Trenton, NJ – An undercover FBI agent testified on Thursday in a case involving three Orthodox Jewish rabbis in New Jersey accused of kidnapping and beating husbands to force them to grant divorces under Jewish law to their wives.
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Special Agent Jessica Weisman, who went by the name Rachel Marconi during the operation, said she weaved a complicated back story designed to provide a plausible excuse to the rabbis to explain why she knew no one from the close-knit Orthodox community in Lakewood, New Jersey.
She told them of a husband in Argentina and provided them with fake wedding photos and counterfeit marriage contracts.
The three rabbis – Mendel Epstein, Binyamin Stimler and Jay Goldstein – and Epstein’s son David are accused of kidnapping or trying to kidnap men and torturing them with beatings and stun guns until they agreed to divorce their wives. Prosecutors say the events took place between 2009 and 2013.
“He told me he wanted to have children and that is part of the reason I am getting desperate,” a weeping Weisman is heard saying during a secretly recorded phone conversation with rabbi Martin Wolmark, who has pleaded guilty in the case. “I want children, and time is not on my side.”
Orthodox Jewish women cannot get a divorce unless their husbands consent through a document known as a “get.” Experts say such kidnapping schemes are responses to so-called get abuse, in which husbands demand a larger share of communal property before granting the divorce.
The four defendants face up to life in prison and a $250,000 fine for each kidnapping count if found guilty, prosecutors say.
Wolmark has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce to commit extortion. His sentencing is scheduled for May.
The four others have pleaded not guilty. Their lawyers have argued that Jewish law allowed rough tactics, but what the men did fell way short of federal kidnapping charges.
In court, prosecutors played tapes in which Weisman and another agent who pretended to be her brother floated the idea of luring the fictitious husband to the United States.
The tapes show the agents setting up a meeting with Epstein during which they would hatch a plan to convince the husband to “give a get.”
“You understand what we are talking about,” Epstein can be heard on tape saying. “We’re going to use some strategic planning, to use a nice word.”
I happen to know all four of those on trial and I assure you they are not criminals, but well meaning individuals who tried to help women. Rabbi Goldstein is a mild mannered sofer who couldn’t intimidate anyone. I have davened with all 4 of them in different minyonim over the years and hope they are found not guilty in this FBI sting operation.
I really hope they ate found not guilty
They reportedly charged $50,000.00 and more! They have perverted OUR Shulchan Aruch and besmirched OUR good name and r’l the good name of our Maker. The Feds have yet to address the Batei Din who referred to this gang. The Rabbonim should have been publicly shaming and excluding these Mesarvei Le-Din to force them to give Gittin, but there was no money in it for them.
lock him away
Isn’t that “entrapment”? I would suggest that all agunas line up and go to court. Let the court recognize the plight of the Agunah and the truth behind withholding a GET. Its about time the truth came out. There is no reason to withhold a GET. When a marriage is over it is over, no money in the world can fix that. And if a Jewish Man would review his Ketubah and the requirements therein they would recognize their religious responsibilities from the get go. They are responsible to take care of their wives. Furthermore, if they knew halacha they would know that they are supposed to love their wife as they love themselves and respect her more than they respect themselves. And truly Jewish man with Yiras Shamayim would give a GET straight away without blackmail or the like.
Either be married and uphold your marital obligations according to the Torah or give your wife a GET according to the Torah and set her free. Slavery is against the law!
“Special Agent…….She told them of a husband in Argentina and provided them with fake wedding photos and counterfeit marriage contracts.”
Until now we were told that the Beis Din agreed to rough up a non-existent person to give a get. The implication was that they didn’t make any effort to see that it was a real person.
However, now it is coming out that they were shown strong proof that such a person existed. The government sting operation showed them counterfeit marriage contracts. So that means that they were given what seemed to be legitimate documentation. The government fooled and entrapped them.
It seems that the government was involved in serious entrapment and deception, which casts a dark cloud over the whole affair. The governments case smells very strongly. I smell a rat.
R Epstein has represented many men too, but you don’t hear about all the good he did only this all the evil ones Come out of the woodwork to jump all over it, they pretend to be so,I’d Americans backing Obama but when it comes to the law about a fair trial and presumed innocent until proven guilty, then they’re not law abiding Americans any more,
I listened to the 24 minute tape. My thoughts: I hope and pray Rabbi Epstein wins. I knew Rabbi Epstein well 1985-1991 as a good neighbor and fellow in shul and simchot in his house. On the tape the lady FBI agent sounds so like my ex-wife I divorced February 17, 1993 by Get mutually agreed. The lady FBI lied and cried and showed Rabbi Epstein and the others falsified documents. Surely, Rabbi Epstein was taken in by that. He was not doing what he did for money. The money was only for expenses and for further proof that the woman was not lying. I speak from experience. My ex-wife is still now in NYS courts crying and submitting false documents and lying. So far, it’s working for her.
I knew Rabbi Epstein as good neighbor and fellow in shul 1985-1991. I listened to the 24 minute tape. The lady FBI agent sounds like my ex-wife whom I gave a get February 17, 1993. The FBI agent cried, lied, submitted false documents, and spoke convincingly. She’s an actress. So is my ex-wife. My ex-wife is still making trouble for me in NYS courts with her lies and false documents. Allow me to quote Talmud Yevamoth116a (Soncino translation):
“What is to be understood by DISCORD BETWEEN HIM AND HER? Rab Judah replied in the name of Samuel: When [a wife] says to her husband: Divorce me! Do not all women (Lit. all of them also) say this? (When they are angry. They do not mean it seriously. Why, then, should a woman, because of a momentary outburst, be suspected of inventing a tale about her husband’s death?)”
In the Talmud all women have a momentary outburst at their husbands and say: Divorce me! Once the woman made a donation to Agunah, Inc., in Mendel Epstein’s cases, he used his Star Chamber to force the man to give the Get without hearing the man’s side. The indictment cites Mendel Epstein saying:
“I guarantee you that if you’re in the van, you’d give a Get to your wife. Y