Rabbi Mendel Epstein, 70, of Brooklyn was convicted this week in a bizarre series of crimes where he and others kidnapped and beat Orthodox Jewish men who refused to grant their wives religious divorces or “gets.” He was to 10 years in prison, a relatively light sentence given multiple kidnapping and beatings ordered by Epstein. The attackers were paid by women to force “gets” out of their husbands. That makes this a religious-based form of organized crime.
Epstein is the father of nine, grandfather of 45 and great-grandfather of five. He is a prominent rabbi who specializes in divorce proceedings, is heard on secretly recorded conversations bragging about using a cattle prod and other violent means to force recalcitrant husbands to agree to the religious divorces. Epstein provided the undercover agents with details of how the target husband would be taken to a warehouse in Edison where he would be kidnapped and beaten until he agreed to the get. That sounds actually like what a mobster would do for money. In such a case, however, the sentence would have likely been longer. Indeed, Epstein was called the “prodfather” for his claimed preference for using a cattle prod on kidnap victims.
Epstein was contrite at trial and said that he was “embarrassed and ashamed” by the tapes and that “Over the years, I guess, I got caught up in my tough guy image.” He said that his clients knew his reputation as the rabbi who goes and gets into all crazy places and he doesn’t give up He gets you the get.”
While Epstein said it was not the money that he was motivated by, he is caught on tape demanding $60,000 from the undercover agent and prosecutors said that only a small portion of that payment went to the “muscle men” who were there to rough up the husband.
Epstein’s attorney, Robert Stahl, argued that Epstein’s sentence should be less than that for the traditional kidnapping cases because those cases usually involve murder, terrorism or child abduction.
However, the pictures of husbands tied by ropes and admitted to hospitals belies the defense claims that these were relatively mild kidnappings . . . even if one accepts such a questionable notion.
Two other rabbis were also convicted with Epstein including Rabbi Martin Wolmark, 57. The other men in the warehouse also received remarkably good deals given the kidnapping charges. Arrested were Jay Goldstein, 61, Moshe Goldstein, 32, Avrohom Goldstein, 36, Simcha Bulmash, 32, Binyamin Stimler, 40, David Hellman, 33, and Sholom Shuchat, 31, all of Brooklyn, and Ariel Potash, 42, of Monsey, N.Y.
Putting aside these sentences, it is astonishing that these Orthodox Jewish individuals — both the wives and the kidnappers — would be appalled at the thought of a divorce without a “get” as a sin but not view kidnapping and beatings as a sin. Call me a bit confused on that point.
Source: NJ
It is rare that we see some church pilate of any denomination get caught up in the crime of scam. It is very easy to see the poise, the pose, the rap song without the music or with music, and the passing of the plate. “I play dominoes, you play dominos, I can beat you at dominoes”. With organ music in the background. Humans are attracted to apCray rather than reason. There is a reason for this. The notion of “belief” makes thought process a lot easier. Go to the Sears Roebuck Bible and all is explained. All religions have one thing in common. Scam the man.
When humans grow out of this then it will be like when the alligator comes out of the swamp and suns for a while. The alligator may go back into the swamp. The humans usually do. But the alligator knows that he is merely looking up at the sun and not some G O D or Hey Zeus. The alligator appreciates the sun. The human starts thinking about rain, snow and the fact that the in-laws are coming over for dinner. Humans ought to watch the movie Thunder Road. “Foods good, meat too, skin a cat, thats that!”. That is all the pray that you humans need. Get a dog.
This Rabbi is a light weight. Meet the rat that snitched on NY Israeli mafia in 1989.
John Smith
What you fail to realize is that these criminal acts fall outside of the realm of legal activity found in religious law, where such behavior is strictly forbidden–not encouraged, condoned, permitted or allowed. These men acted outside of the law, not within its scope. More specifically, these beatings and kidnappings are contrary to the very law that these religious men claim to uphold. I challenge you to find any religious justification, whatsoever, for these crimes. It doesn’t exist. What you see are people (the wives) who are so desperate to extricate themselves from their husbands that they are willing to break any and all laws to achieve that freedom. This case is an anomaly, just as a case in the civil courts would be where a spouse has the other kidnapped or beaten to attain concessions in a divorce. How often does that occur among the myriad of civil divorce proceedings in this country? It’s a rarity, just as this story is a rare exception, which explains why it made the front cover of the newspaper. You are mistaken if you believe that this is somehow de rigeur in religious divorces. It is not. Religious doctrine does not condone these crimes any more than does the American legal system.
Dog, what are you saying, do you think I am banging out the Overman from the dense metal of the readership on the Anvil of Crom or something? LOL I am just a nobody, an everyman. I am no-man. My real name is Otis. I mean, Outis, sorry, spelling error.
Good question Bam Bam. I am also wondering, if someone commits violence in the name of religion, and they are a Muslim, isn’t that terror? but if a Jewish rabbi does it, then it’s just a garden variety crime. ‘
This is a real man bites dog story, isn’t it!
You’re right Rick. The men had superior rights under Jewish law, and if we have cultural diversity we should allow them their due. But we have a nation of laws that are also superior to religious laws, and the women can’t break the law just because they are oppressed.
Of course that kind of sentiment is just what the evil segregationists said! And the Jewish lawyers at the ACLU constantly remind us that the laws of the state are superior to religious laws, and so, the Jewish lawyers should work on cleaning out the beam in their eye before they work on the specks in our own.
andrea
1, December 18, 2015 at 7:57 am
The husbands who refused to issue the Get are despicable. Too damn bad that they weren’t all charged with extortion, because that’s what refusal to issue the Get is usually about.
