“But sometimes justice feels sweet.

“Today, I feel a sense of justice and vindication.”

Mr Waks said lawyers on behalf of Yeshivah wanted to meet with him to apologise and update him on the work they are doing at Yeshivah to address the issue of child sexual abuse.

He told Yeshivah he would only meet with them if two the centre’s rabbis implicated in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse were stood down.

He and other abuse survivors who attended Yeshivah College gave evidence at the royal commission.

Mr Waks’ abuser, David Cyprys, was jailed for eight years in 2013 for abusing Mr Waks and eight other boys at the St Kilda East college between 1983 and 1991.

He also alleges another man, US-based Velvel Serebryanski, abused him.

Mr Waks now lives with his family in Israel as his experience going public about the abuse made living in Australia unbearable for them, he told AAP.

Mr Waks is the chief executive of global victim advocacy organisation Kol v’Oz.

The Yeshivah Centre has been contacted for comment.

-AAP

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