{"id":193667,"date":"2026-06-17T07:40:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=193667"},"modified":"2026-06-17T07:40:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:40:26","slug":"manny-waks-abuser-sentenced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=193667","title":{"rendered":"Manny Waks Abuser Sentenced"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Canberra Times reports March 19, 2026<\/a>: The battle is over for a prominent victim advocate after his abuser was sentenced for sexually exploiting him at a Jewish holy festival close to four decades ago.<\/p>\n

Manny Waks was aged between 10 and 12 when Zev “Velvel” Serebryanski assaulted him at the Yeshiva Centre in Melbourne’s southeast sometime between 1986 and 1988.<\/p>\n

Serebryanski, who was in his early 20s at the time, had developed a sexual interest in the then-child and cornered him upstairs one night during the religious Shavuot festival.<\/p>\n

The man sat down on a bench next to the pre-teen and groped at his groin before pulling him into a bathroom and sexually assaulting him.<\/p>\n

In sentencing the now-62-year-old to a suspended jail term, Victorian County Court Judge John Kelly described Serebryanski’s actions as transgressive and predatory.<\/p>\n

“It is an attack on innocence, an attack on childhood,” he said on Friday.<\/p>\n

“You said you were only following your victim’s lead … that is a transparently absurd proposition.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Canberra Times reports March 19, 2026: The battle is over for a prominent victim advocate after his abuser was sentenced for sexually exploiting him at a Jewish holy festival close to four decades ago. Manny Waks was aged between … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abuse"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t