Feldmans and Waks at war

By Joshua Levi
Australian Jewish News
October 8, 2014

http://www.jewishnews.net.au/feldmans-and-waks-at-war/37971

A WAR of words has broken out between Sydney’s top Chabad family and child-sexual-abuse victim Manny Waks. Rabbi Eli Feldman is considering his options following a public Facebook post by Waks which said “spreading hate, lies and distortions” was “unbecoming of a rabbi”. The post, which doesn’t specifically name Feldman, has since been removed, but The AJN understands the spat erupted over differing versions of the circumstances surrounding Waks’ move to Yeshiva in Sydney as a teenager. The post came just days after Rebbetzin Pnina Feldman, Eli Feldman’s mother, was forced to apologise after she sent Waks an email on Erev Yom Kippur, in which she said people described him as a “lowlife”.

“I haven’t met a person yet with one nice word to say about you. Most people consider you a lowlife,” Rebbetzin Feldman wrote. She went on to tell the CEO and founder of Tzedek, an advocate for Jewish survivors of child sexual abuse, to “get over it”, adding that he needed “counselling” and that his “blame-game” was “unjust, unwarranted, undeserved and wicked”. After significant pressure from rabbis in Melbourne, who planned to publicly call on her to retract her statement, Rebbetzin Feldman apologised on Monday. “In my robust and emotional email I employed offensive language, which I remorsefully regret and unreservedly apologise for,” she said. “I also want to apologise for my perceived trivialisation of the impact of child abuse on victims.” Waks, who described the initial email as “vile” and “bewildering”, said on Tuesday that he accepted the apology and credited the Melbourne rabbis for their intervention. “I’m particularly pleased, grateful and buoyed by the report in The AJN that rabbis in Melbourne were involved behind the scenes in procuring the apology.” But on Wednesday the war between Waks, his father Zephaniah and the Feldmans exploded again when Waks posted to Eli Feldman’s public Facebook page. “Spreading hate, lies and distortions is unbecoming of a rabbi, especially one that likes to project himself as being contemporary Chabad, even when it is done in private,” the post read. Rabbi Feldman said he was “shocked and saddened” to see the “disgusting and defamatory” post. “Manny was outraged by an offensive private email sent to him by my mother, but he finds it fine to publicly offend me on my Facebook wall in front of the entire world?” Feldman said. “You can’t have it both ways. To speak up against harassment and intimidation and then engage in it when it suits.” But Waks responded that “recent statements made by Rabbi Eli Feldman and other rabbis against me and my family have been brought to my attention and I refute them completely.”