Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

‘Prodfather’ Rabbi, Who Led Violent Divorce Ring, Sentenced to 10 Years

A New Jersey rabbi who ran a ring that violently attempted to coerce Jewish men to grant their wives religious divorces has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Rabbi Mendel Epstein, 70, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, NJ.com reported.

Image by Screen Shot

Epstein was one of nine people, two of them rabbis, convicted for their roles in the ring, which for a fee kidnapped and tortured recalcitrant husbands with cattle prods and other weapons.

According to halachah, or Jewish law, a Jewish woman cannot remarry without receiving a Jewish divorce, or get, from her husband. The women who are trapped in such marriages are called agunot, or “chained women.”

The group’s members were busted in an FBI sting operation in 2013.

Epstein, a prominent rabbi in Lakewood, received the most jail time meted out thus far. The Daily News dubbed him the “Prodfather.”

Among the six already sentenced, the longest sentence is four years in prison. On Monday, the other rabbi in the ring, Martin Wolmark of Monsey, New York, was sentenced to 38 months.

During the sentencing hearing, according to NJ.com, prosecutors noted that in conversations recorded by undercover FBI agents, Epstein boasted about using a cattle prod and other tools to pressure recalcitrant husbands.

In a 10-minute speech to the judge, Epstein said he was “embarrassed and ashamed” at what he said in those conversations and insisted he had been motivated not by money but by a compassion for agunot.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.