Case of Rabbi Sholom Shuchat
(AKA: Sholom D. Shuchat)
(AKA: Sholom D. Shuchat)
Rabbinical Judge and Arbitrator - Union of Orthodox Rabbis, Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi & Consultant - Chabad Halachic Fertility Services, Crown Heights, NY
Associate Editor - Kehot Publication Society
Rabbi - Manhattan Sephardic Congregation, New York, NY
Teacher - Yeshivas Menachem Mendel Lubavitch, Detroit, MI
Teacher - Mesivta Oholei Yosef Yitzchok, Oak Park, MI
Arrested during an internet sting along with 7 other men. The charges include kidnapping, extortion, various forms of torture including sexually assaulted men with a stun gun on their genitals. The goal of this gang was to force men to give their wives a Get (Jewish Divorce), after the women paid the gang anywhere between $10,000 - $50,000.
Instead of raising funds to help the men victimized by these crimes Chabad organized a fundraiser to pay for the defense of Rabbi Sholom Shuchat. The committee members of this fundraiser include rabbis Golan Benoni, Lipa Brennan, Sholem B. Hecht, Shea Hecht, Yosef Orenstein, Moshe Pinson, Yoni Raskin, Benzion Stock.
Sholom Shuchat was born in 1984
_________________________________________________________________________________Instead of raising funds to help the men victimized by these crimes Chabad organized a fundraiser to pay for the defense of Rabbi Sholom Shuchat. The committee members of this fundraiser include rabbis Golan Benoni, Lipa Brennan, Sholem B. Hecht, Shea Hecht, Yosef Orenstein, Moshe Pinson, Yoni Raskin, Benzion Stock.
Sholom Shuchat was born in 1984
Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet their own personal needs.
Table of Contents:
2013
- United States District Court: District of New Jersey (10/10/2013)
- 2 rabbis, 8 others charged in N.J. kidnapping and torture plot to force divorce (10/12/2013)
- Attorney: Monsey rabbi tied to divorce gang could be released on bail by Friday (10/16/2013)
- Chabad Launches Defense Fund For Kidnap-Torture-Extortion Gang Member (10/19/2013)
- Bail set in kidnapping-divorce Case (10/20/2013)
- Linkedin - Rabbi Sholom Shuchat (10/31/2013)
- Twitter - Rabbi Sholom Shuchat (10/13/2013)
Also see:
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October 10, 2013
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2 rabbis, 8 others charged in N.J. kidnapping and torture plot to force divorce
By Ted Sherman and Salavador Rizzo
Star Ledger - October 11, 2013
Rabbi Sholom Shuchat - Alleged Sex Offender |
The rabbi had a plan.
“We take an electric cattle prod,” he told her, according to a surveillance recording. “If it can get a bull that weighs five tons to move ... You put it in certain parts of his body and in one minute the guy will know ... ”
In a bizarre plot sounding more like a scene out of The Sopranos than the affairs of an ultra-religious community, two Orthodox rabbis and eight others were charged in New Jersey Thursday in a torture-for-hire operation involving threats of kidnapping, beatings and the use of such implements as handcuffs, knives and stun guns — all aimed at convincing recalcitrant husbands to grant their wives religious divorces.
Most of those arrested were taken into custody at a Middlesex County warehouse Wednesday night — some wearing Halloween masks and one in a Metallica T-shirt — as they waited to grab a supposed victim for a rough lesson in divorce law. It was all a set-up: The woman was an FBI undercover agent, there was no husband and the conversations were all recorded.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said at least one of those charged admitted he had participated in similar kidnappings in the past and investigators believe there may have been as many as several dozen assaults conducted by the same group over a period of many years.
“One of the defendants almost bragged that they had done this to other people before,” Fishman said.
The cost of convincing was not cheap. According to the FBI, the going rate was $10,000 to pay off a rabbinical court to approve a kidnapping and then another $50,000 to $60,000 to pay for the “tough guys” who would mete out beatings and other torture until a reluctant spouse finally acquiesced.
Those charged included Rabbi Mendel Epstein, 68, who has homes in Lakewood and Brooklyn, and Rabbi Martin Wolmark, 55, a school administrator at a yeshiva in Monsey, N.Y. Both were arrested Wednesday night at their homes.
Chabad Rabbi - Sholom Shuchat |
All 10 appeared in federal court in Trenton Thursday and were ordered held without bail.
Divorce in the Orthodox community is governed not by secular law, but by a rabbinical court. And under Jewish law, a wife may not sue for divorce unless her husband agrees to provide her with a document known as a “get.” The court, known as a “beth din,” can order the husband to issue a get, however, in a bitter divorce dispute there is often no quick resolution and no guarantee he will accept the edict.
“It’s not like a civil divorce,” said family practice attorney Janet Pennisi of Millburn. She has represented Orthodox clients who have given away a lot in property rights for the sole purpose of getting their husbands to give them a get.
“For religious people, a get is everything, and there is no real authority to get it sometimes except through back alley approaches,” Pennisi said.
In fact, without a “get,” a woman can end up in limbo for years. She becomes known as an “agunah,” a woman chained to her marriage, unable to remarry.
According to a complaint outlined in federal court Thursday, the 10 men charged were willing — for a price — to provide the “convincing” by any means possible. In one recorded meeting, Epstein spoke about kidnapping, beating and torturing husbands to in order to force a divorce, according the complaint.
Epstein, known in the community as a divorce mediator, admitted on the surveillance tape to committing similar kidnappings.“This is an expensive thing to do,” he said. “It’s not simply … basically what we are going to be doing is kidnapping a guy for a couple of hours and beating him up and torturing him and then getting him to give the get.”
“Basically the reaction of the police is, if the guy does not have a mark on him … then, uh, is there some Jewish crazy affair here, and they don’t get involved,” he said, according to the complaint.
In 1998, Epstein and Wolmark were both accused in a civil racketeering suit with taking part in the abduction and torture of a Brooklyn rabbi who refused his wife’s request for a get. No criminal charges were filed and court records show the lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.
Sources say the charges Thursday came out of the continuing investigation of David Wax, a 49-year-old rabbi and Talmudic scholar from Lakewood, and his wife, Judy, who were charged by federal authorities two years ago with kidnapping and severely beating an Israeli man who had refused to give his wife a divorce. That case has been repeatedly adjourned for months. Lawyers for the couple Thursday could not say if they were cooperating with the FBI.
Wolmark was initially contacted in August by an FBI undercover agent posing as an Orthodox married woman in an unhappy marriage. Accompanied by a second undercover agent acting as her brother, she told him she was desperate for a divorce because her husband refused to have children. She was willing to pay a large sum of money to obtain a divorce. Wolmark, according to the complaint, connected her with Epstein.
The planning for the kidnapping got underway last month, when a team of so-called “enforcers” drove to a warehouse in Middlesex County to determine if it was suitable for the kidnapping. In a graphic conversation, Epstein talked about the use not only of cattle prods, but handcuffs and other measures to be taken by hired enforcers.
“I guarantee you that if you’re in the van, you’d give a get to your wife,” he told the agent posing as the woman’s brother. “You probably love your wife, but you’d give a get when they finish with you.”
It would not take a lot of time, he promised.
“They don’t need him for long, believe me. They’ll have him in the van, hooded, and it will happen,” he said.
According to the FBI, most of those charged were arrested as they gathered to snatch the kidnap victim at the warehouse. They arrived in two dark minivans around 8 p.m., putting on Halloween masks, ski masks or bandanas, carrying rope, flashlights, surgical blades, a screwdriver, and plastic bags.
As they waited for the husband, an arrest team swept in.
The arrests were accompanied by a series of searches executed by the FBI in Lakewood, Monsey, Brooklyn and elsewhere, including Yeshiva Shaarei Torah in the Monsey section of Ramapo, N.Y., where Wolmark is an administrator.
Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas E. Arpert, the 10 defendants walked into a courtroom packed with family and friends. Wearing handcuffs, they sat stone faced as Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Gribko alleged they had kidnapped “literally dozens” of husbands reluctant to give a divorce.
One had a tracking device placed in his car, Gribko alleged. Another, an unnamed congressional staffer, was “assaulted in broad daylight in his minivan in Pennsylvania.”
“The danger to the community in this case, for this violent crime, cannot be overstated,” Gribko said.
All were denied requests for bail or house arrest from defense attorneys, who argued that seven of the men played only bit parts in the scheme. The judge scheduled a preliminary hearing for Oct. 18 in Trenton.
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Attorney: Monsey rabbi tied to divorce gang could be released on bail by Friday
LoHud - October 16, 2013
A Monsey rabbi alleged to have been a mastermind behind a kidnap team that used torture as a means to persuade Orthodox Jewish men to grant their wives a religious divorce hopes to be out on bond by Friday, his attorney said.
Rabbi Martin “Mordachai” Wolmark, the head of Yeshiva Shaarei Torah in Monsey, appeared in federal court Wednesday alongside several men accused of having a role in the kidnappings.
Wolmark’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, of the Manhattan-based firm Brafman & Associates, said U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Douglas E. Arpert agreed to his client’s release on condition that he surrender $5 million bond secured by property, remain under electronic home confinement and turn his passport over to authorities.
“We are pleased the court accepted Rabbi Wolmark’s bail package. That he was able to offer $5 million in equity shows that his family, friends and community support him. We look forward to defending these allegations with the Rabbi a free man,” Agnifilo said in an email. “We are posting the properties tomorrow and we hope he will be released by Friday.”
Agnifilo said two properties are being used to secure the bond. He declined to identify the properties or their owners.
Joining Wolmark in court Wednesday was Rabbi Mendel Epstein, another suspected mastermind and a prominent Ultra-Orthodox divorce mediator with homes in Brooklyn and New Jersey, and Ariel Potash, Binyamin Stimler, David Helman and Sholom Shuchat, four of the eight suspected gang members.
The six men sat shackled in the jury box, wearing green jumpsuits and black yarmulkes as more than 50 supporters and family members watched the proceedings. A U.S. marshal unlocked Epstein’s handcuffs, but not those of the others.
Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Joseph Gribko said none of the men should be released regardless of their religious backgrounds.
“Had we been talking about the mob or the Bloods or the Crips, we wouldn’t even be discussing a bond in this case,” he told Arpert. “There’s no difference between them and these other gangs that engage in violent crime.”
The men are accused of plotting to kidnap, beat and torture — with cattle prods — Jewish husbands reluctant to provide a religious divorce, or “get,” to their wives. The complaint claims the group kidnapped and tortured as many as 24 Orthodox Jewish men over the years.
Wolmark and his co-defendants had been held without bail since their arrest Oct. 9.
A clerk in Trenton’s federal court said the group is being held in a jail in Philadelphia but was unable to name the facility.
Epstein’s bail package was similar to Wolmark’s, the most notable difference being that four of his daughters and his wife are expected to put up five pieces of property valued at more than $4 million to secure his release. Agnifilo said the difference between the two bonds is reflective of Wolmark’s available assets rather than any indication of his culpability in the case.
Four other defendants, Jay Goldstein, Moshe Goldstein, Simcha Bulmash and Avrohom Goldstein, have yet to have bail hearings. If convicted, the defendants could all face up to life in prison.
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Rabbis in divorce-gang sting could be out on bail soon
By Ken Serrano
Asbury Press - October 16, 2013
A rabbi who is charged in a kidnap-torture scheme that used cattle prods to force Orthodox Jewish husbands to grant their wives divorces has been responsible for 20 or so kidnappings, a prosecutor alleged Wednesday.
The remarks of Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Joseph Gribko were made in federal court in Trenton, N.J., during a bail hearing for six of the 10 defendants who were charged in the plot.
"He's conducted ongoing criminal activity for 20 years," Gribko said of Rabbi Mendel Epstein. "Kidnappings, beatings."
Epstein — who will remain under home confinement at his house in Lakewood, N.J., once released — denies any wrongdoing, his Manhattan-based attorney, Susan Necheles, said in court.
"It's a matter for trial," she said.
But the case is growing, Gribko said during his appeal to U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Douglas E. Arpert to keep Epstein locked up.
"My phone has not stopped ringing with calls from potential victims," he said, mentioning the hotline for those calls, 800-CALL-FBI. "The threat to the public is ongoing as we speak."
Rejecting those comments, Arpert ruled that Epstein, a prominent ultra-Orthodox divorce mediator in Brooklyn, N.Y., another rabbi, Martin "Mordachai" Wolmark, of Monsey, N.Y., and the four other men could be freed on bail that runs into millions of dollars for some defendants.
Wolmark's Manhattan-based attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said he expects Wolmark, who is the head of Yeshiva Shaarei Torah in Monsey, to be released Friday. There was no word from authorities or defense attorneys on whether any of the other men had worked out the conditions of their bail by Wednesday night.
Arpert ordered home confinement, electronic monitoring and other tight restrictions for all six defendants.
Epstein, 68; Wolmark, 55; Ariel Potash, a 40-year-old traveling salesman; Binyamin Stimler, 38, a psychotherapist and teacher who has a home in Lakewood but is listed as a Brooklyn resident; David Helman, 30, a personal trainer from Far Rockaway, N.Y.; and Sholom Shuchat, 28, the father of two small children — were being held at the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center and were expected to be returned there Wednesday evening.
The yeshiva was raided by the FBI on Oct. 9. Wolmark was set to be released on a $5 million bond secured by two properties that have $2 million in equity. Agnifilo said the bail amount is tied to Wolmark's available assets and "does not reflect his culpability."
His conditions followed those of Epstein's, who is allowed out of his home for medical reasons, to visit his attorney and for religious worship, once during the day and for Shabbat on Friday evening.
Four daughters and Epstein's wife were scheduled to put up five pieces of property totaling more than $4 million in value to secure his release.
he six men sat shackled in the jury box wearing Army green jumpsuits and black yarmulkes as more than 50 supporters and family members watched the proceedings. Several people rose for the white-bearded Epstein as he was led into the courtroom. A U.S. marshal unlocked his handcuffs, but not those of the others.
Four other defendants — Jay Goldstein, 59, Moshe Goldstein, 30, Simcha Bulmash, 30, and Avrohom Goldstein, 33 — have yet to have bail set and were still being held at the detention center. All the men — including Epstein — are listed as having a hometown of Brooklyn, except for Wolmark, Helman and Bulmash. There was no hometown listed for Bulmash, a New York state resident.
"This man is all about his family," Necheles told Arpert, mentioning Epstein's eight children, more than 50 grandchildren and four great grandchildren. "If he were to flee, all of his children and grandchildren would be out on the street."
Gribko said none of the men should be released regardless of their religious backgrounds.
"Had we been talking about the mob or the Bloods or the Crips we wouldn't even be discussing a bond in this case," he said. "There's no difference between them and these other gangs that engage in violent crime."
The men are accused of plotting to kidnap, beat and torture — with cattle prods —Jewish husbands reluctant to provide religious divorces, or gets.
If convicted, they could face up to life in prison.
An undercover FBI special agent posed as an Orthodox Jewish wife whose husband was unwilling to consent to divorce, while a second agent posed as the wife's brother, the complaint said. On Aug. 7, both agents called Wolmark to present their case and tell him they were willing to pay a large sum of money to obtain the divorce. Wolmark explained how he could coerce the divorce, but it would be expensive, the complaint said.
Epstein told them the kidnapping would cost $10,000 to pay for the rabbis on the rabbinical court to approve the kidnapping and an additional $50,000 to $60,000 to pay for the "tough guys" who would conduct the beating and obtain the forced get, the complaint said.
According to the complaint, the "tough guys" would use electric cattle prods, karate and handcuffs, and place plastic bags over the heads of husbands.
"We take an electric cattle prod," Epstein said.
"Electric cattle prod, OK," the undercover agent replied.
"If it can get a bull that weighs five tons to move ... you put it in certain parts of his body and in one minute the guy will know," Epstein said, according to the complaint.
A law-enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said the arrests were the direct result of a 2011 case in which a Lakewood couple, David and Judy Wax, were accused of kidnapping an Israeli national in an attempt to force him to divorce his estranged wife in Israel. Proceedings in that case have been repeatedly postponed since the arrest.
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Chabad Launches Defense Fund For Kidnap-Torture-Extortion Gang Member
By Shmarya Rosenberg
Failed Messiah Blog - October 19, 2013
To Crown Heights Community Rabbonim & Synagogue Leaders:
We are writing to you on behalf of a Crown Heights resident, a young, Torah scholar who has devoted himself to matters of Halacha and especially Gittin during the last few years. Because of his well intentioned activities he is now facing a very serious legal challenge and must put together a capable and respected Defense Team to help clear his name and exonerate him.
His family has put together the necessary securities in order to obtain bail. However, the Judge has decided that he must be kept under house arrest.
At the request of his family and community leaders a Committee has been formed to work together with the family and the Legal Team to be of assistance in the fundraising, distribution of payments and other proceedings that will evolve in this ongoing case.
Here are the facts of the story as they stand today:
1. This Yungerman has been an experienced witness for several years in Gittin. He has worked with Crown Heights Rabbonim on Gittin and has also worked with several Batei Dinim outside of Crown Heights. Because of his experience and knowledge, he has not shied away from difficult cases. In the current case, he was not knowledgeable of all of the details involved at the time that he joined together with the other members of the Bais Din to effectuate the Get.
2. He has currently been released on $500,000 bail. Securities have been provided by the family and he is being held under house arrest. The bail lawyer has been paid. The family is currently in the process of hiring a team of lawyers to defend him in the ongoing case. The minimum amount that will be needed for the retainer is $50,000, but it may be more.
3. The family has been able to put together, from their own resources, $15,000 but the total $50,000 is needed by Monday, October 21, 2013.
4. Knowledgeable people in these types of cases estimate that the legal fees could rise to $200,000 or $300,000.
We request from the Rabbonim and the community leaders to kindly hold an appeal in all of the Shuls of Crown Heights on this Shabbos Parshas Vayeira. The undersigned Committee will oversee the receipt and distribution of the funds in a proper fashion.
The National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE) Pidyon Shivuyim Fund is a recognized 501c3 organization and therefore all donations made to NCFJE Pidyon Shivuyim will be tax-deductible. The “Committee for 5774 Initiative” will make sure to oversee the distribution of all of the funds donated for the purpose of the defense of this individual.
The Prosecutors are trying to make this a case which could involve a sentence of “Life in Prison.” We appeal to your Congregants to be generous and donate as much as they possibly can so that we can help the family in their time of need.
Please give your kind donations to the Gabbai of your Shul on Sunday, October 20, 2013 or deliver it direct to the NCFJE offices at 824 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11213 in order to be deposited on Monday 10/21/13.
The check can be written out to: NCFJE-Pidyon Shivuyim
Donations can be made online: www.ncfje.org/Pidyon or click on the “Pidyon Shivuyim” tab on the www.ncfje.org website.
Good Shabbos & Besuros Tovos.
Sincerely,
Committee for 5774 Initiative: Golan Benoni, Lipa Brennan, Sholem B. Hecht, Shea Hecht, Yosef Orenstein, Moshe Pinson, Yoni Raskin, Benzion Stock.
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Judge sets bail for Jewish scribe, 3 others in kidnapping-divorce case
By Allie Malloy
CNN - October 22, 2013
New York (CNN) -- A federal judge set bail Friday for four of 10 men facing kidnapping charges after allegedly arranging the violent assaults of Orthodox Jewish husbands, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Judge Douglas Arpert set bail at $1 million for Jay "Yaakov" Goldstein, while the other three -- Moshe Goldstein, Avrohom Goldstein and Simcha Bulmash -- had bail set at $500,000, said Matthew Riley, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey.
Jay Goldstein's attorney, Aidan P. O'Connor, told CNN on Thursday he hoped his client would be able to leave jail and reunite with his family.
Goldstein, Rabbi Mendel Epstein and Rabbi Martin Wolmark, along with seven other defendants, are accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars to orchestrate the kidnappings of Jewish husbands to persuade them to grant divorces to their wives, according to a criminal complaint.
Goldstein is a sofer, a Jewish scribe who transcribes the Torah and writes other religious documents, including divorce papers, according to his attorney.
On Wednesday, Arpert set bail between $500,000 and $1 million for the two rabbis, along with four other defendants: Ariel Potash, Binyamin Stimler, David Hellman and Sholom Shuchat.
Arpert also ordered home arrest -- with exceptions to leave for medical reasons, attorney meetings and religious purposes -- for all six, according to court documents.
Jay Goldstein, the rabbis and the other men were arrested after an FBI undercover investigation that led to a raid on October 9, according to the criminal complaint.
In one conversation with undercover FBI agents, the complaint alleges that Epstein talked about forcing the divorces with the help of hired "tough guys," who he said used plastic bags to cover the husbands' heads, and electric cattle prods and karate to assault them.
"I guarantee you that if you're in the van, you'd give a 'get' to your wife. You probably love your wife, but you'd give a 'get' when they finish with you," Epstein told the undercover FBI agents.
A "get" is a document that Jewish law requires a husband to present to his wife to be issued a divorce, the complaint says.
Without it, a woman is considered an "agunah," a chained woman bound to a man no matter how over their marriage might be. The implications of not having a get are serious in the Orthodox Jewish world. For Jews of other denominations, who interpret Jewish law differently, the requirement of a get is less stringent or dismissed altogether.
An Orthodox Jewish woman who does not receive a get, however, runs the risk of being shunned in her community and labeled an adulteress if she dares move on. And any future children she has are considered bastards permitted to marry only other bastards.
