update NY Times (Reuters)
- Two Brooklyn brothers have admitted participating in a violent ring
with rabbis that threatened Jewish husbands to agree to grant their
wives a religious divorce, and they face possible lengthy prison terms,
prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Avrohom
Goldstein, 34, and Moshe Goldstein, 31, were among 10 men, including
their father and two Orthodox Jewish rabbis, arrested last fall in the
alleged scheme in which they hired themselves out to unhappy wives who
wanted their husbands kidnapped and beaten until they agreed to divorce,
according to New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman. [...]
Last week, David Hellman, 31, a New York personal trainer, also pleaded guilty to being part of the violent ring. Hellman's sentencing is set for June 12.
==================
Wall Street Journal A Brooklyn man has admitted to traveling to New Jersey to coerce a Jewish man to give his wife a religious divorce - called a 'get' - through threats of violence.
The U.S. attorney's office says David Hellman pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Trenton.
Prosecutors say the 31-year-old personal trainer was part of an
alleged plot involving several men, including two rabbis, which arranged
religious divorces through torture and kidnapping.
Now 3 of the smaller players out of the 10 original indictees have pleaded guilty.
ReplyDeleteClearly this means they'll be cooperating witnesses as the Feds focus on Epstein and Wolmark.
Even those pleading guilty likely got a plea deal involving a few years in prison as the Feds seek to get a heavy sentence for the ringleaders.
ReplyDeleteThe Aug. 22, 2011 Get-beating case these 3 defendents also admitted to participating in was the Yisroel Meir Briskman beating in Lakewood by David and Judy Wax.
ReplyDeleteSo the Wax's goose is also cooked as these defendants will be testifying against the Wax's as the Feds seek a heavy sentence for them.
Which explains why the Feds have been delaying the Wax case until they got these guys and coerced them into cooperating in exchange for lighter sentences.
The 2011 date is apparently when the FBI complaint was filed and criminal charges against the Wax's commenced. The Briskman beating took place in 2010.
ReplyDeleteLakewood Rabbonim Ban Megillas Lester Artscroll pulled the video from its website.
ReplyDeleteArtscroll did not pull the video. It's still on their website.
DeleteSad. I remember their father, Jay Goldstein, from Yeshiva of Eastern Parkway. He was a Talmud Chacham and it was well known that he was seriously mentally ill.
ReplyDeleteI have no sympathy for what they did but Hashem yerachem on him and his children.
I know one of the alleged "Beaters". I am profoundly depressed over this. I know him to be a kind and scrupulous individual. As far as I know he didn't take money, he was doing this "Lishmah", to help women. From a Yiddishkeit perspective, I believe his only sin was trusting the wrong individual (Wolmark) to make the right moral decisions.
ReplyDeleteFrom a basic self preservation perspective, he erred by trusting this individual to act professionally and not brag and blab about his actions to reporters.
From a legal perspective. I hope they view this with some kind of understanding. They meant to do the right thing.
There is no such thing as "beating lishmah". Period.
DeleteWho blabbed to reporters?
Perhaps the lesson is that what appears to be 'kind and scrupulous individual' can still be a criminal.
DeleteDo yo really believe that only the ring leaders (Wolmark / Epstein) were paid? and if your person was paid too then what can possibly suggest that he meant to do the right thing?
Beating someone is a serious crime, whether Halacha-wise Rasha lomo sake reaocho, or dina demalchuse dina. Tipesh lishma is not an excuse, neither here nor in the world to come. In any case, most of these guys involved are either sadists in nature or ex-criminals promised a reward by these goon squads rabbis.
ReplyDelete@obs
ReplyDeleteYou mean to say from $100G a pop, nothing trickled down to this alleged lishma bum, u must b kidding.
See Rabbi Dovid Eidensohn's previous comment in other posts regarding people who perpetrate deplorable acts in the belief that they are acting "lishmah."
ReplyDeleteHardly a word is ever mentioned in the "Chareidi" community about the large numbers of Jewish women who received invalid Gittin, and are now "remarried" or else on the "singles" market. Rabbanim seem terrified to make the slightest mention of this issue as its implications are utterly explosive.
ReplyDeleteThis subject is almost completely suppressed as any focus on it will quickly demonstrate that the Chareidi emperors have no clothes. The so-called "gadolim" organize huge protests against the "Tzionist" government in Israel and against the Internet, while remaining utterly silent about the massive proliferation of adultery and mamzerim caused by Epstein & Wohlmark, the YU ORA group, the NY State Get Law, tyrant family court judges, etc.
Meant to do the right thing, eh.
ReplyDeleteSo did the Fuhrer!
The Mamzairim are slowly emerging from the closet. There are even more of those around when you figure in all the non-coerced gittin these 2 Rabbis oversaw which were mostly no good to begin with.
ReplyDeleteSupposedly Wolmark did the same shenanigans in Detroit where he had the Gra Shul, was forced out of Detroit and came to Monsey, he was beyond the kidnapping more then Rabbi Epstein.
ReplyDeleteEpstein's been in the kidnapping business for over 20 years.
DeleteEpstein offered to do a "job" for me back in 1997.
DeleteMiMedinat HaYam
MiMedinat HaYam: What were the details of that offer?
DeleteN u did nothing. Stood idlely by your brother's blood. Epstein is a kappo. His followers are kappos. The women coming to him are greedy gold digging bitches. Many delusional or party delusional. Women without a conscience who file false abuse charges. These women are real kappos in the full sense of the word. Selling their husbands into governmental slavery. Shame on you. Shame on your rabbis. Shame on the Jewish community. May God avenge our blood.
ReplyDelete