It might all sound like something out of an episode of the Sopranos, when last Wednesday night the FBI stormed secret lair of the kidnapping Rabbis, and raided their synagogue,the Yeshiva Shaarei Torah in Suffern, New York. . The Rabbi's had been reigning over their congregation with a mafia like terror tactics, kidnapping and assaulting men who would not grant their wives divorces.
They charged Jewish women up to twenty thousand dollars to obtain their "gets" for them, which is in Hebrew culture a document the husband must present to his wife under Jewish law in order for her to obtain a divorce.In Jewish culture such a document holds more weight than a document from civil court. Though as culturally backwards as it might be seen in todays culture, by Old Testament standards the wife is chained to the husband until this is received.
The Rabbi Mendel Epstein told undercover federal agents in a sting operation, that he would hire"tough guys" to use cattle prods and martial arts in order to get the job done, before he accepted twenty thousand dollars from the undercover agents. He went on to tell the agents that, he guaranteed that if they were in the van they would give a get to their wives , even though they probably loved, them but after what they would go through the would give it." He also boasted that business has been steady as ,they had performed a kidnapping every twelve to eighteen months, so it would not be their first rodeo.
Rabbi Martin Wolmark, had told the agents when they required that it takes a special kind of rabbi to set this sort of thing in motion. This seems like an understatement as it is doubtful the average rabbi is connected to cattle prod wielding, martial arts slinging tough guys.
For hundreds of years get withholding husbands have been viewed with contempt. Orthodox Jewish newspapers often shame them by printing their names, which is a kinder gentler path than what was advocated back in the 12th century when Jewish leaders believed they should be whipped until they issued the get or died.
If convicted the Rabbis could face life in prison. Their attorney sees this as highly serious problem in the modern Orthodox community but insists that the Rabbis are held in high regard among their communities. Bringing up the question why is kidnapping held in high regard?
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