Manny Waks

Manny Waks was born in Israel but grew up mostly in Melbourne, Australia. He is the second oldest of 17 children in a Chabad family. Manny voluntarily served in an elite unit in the Israel Defence Forces and subsequently returned to Australia where he obtained a degree in international relations and undertook internships with a federal parliamentarian, as well as with the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney. In 2006 he was appointed Executive Officer at the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission. He commenced his current position as an Assistant Director in the Australian Government's Office of Transport Security in 2009.

Manny is President of the Canberra Jewish Community, a Vice President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and a Governor of the New South Wales Jewish Communal Appeal Board of Governors. In 2009 he presented at the Parliament of the World's Religions and was Convenor of the Australian Association of Jewish Studies 2011 Conference. Manny is the Founder and Executive Director of the Capital Jewish Forum. He is an alumnus of the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship (2011) and the PresenTense Global Institute (2010), and participated in the Third Israeli Presidential Conference (2011). Manny is married and has three children.