Isn’t it interesting people invent circumstances to conclude the men who were attacked were “despicable” yet have not one criticism for the women who ordered the beatings? Surely they would similarly blame the wives if the husbands paid goons to beat them into submission.
What is wrong with people?
While I’m at it, I’d like to mention to the Christians out there, consider that even though Christ was born among the Jews, and raised as a Jew, and in His human ancestry was descended from Jews, that as the Fulfillment of the Law and the Savior of all humanity, and Incarnate God, He was above the Jews just as much as He was above all the gentile nations.
But Herod a Jew tried to slay Him in the cradle, and eventually the Sanhedrin got Him arrested on false charges. When the procurator Pontius Pilate said “i find no fault in this man” and tried to release Him, the Sanhedrin and its agents stirred up the rabble, and they cried for Barrabas. They said, “crucify him!” and “let his blood be upon us and our children.” And so it happened.
And why? Because they rejected Him, considered Him a blasphemer, the punishment for which is death. They got it done, sneaky-like, by getting the Romans to do it.
So as we enter into Advent, remember, it was the Persian Magi and lowly shepherds who hailed Him, but it was the Jewish king who tried to murder Him, and the Jewish religious leaders the Sanhedrin that succeeded in it.
The mystery of it all, is that their mischief was the catalyst for the Miracle of the Resurrection and the redemption of all mankind.
So just like how it was Gollum that actually destroyed the Ring when he wounded Frodo and fell into Mount Doom, they too have a role to play in history. We shall see where it all goes, things are unfolding very quickly now.
Usually a “smitty” is one who bangs metal on a steel pedestal to reshape. We have a Smitty on the blog who is an odd duck.
In my view, religion is the opiate of the people. To get off the drug one needs to get real. You do not need to kneel and pray at some church or mosque and then pay money when they pass the plate. Get a dog. The dog will give guidance. On the 8th Day God Created Dog. On the 9th Day God created opium. Choose your weapon.
john smith,
Staying w/ the Jew/black Civil Rights movement in the US, black people are now some of the most vicious anti-Semites in this country. And, even Jews who were not involved in the Civil Rights movement, Jews owned the businesses in the inner city that served poor black people. They had empathy for black people. They had personal relationships. That’s all gone. It’s now Middle Eastern and Koreans who owned the corner stores in the inner city.
They’re a little bit like that Pharisee that Jesus mentioned, up there in the front of the Temple praying loud and ostentatious and self-adulating prayers, while the widow sneaks in the back. They’re great at telling the Goyim how to “tikkun olam” the world, and not so good at following their “universal human rights” initiatives and dictates themselves.
A little bit of background–not that it excuses the criminal behavior, but it does, however, fill in some of the gaps left by the article and offer some explanation as to why a “get” was so crucial to the wives of these men. A “get” is a Jewish divorce, which is separate and distinct from a civil divorce. Even after a couple has attained a civil divorce, they are still considered, under the laws of Judaism, to be man and wife, which explains the necessity of the get–a religious divorce. In Judaism, it is the man, not the woman, who grants the divorce, and therein lies the rub. While the man, sans a get, can still move on with his life and date or marry without consequences, the woman, on the other hand, without a get, cannot. She is stuck in a limbo of sorts–unable to date, unable to marry–an agunah. The men who refuse to grant these gets are either doing so out of spite and vindictiveness, to intentionally hurt the woman, or out of greed, to extract some type of concessions, or both. This rabbi, I assume, was hired and paid by the women affected by these uncooperative men, to force them to acquiesce and release these wives from a prison, where their lives are at a standstill and there is no opportunity for ever marrying. It is interesting that these acts of violence did not occur in a vacuum; these criminal acts occurred at the bequest of the women who paid these individuals to help them attain the get. Why were they not charged for solicitation or as co-conspirators?
I also find a lot of irony in how Jews are often big activists and volunteers and donors and lawyers to help all the undocumented migrants f/k/a “illegal aliens” and also the “refugees.” How many “refugees” from Syria has Israel helped compared to the much maligned Europeans?
It’s kind of like how Jews financed and helped lead the Civil Rights movement to fully emancipate blacks, such as Kivie Kaplan who was president of the NAACP, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kivie_Kaplan plus hundreds if not thousands of other donors and activists freedom riders to say none the least of lawyers, all working for that “one man one vote” principle, likewise they helped lead the crusade against the evils of apartheid in the RSA, etc, but in PALESTINE the Israeli Jews have an illegal military occupation that does not allow Palestinian Arabs any vote in Israeli elections at all? How about a “one state solution” in Palestine & Israel and an END to the apartheid state of Israel?
Does anybody besides me see irony in how Jews have lead the crusade for women’s rights, feminism and all that stuff, you know, Freidan, Abzug, all these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_feminists
but they can’t seem to get their own rabbis up from this Talibanesque level of female oppression?
NPR had a great interview with somebody all about this guy and the problem a year ago or so.
Tony Soprano was hired by a family who would not accede to a get.
The whole thing is simply funny. We need funny in this world. Here we have a religion in the US that performs on their own. They do good things in a bad way. They do bad things in bad ways. But they only do it to their own club members who are free to leave at any time.
The husbands who refused to issue the Get are despicable. Too damn bad that they weren’t all charged with extortion, because that’s what refusal to issue the Get is usually about.
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