Rabbi Gets Decade in Prison for Divorce Coercion Ring

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Rabbi Gets Decade in Prison for Divorce Coercion Ring

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRENTON, N.J. — Dec 15, 2015, 6:43 PM ET

An Orthodox Jewish rabbi was sentenced Tuesday to a decade in prison after admitting to a judge he got caught up in his tough-guy image while leading a ring that coerced religious divorces from recalcitrant men.

Rabbi Mendel Epstein, 70, of Lakewood, was convicted in April of conspiracy to commit kidnapping after prosecutors said he led a team that used brutal methods and tools, including handcuffs and electric cattle prods, to torture the men into granting a divorce, known as a get. Epstein and nine others were caught as part of an undercover sting.

Jewish law mandates that the get be presented by a husband to a wife to make a divorce official.

"Over the years, I guess, I got caught up in my tough-guy image," Epstein told District Judge Freda Wolfson. "Truthfully, it helped me — the reputation — convince many of these reprobates to do the right thing."

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/rabbi-decade-prison-divorce-coercion-ring-35784932

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Imagine the reaction....

if he was a mullah.

[LiberalAndProud]

2. Brutal behavior seems to be one of the special perils of authoritarian religious sects.

When a person is convinced that they are authorized by god, things can get out of hand.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. Hmm.

I abhor violence, but, keep in mind/context what some of these men are doing to these women. Extortion is the least of it.

"On November 4, 2013, 25-year-old Gital Dodelson appeared on the cover of the New York Post to go public with her story. The young mother of one had been trying for over three years to leave her marriage. Married in 2009 in both a civil and Jewish religious ceremony, Dodelson separated from her husband, Avrohom Meir Weiss, after only 10 months. The couple was civilly divorced in August 2012. However, despite all efforts to fully extricate herself from her marriage, Dodelson remained bound to Weiss by religious law. With no power to initiate a divorce in a Jewish court, Dodelson turned to the only forum she felt was open to her: the court of public opinion.

http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/posts/women-in-chains-divorce-in-the-orthodox-jewish-community

http://www.jta.org/2014/02/05/news-opinion/united-states/gital-dodelson-agunah-featured-in-n-y-post-obtains-get

Three freakin' years of being treated like property, AFTER a civil divorce.

http://www.newsweek.com/2015/04/17/fighting-be-free-lengths-orthodox-jewish-women-will-go-get-320536.html
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/03/01/389873594/in-israel-jewish-divorce-is-only-granted-by-husbands-permission

If your society is so steeped in patriarchy that a woman simply cannot obtain a divorce for any reason, maybe you ought to catch a beating from someone if you're the guy refusing the divorce. Violence is a foundational cornerstone of patriarchy, so, from a certain point of view, this might be viewed as simply playing the game by the established rules.

"agunah, or a chained woman"

If your society has a term for that, that is widely used, your society has issues. Beating the men who put women in that position is just ONE issue.

[Lordquinton]

4. This is a tough case

within the context of secular law, it's a terrible thing. Within the context of an ultra misogynistic law, he's some people's last resort. I think that is one reason he was 70 when brought to court.

Can't quite phrase it properly, but he's someone who goes around intentionally committing sin to save others from doing it, or to punish people who aren't sinning per say, but are just bad folks (This is all within the context of religion, of course. That someone like him is filling a needed role speaks volumes to the problems that are inherent).

[AtheistCrusader]

5. He is, essentially, a Market Distortion.

No other relief valve... Things happen.

We may not consider it appropriate or conscionable, but he doesn't operate under the same social rules that we would arrive at that conclusion under.

[Iggo]

6. I hate kidnapping & torture, but I'm okay with it for bad people?

Yeah, no, that ain't right.

[AtheistCrusader]

7. It's not right.

But it's a symptom of just how bad the precipitating problem is.

How inescapable.

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” -Frederick Douglass

The woman in the main story I linked found a way to use words. Commendable, but I'd understand if she'd not been able to find a way.

Freedom is our most fundamental human right. I don't own my wife. If I disrespected her enough to treat her like property, there would be a reaction. On some level, I'd deserve it.