THE WORDS BELOW ARE THE LAST FEW PARAGRAPHS OF THE SHUNNED ARTICLE: INEXCUSABLE!!!

On the wall of the Waks' living room hangs a photo of Zephaniah's father Leo, a dashing character in a fedora, without any of the sartorial garb favoured by contemporary orthodox men. "That guy there," he says of his father, "was an engineering student in Berlin when Hitler came to power. His degree has a swastika on it. He knew what was going on but he refused to buckle as he watched the salute rising higher and higher, and a little of his determination sits inside me. I'm not moving out of here until I want to move."

The pressure mounts. "It's very unpleasant. You can't believe this is 2013 in Australia. You can't believe it," he says. I ask, what has hurt him most? Not the sudden withdrawal of the old friend he once accompanied to study sessions. "He's always been a weakling.I'm not surprised he buckled to pressure. The thing that bothers me most about this is seeing good people doing nothing." He nods at the portrait of his father and the consequences of allowing evil to thrive.

When he walks me outside to my car, the Yeshivah Centre looms across the street and I almost expect security to arrest Zephaniah for refusing to shut up. But the shunning works in subtler ways. Despite the warmth of the sun, I feel a shiver up my spine.