Manny Waks abuser sentenced
Velvel Serebryanski given largely suspended sentence over historic abuse of Manny Waks.
Child sexual abuse advocate Manny Waks said his “battle is over” after his abuser Velvel Serebryanski was sentenced to a suspended jail term for sexually assaulting him at the Yeshivah Centre nearly four decades ago.
Serebryanski, 62, was sentenced at the County Court of Victoria last Friday to 22 months imprisonment for sexual penetration of a child aged between 10 and 16, with three months to serve and the balance suspended for two years.
Judge John Kelly declared the three months had already been served through pre-sentence detention. Serebryanski was also sentenced to wholly suspended terms for three charges of indecent assault.
The court heard Serebryanski developed a sexual interest in Waks, who was aged between 10 and 12, and assaulted him on the first night of Shavuot in either 1987 or 1988 at the Yeshivah Centre synagogue.
Judge Kelly described Serebryanski’s actions as “transgressive and predatory” and “an attack on innocence, an attack on childhood”.
“While the men were downstairs noisily debating the Torah, you pursued a child upstairs, determined to sexually corrupt him,” Kelly said. “The setting did not deter you.”
When Waks confronted Serebryanski at his Brooklyn home in 2017, the judge said Serebryanski resorted to “paedophilic rationalisations”, claiming he was “only following your victim’s lead”.
“That is a transparently absurd proposition,” Kelly said, noting any remorse was “eroded by peadophilic justifications”.
Waks reported the abuse to police in 1996. Serebryanski was detained in New York in April 2023 and spent 91 days in custody before being extradited to Australia.
In a Facebook post early Friday morning, Waks wrote: “Justice was served today. I’m happy. I’m relieved. My battle is over.”
Waks delivered a victim impact statement in December describing the “prolonged and profound emotional, physical, financial and social impact” the abuse had on him and his family.
Judge Kelly accepted Serebryanski’s rehabilitation was largely complete given almost 40 years had elapsed since the offending.
“I do not believe you will reoffend,” Kelly said.
Serebryanski will be a registerable sex offender for 15 years.
With his other abuser David Cyprys convicted in 2013, Waks has now held both his abusers to account.