Manny Waks was born in Israel but raised 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 in the Australian Government's Office of Transport Security in 2009. 

Manny is Immediate Past President of the Canberra Jewish Community, former Vice President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and former 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 and a Director of the Online Hate Prevention Institute. He is also a member of the PresenTense 2012 Global Institute Committee. Manny is an alumnus of the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship (2011) and the PresenTense Global Institute (2010), and participated in the Israeli Presidential Conference (2011). Manny is married and has three children.


Publications/speeches by Manny Waks (all views expressed in the publications/speeches are those of the author - acknowledgement to Geoffrey Winn for his contributions, including co-writing some of the articles):

The 'maths' behind the Shalit prisoner swap (On Line Opinion) - 31 October 2011
Waks answers his critics (J-Wire) - 29 June 2011
Yom Hazikaron speech (Embassy of Israel event at the National Jewish Memorial Centre) - 7 May 2011
The Generation Gap (Australian Jewish News - print edition) - 1 April 2011
Veneer of balance masks anti-Israeli sentiment (National Times) - 6 January 2010
Parliament of the World's Religions speech (Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre) - 5 December 2009
Dialogue a better way than slogans (The Canberra Times - print edition) - 19 June 2009
Human rights activists and their selective condemnation (On Line Opinion) - 9 March 2009
The 'new world order' is the 'same old order' for Jews (this opinion piece is based on a paper presented at the Racisms in the New World Order Conference in Queensland, Australia 6-7 December 2007)
Antisemitism in Australia (Australians All) - April 2007
Israel's negative influence on the world (On Line Opinion) - 7 June 2007
Turning a blind eye - hypocrisy over Sudan (Adelaide Advertiser - print edition) - 8 May 2007
Freedom of speech v protection of values (On Line Opinion) - 8 May 2007
Talk nonsense, but it's not open slather (Herald Sun) - 10 April 2007 
Why Hilali must go, and go now (The Canberra Times - print edition) - 5 April 2007