Manny Waks was the first victim to come forward with accounts of abuse at Australian Chabad yeshivas. Now a government panel is hearing from others who were abused.

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Melbourne and Sydney is under the spotlight as an Australian Royal Commission into the child sexual abuse scandal began hearings.

The government-sponsored inquiry into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, which began in 2013, has allocated two weeks to interrogate victims and officials of the Yeshivah Center in Melbourne and its counterpart in Sydney, as well as senior Orthodox rabbis.

In particular, the commissioners will probe the response by Chabad officials to allegations of sexual abuse by David Kramer and Davis Cyprys, who both were employed by the Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne in the 1980s and 1990s. They were jailed in 2013 for multiple offenses against boys at the Chabad-run school.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

In Sydney, the response of rabbis to offenses committed by Daniel “Gug” Hayman in the 1980s also is being investigated. Hayman, who moved to the United States, was convicted but received a suspended sentence in 2014.

Victims and family members testified at the County Court of Victoria this week. “As a spouse of a victim and whistleblower, I feel hated and isolated in my community,” a woman told the hearing, fighting back tears. “I have lost faith in the leadership of the Jewish community.”

Her husband had been abused by Cyprys and Hayman, she said.

“Well beyond the horrible acts of the perpetrators against my husband that had ripped the rug of security, certainty and innocence out from his childhood, we are being screwed once more by the adolescent self-serving and callous response of the community,” she said.

The hearing, which is being streamed live on the internet, continues through next week, with senior rabbis expected to be called to testify.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount