CBS news [See also Asbury Park Press NJ.Com NY Daily News]
Three rabbis were convicted in federal court Tuesday of conspiring to kidnap Jewish men in order to force them to grant their wives divorces.
Three rabbis were convicted in federal court Tuesday of conspiring to kidnap Jewish men in order to force them to grant their wives divorces.
Rabbi Mendel Epstein, 69, of Lakewood, New Jersey; Rabbi Jay Goldstein, 60, of Brooklyn; and Rabbi Binyamin Stimler, 39, also of Brooklyn, were all convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, according to New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman. Goldstein and Stimler were also convicted of attempted kidnapping.
Epstein’s son, David, was acquitted at trial.
Jurors deliberated for three days after an eight-week trial before Trenton U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson, prosecutors said.
Epstein and his colleagues were accused of employing a kidnap team to force unwilling Jewish husbands to grant a get, or a religious divorce, to their wives.
Someone should, for the benefit of the public, download from PACER the full caseload of this court case, including all testimony, depositions, multimedia, audio, video, documents evidence, court transcripts and whatever else PACER might have on this case - and then post all the case files from PACER on this blog or elsewhere so that the public can read and understand what happened for the past 25+ years these thugs have been practicing their savagery in violently beating men into unwillingly give what effectively is a non-kosher Get resulting in countless mamzeirim.
ReplyDeleteThis rosha is still at it?! Unbelievable. Why is he still insisting that the gitten were valid and that he was doing some sort of "mitzvah"?
ReplyDeleteSaid Epstein's counsel:
ReplyDelete"[...]the Government overreached in its prosecution and charged the crime of federal kidnapping when there was no intent to conduct criminal behavior."
Uh, how's that?!
It is legal to detain someone in the service of a potential arrest, on reasonable suspicion either of their having commited a crime or in preventing their committing a crime.
But since when is it legal to detain someone simply because (1) you really really want to for religious reasons and (2) you have "no intent to conduct criminal behavior" ??!
Not only is that some kind of legal nonsense, but halakhically, without a legitimate beis din's order, it would be a geneivas nefashos. Bad news: they're not only "guilty" but chaiyiv missa.
Wow amazing the real losers are David wax and the feds. The zechus of working to help the downtrodden and helpless stood up for Mendel Epstein and he was convicted only on the lightest of the four charges. Also having a realativly fair judge made a huge difference
ReplyDeleteThere definitely is a deafening sound of silence out there about the singing testimonies that went on in court. Don't know why the press seems so tightlipped. Could be mr. Walmart paid them off. We the people have a need to know exactly what RCA's ORA's and the rest of the cholera's did behind the scenes, and the time is NOW. We then can take it to CITIFIELD'S and all the other fields and have field feast to see their true colors, how they sell out the TORAH and their neshomos to the satan for a few bucks and a pair of shoes. What a chilul Hashem, what a shanda! Have you no shame, have you no decency. Close down shop and send home the clowns together with the Peeper rabbis. Who needs Torah tramplers?
ReplyDeleteYou can praise the Judge all you want, but these goons and thugs will "shmachte in the turmeh" for the rest of their miserable low lives, no matter how you slice it. Don't jump the gun, be patient and wait for the sentencing, then we talk! And for you yossele goilem, go back and play ping pong with yourself back and forth just like Lucy used to play chess all by herself, moving from one side of the table to the other side as if an opponent. Guilty, but not guilty. And on the other hand guilty, but on the flip side of the coin not guilty, but only half way, just like a little bit pregnant. You can do all that under one breath in one sentence, kuntslich. What a spokesperson PR nebach nebach. A mixture of bipolar schizophrenia, confusion, sprinkled with a little meshugene. You have no clue whether your'e coming or going. You confuse no one, but yourself.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Gerald, we don't want them here in Israel either.
ReplyDeleteThey need a closed gated community, in a place like Ottisvile, NY!
The zechus
ReplyDeleteLol. Do you mean all the znus he promulgated? Do you mean all the money that he defrauded from these women into thinking that they were indeed divorced, when in fact they were married?
help the downtrodden
Lol Do you mean all the mamzeirim created through him. They are indeed downtrodden people.
stood up for Mendel Epstein
LOL He only faces life in prison. He was only under house arrest for the past year and half. He only had to schnorer money from his kids to pay his legal fees.
the real losers are ..the feds.
Nope, nope. They have reversed a horrible trend put into place by Mendel. They have stopped the wholesale znuse heter factory of Mendel Epstein and Yaakov Goldstein. They have done a huge mitzvah, and they will be handing out orange jumpsuits.