The complaint says that Epstein told the undercover FBI agents that his organization had kidnapped a husband every 12 to 18 months.
The complaint also says that Wolmark told the agents, "You need special rabbis who are going to take this thing and see it through to the end."
"I can say that we are pleased the court accepted our bail proposal. I anticipate Rabbi Wolmark will be released shortly," said Marc Agnifilo, Wolmark's attorney.
"The rabbi is a highly respected Gittin scholar, and he steadfastly denies the allegations that he ordered violence," said Agnifilo.
Wolmark, Esptein and Potash's attorneys all told CNN that they are confident their clients will have their bail processed and be out on a house arrest by the end of this week.
CNN's calls to the other defendant's attorneys were not answered.
All 10 defendants pleaded not guilty last week. If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
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Bail set in kidnapping-divorce Case
CNN - October 20, 2013
A federal judge set bail Friday for four of 10 men facing kidnapping charges after allegedly arranging the violent assaults of Orthodox Jewish husbands, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Judge Douglas Arpert set bail at $1 million for Jay "Yaakov" Goldstein, while the other three -- Moshe Goldstein, Avrohom Goldstein and Simcha Bulmash -- had bail set at $500,000, said Matthew Riley, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey
.
Jay Goldstein's attorney, Aidan P. O'Connor, told CNN on Thursday he hoped his client would be able to leave jail and reunite with his family.
Goldstein, Rabbi Mendel Epstein and Rabbi Martin Wolmark, along with seven other defendants, are accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars to orchestrate the kidnappings of Jewish husbands to persuade them to grant divorces to their wives, according to a criminal complaint.
Goldstein is a sofer, a Jewish scribe who transcribes the Torah and writes other religious documents, including divorce papers, according to his attorney.
On Wednesday, Arpert set bail between $500,000 and $1 million for the two rabbis, along with four other defendants: Ariel Potash, Binyamin Stimler, David Hellman and Sholom Shuchat.
Arpert also ordered home arrest -- with exceptions to leave for medical reasons, attorney meetings and religious purposes -- for all six, according to court documents.
Jay Goldstein, the rabbis and the other men were arrested after an FBI undercover investigation that led to a raid on October 9, according to the criminal complaint.
In one conversation with undercover FBI agents, the complaint alleges that Epstein talked about forcing the divorces with the help of hired "tough guys," who he said used plastic bags to cover the husbands' heads, and electric cattle prods and karate to assault them.
"I guarantee you that if you're in the van, you'd give a 'get' to your wife. You probably love your wife, but you'd give a 'get' when they finish with you," Epstein told the undercover FBI agents.
A "get" is a document that Jewish law requires a husband to present to his wife to be issued a divorce, the complaint says.
Without it, a woman is considered an "agunah," a chained woman bound to a man no matter how over their marriage might be. The implications of not having a get are serious in the Orthodox Judaism world. For Jews of other denominations, who interpret Jewish law differently, the requirement of a get is less stringent or dismissed altogether.
An Orthodox Jewish woman who does not receive a get, however, a woman runs the risk of being shunned in her community and labeled an adulteress if she dares move on. And any future children she has are considered bastards permitted to marry only other bastards.
The complaint says that Epstein told the undercover FBI agents that his organization had kidnapped a husband every 12 to 18 months.
The complaint also says that Wolmark told the agents, "You need special rabbis who are going to take this thing and see it through to the end."
"I can say that we are pleased the court accepted our bail proposal. I anticipate Rabbi Wolmark will be released shortly," said Marc Agnifilo, Wolmark's attorney.
"The rabbi is a highly respected Gittin scholar, and he steadfastly denies the allegations that he ordered violence," said Agnifilo.
Wolmark, Esptein and Potash's attorneys all told CNN that they are confident their clients will have their bail processed and be out on a house arrest by the end of this week.
CNN's calls to the other defendant's attorneys were not answered.
All 10 defendants pleaded not guilty last week. If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
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Linkedin - Rabbi Sholom Shuchat
October 31, 2013
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Twitter - Rabbi Sholom Shuchat
October 31, 2013
Rabbi Shuchart was involved with the Detroit Jewish Community from at least 2007 - 2009.
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October 31, 2013
Rabbi Shuchart was involved with the Detroit Jewish Community from at least 2007 - 2009.
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FAIR USE NOTICE
Some of the information on The Awareness Center's web pages may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.
We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml . If you wish to use copyrighted material from this update for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead
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