Rabbi Martin Wolmark, 57, an orthodox rabbi from Monsey, New York has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for his part in a ring that used coercion and torture in order to get Jewish men to agree to a religions divorce.

The ring, which included Rabbi Mendel Espstein of Brooklyn were active from 2009 to 2013 and involved payment of large sums of money for their services.  The tools used included handcuffs and electric cattle prods. Rabbi Mendel Epstein, who is 70, was sentenced for 10 years in prison. 

As discussed a previous article, under Jewish law the man must cooperate in order for a Jewish divorce, which is known as a get to be given.  If he man refuses to cooperate there can be no get and accordingly, the woman may never remarry in the Jewish religion.  This is a real problem to a woman that is orthodox.  There are organization such as the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot to help such woman. 

Traditionally Rabbis would discuss the matter of a get with the man and try to convince him of cooperating in the get.  If the man could not be persuaded to do the right thing, then public shaming of a man could also be a possibility.  However Rabbi Wolmark and his associates went well over the legal line by holding the men against their wills and torturing them. 

The ring of outlaw Rabbis were discovered when an undercover FBI woman approached Rabbi Wolmark seeking a get.  With the undercover woman FBI agent was an uncover FBI male agent posing as her brother.   Rabbi Womark and the convicted Rabbi Mendel Epstein openly discuss their plans to kidnap and torture the husband in order to obtain his permission for the get.  Most of the Rabbis arrested were arrested at the warehouse they were planning on holding and torturing the man. They had with them in their possession several items, including handcuffs and electric cattle prods. 

Although this is a colorful story, it is a symptom of a real problem, that is that the man controls the process of obtain a religious Jewish divorce.  New York has tried to deal with this problem by passing a law which requires every couple when divorcing sign an affidavit stating that if they married religiously that they would cooperate in a religious divorce.  Of course this only helps if the man wants a civil divorce and the divorce takes place in New York.