Member of Melbourne's Yeshivah Centre jailed for abusing boys A FORMER member of Melbourne's Jewish Yeshivah Centre has been jailed for eight years for sexually assaulting boys. David Samuel Cyprys, 45, was convicted by a jury of five counts of rape against a 15-year-old when he was associated with the Yeshivah Centre - an umbrella organisation which serves the needs of the Melbourne Jewish community. He pleaded guilty to sexually abusing eight other boys. Victorian County Court Judge Peter Wischusen said Cyprys was in a position of trust and his crimes had done a great deal of damage to his victims. Judge Wischusen said his crimes were over a sustained period, between 1983 and 1991, starting from when Cyprys was aged 15. The victims were aged between seven and 14 and were students at the St Kilda Orthodox Jewish school Yeshivah College when Cyprys touched them inappropriately. He also used force against some of his victims, the judge said. Cyprys was associated with the Yeshivah Centre as a locksmith, karate instructor and youth group leader when he assaulted the boys. He will serve a minimum five-and-a-half years before being eligible for parole. Manny Waks, the head of victims advocacy group Tzedek, was one of Cyprys's victims. Mr Waks said he and other victims lived for decades in silence with shame and guilt but he was happy justice had been done. "Today is a day of justice and it is actually an incredible feeling," he told reporters outside court. But he said no sentence would undo the damage done to victims. Cyprys is the second child abuser linked with the Yeshivah Centre, an umbrella group that includes Yeshivah College, a synagogue and a bathing house. Former Yeshivah College teacher David Kramer, 53, was sentenced to three years and four months in July for groping four boys between 1990 and 1992.