N.J. Rabbi David Wax Pleads Guilty in $100K Orthodox Agunot ‘Get’ Extortion
David Wax Image by youtube
New Jersey Rabbi David Wax pleaded guilty to kidnapping charges as part of a scheme to force an Israeli man to give his wife a get.
The rabbi admitted to being paid $100,000 to compel the man — identified by the Associated Press as Yisrael Briskman — to grant his wife a religious writ of divorce, known as a get. The money came from Briskman’s estranged wife.
Wax lured Briskman to his house on Oct. 17, 2010, had him beaten by a group of thugs and threatened to bury him alive in the Pocono Mountains unless he agreed to give the get, according to court papers cited by the N.Y. Daily News.
Under Orthodox law, women whose husbands refuse to grant them religious writs of divorce may not remarry; they are known as agunahs, or chained women.
A native of the heavily haredi Orthodox township of Lakewood, N.J., Wax and eight others were arrested in July 2011 following an FBI investigation into thugs-for-hire who used violence to coerce recalcitrant husbands into granting religious divorces to their wives.
On Tuesday, Wax pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit kidnapping and faces life in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is to be sentenced Aug. 19.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Jewish students, alumni decry ‘weaponization of antisemitism’ across country
-
Fast Forward Brooklyn event with Itamar Ben-Gvir cancelled days before Israeli far-right minister’s US trip
-
Fast Forward Marco Rubio sits down with Michael Benz, Jewish former Trump official with an antisemitic online persona
-
Fast Forward Eyeing a new opportunity, Jewish settlers are positioning themselves on the Gaza border
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
- 4
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Jewish students, alumni decry ‘weaponization of antisemitism’ across country
-
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history
-
Opinion Why can Harvard stand up to Trump? Because it didn’t give in to pro-Palestinian student protests
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.