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Two New York Rabbis Sentenced for Roles in “Get” Plot

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Rabbi Mendel Epstein, 70, of Lakewood, New Jersey was sentenced to ten year in jail for his role in coercing men to give their wives a religious bill of divorcement known as a “get”

On Tuesday, December 15th, two Orthodox Jewish rabbis were sentenced to prison “for their involvement in a plot to kidnap Jewish men in an effort to coerce them into granting their wives religious divorces,” reports CBSNewYork.

Rabbi Mendel Epstein, 70, of Lakewood N.J. was sentenced to ten years in prison and Rabbi Binyamin Stimler, 40, of Brooklyn, received three years and three months, according to U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.

Already in April, Mendel Epstein Epstein was convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Rabbi Binyamin Stimler, too, was convicted on the same charge, as well as attempted kidnapping.

According to CBSNewYork, the men were arrested along with eight other individuals after, in October 2013, the FBI had raided several different locations of their possible whereabouts, including Yeshiva Shaarei Torah in Suffern, a home in Brooklyn and at least one other location in New Jersey.

The initial investigation stemmed from four incidents occurring between 2009 and 2013. Prosecutors said the team used brutal tactics, such as “handcuffs and electric cattle prods to torture men into granting religious divorces.”

Their approach stemmed from the fact that Jewish law mandates that a husband present his wife with a document, known as a “get,” to make their divorce legitimate and valid. According to Jewish law, a Jewish woman cannot remarry without receiving a Jewish divorce, or get, from her husband. Women who are trapped in such marriages are called agunot, or chained women, and it was the agunot the accused were trying to protect.

In November this year, Avrohom Goldstein, of Brooklyn, was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. Ariel Potash, of Monsey, New York, got a sentence of one year and two months, and Sholom Schuchat, of Brooklyn, was sentenced to time served. Moshe Goldstein, 32, of Brooklyn, was also sentenced to four years in prison.

Rabbi Jay “Yaakov” Goldstein was convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and attempted kidnapping and was sentenced to eight years in prison for his participation in a ring that violently attempted to coerce Jewish men to grant their wives religious divorces, reports The Jewish Week. Goldstein, 61, of Brooklyn, New York, was the last one to be sentenced.

Gene O’Grady

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