Serebryanski denied all three charges of indecent assault and one charge of sexual penetration of a child aged between 10 and 16, but was nevertheless found guilty on all counts
Times of Israel
A member of a prominent Chabad family in Australia was convicted on charges of child sexual abuse Friday, capping off a long-running scandal that rocked the country’s Jewish community when it first broke.
Velvel Serebryanski, 61, was found guilty by a jury at the County Court of Victoria of having molested Manny Waks when he was still a child growing up in Melbourne’s Chabad-Lubavitch educational institutions. Waks is now an advocate for victims of child sex abuse.
Serebryanski denied all three charges of indecent assault and one charge of sexual penetration of a child aged between 10 and 16, but was nevertheless found guilty on all counts, in what Waks described as ‘the closing of a long and painful circle.’
Serebryanski’s pre-sentencing plea hearing is scheduled for Friday next week, on December 12, where Waks will appear in court to deliver his victim impact statement.
‘I am relieved to share this outcome and grateful that justice has finally been served,’ Waks said in a statement announcing the conviction. ‘Most victims and survivors of child sexual abuse never get any justice. With today’s verdict, I’ve now held to account both of my abusers.’
Waks was abused in the late 1980s by Serebryanski and former yeshiva school guard David Cyprys, who was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to eight years in prison for raping one boy and abusing eight others attending Melbourne’s Yeshiva College from the mid-1980s to early 1990s.
Serebryanski, who immigrated to New York but was extradited back to Australia in 2023, was convicted of raping Waks and molesting him on several occasions when his victim was 12 years old.
Both Serebryanski and Cyprys are linked to Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre, a Chabad umbrella organization that was implicated in helping the offenders cover up their misdeeds.
After years of litigation, Waks managed to reach a confidential financial settlement with the organization in 2018.
Serebryanski is the son of Rabbi Aaron Serebryanski, one of Chabad’s most well-known emissaries to Australia.
Waks told The Forward that on one occasion when he was 11 years old, Velvel Serebryanski molested him when he went to lie down during an all-night Shavuot study session in a synagogue affiliated with the Yeshivah Centre.
‘This isn’t for a place of worship. Let’s go outside,’ he reportedly said to his victim, before leading him into a nearby restroom and sexually assaulting him. He molested him on several other occasions.
Serebryanski confessed to the abuse after Waks confronted him on camera in New York, in an expose aired by the Kan public broadcaster on the scandal in 2017.
‘I was completely infatuated with you and wanted to do what I thought you wanted, I wanted to make you happy,’ he said to his victim in the footage.
Responding to the jury’s verdict, Waks encouraged others with information on child sex abuse allegations to report what they know to the police and assured victims that they are not alone. ‘Please reach out to your support networks and look after yourselves,’ he said.
‘While there has been a significant cost in pursuing justice over the decades, emotional, mental, financial, familial and in other ways, I feel grateful and blessed to be in this unique position. It’s been well worth it, both personally and for our community,’ he added.