[A] loser is David wax
True. Among Epstein, Goldstein, and all the married women sleeping around without gitten.
the downtrodden and helpless
95% of these supposed "aggunot" are in reality only products of their own making. They refuse to settle fairly. We pasken like the Rama that all issues need to be resolved prior to a get being given. This is not even discussing that they don't have a right to unilaterally destroy a family.
The "lightest" charge carries a potential life sentence.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is only in addition to Beibud RESHAIM Rinah!!!
ReplyDeleteHe is also facing a sentencing of LIFE IN PRISON, on the count he was convicted on. He is a rasha mrusha, and in the running for the biggest mchalel shem Shomayim of our generation - right up there with Bernie Madoff and Levi Aron. So even though we realize he is a family member of yours, get it through your incredibly thick head that all he cared about was himself and a buck. He would have sold his mother - AND his son, AND YOU - for 60,000 dollars. Its sad and unfortunate that others such as the naive fools he convinced to be his sofer and aidim were fooled by this evil person and will pay a very very heavy price for it. But Mendel Epstien??! Feh! He is a rasha mrusha, certainly not a Rabbi, and not even a religious jew. He is a fraiyock, the same as Dweck, a narcissistic psychopath.
ReplyDeleteThe Gamara says in several places (such as Baba Bathra
ReplyDelete158b) “the climate of the land of Israel makes one wise”
אוירא
דארץ ישראל מחכים
referring to differing views of rabbis outside of Israel
versus rabbis living in Israel. If these
rabbis in the USA who support forced divorces would make Aliya to Israel, they
would change their mind!
"We plan to appeal that verdict on a number of legal grounds, believing
ReplyDeletethat the Court of Appeals will eventually agree that the Government
overreached in its prosecution and charged the crime of federal
kidnapping when there was no intent to conduct criminal behavior."
Now, there's one smart attorney! Even though he probably has no chance whatsoever of winning in an Appeals Court (if they ever even get to one), at $600.00 an hour you do the math.
As for רב מענדל, my mother צו לאנגע יארן, always says:
קיינער קאן נישט א זאלכע שלעכטס מאכען ווי אינער מאכט אויף זיך אליין
“We plan to appeal that verdict on a number of legal grounds,
ReplyDeletebelieving
that the Court of Appeals will eventually agree that the Government
overreached in its prosecution and charged the crime of federal
kidnapping when there was no intent to conduct criminal behavior."
Is a forced get criminal
behavior? Let’s see discussion. I’m waiting to see all the parties supporting
forced gets to argue how wonderful and how socially good a forced get. Surely all the parties supporting forced gets
are deeply ashamed and probably fearful of prosecution for criminal activity. In Israel there’s little support for forced
gets, thank God.
Re: Rabbi Ralbag
ReplyDeleteAmsterdam Rabbi tied to violent New York divorce squad
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2015/04/mendel-epstein-goldstein-and-stimler.html
http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/amsterdamse-opperrabbijn-in-opspraak~a3982690/
ReplyDeletehttps://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.volkskrant.nl%2Fbinnenland%2Famsterdamse-opperrabbijn-in-opspraak~a3982690%2F&edit-text=
I have questions. Judge Wolfson promised Ralbag immunity “in
ReplyDeleteany criminal case, except a prosecution for perjury, giving a false statement,
or failing to comply with this Order” (Pacer 3/6/15). Did Rabbi Ralbag mention any names? He denied Menachem Teiltelbaum’s charge:
“One of the victims, Menachem
Teitelbaum, accused Ralbag of threatening and beating him. He stated in his
testimony that Ralbag received between 25 thousand and 30 thousand dollars for
his help in obtaining the get. Ralbag denied this to the court, stating that he
is unpopular because he helps women.”
Which women did Ralbag help? How
did he help them? How much money did these women give him? Was it out of proportion to proper rabbinical
services rendered? Who was his key go between when “he helps women?”
I look at Rabbi Ralbag’s fine
ReplyDeletephoto of him teaching Torah in a crowded Orthodox shul. Here are my thoughts. It is a well-known sin
to disparage the Land of Israel. See my
recent article on this subject.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/16841\#.VTyZapsf7IU.
Rabbi Ralbag and Mendel Epstein et
al insult the Land of Israel. They knew
very well rabbis in Israel oppose the forced get. They proceeded in spite. They know better than rabbis in Israel. They wait for the mashiach.
What happened to the July 15 2015 sentencing??
ReplyDelete