Shavout Stoush

J-Wire
May 19, 2013

http://www.jwire.com.au/news/shavout-stoush/34461

Rabbi Zvi Telsner

One of the brothers of child sex abuse advocate Manny Waks was involved in a bitter altercation with a senior rabbi over Shavuot. 

Chaim Waks admitted to ripping the glasses from Rabbi Zvi Telsner’s face at the end of the service at Yeshivah’s main synagogue in Melbourne last Tuesday night, according to a report by JTA.

Rabbi Telsner, the Yeshivah’s spiritual leader in Melbourne, offered festive greetings to Chaim Waks at the end of the service.

But Waks, 24, admitted to replying: “How dare you f***ing wish me a good Yom Tov?”

His brother confirmed that he also admitted throwing Telsner’s glasses on the floor.

Telsner confirmed to JTA that the incident happened, but declined to comment.

Manny Waks said in a statement: “I have informed Chaim that this type of behavior is completely unacceptable. It makes no difference what an individual has done – in this case the ongoing attacks by Rabbi Telsner and some within his community against my family. The use of violence is never an option and needs to be unequivocally condemned.”

His father, Zephaniah Waks, also claimed he was harassed by another congregant inside shul the day after the incident between his son and Rabbi Telsner. He has reported the matter to police.

The incidents are the latest chapters in the long-running feud between the Waks family and Chabad, triggered by Waks going public with claims in The Age newspaper in mid-2011 that he was sexually abused in the 1980s when he was a student at Yeshivah College.