2 More Sentenced to 4 Years in Orthodox Divorce Shakedown
Two more Brooklyn men were sentenced to prison in a federal case against a group that used violence and threats to pressure husbands into granting Jewish divorces to estranged wives.
One day after Moshe Goldstein, 32, was sentenced to four years in prison in a New Jersey federal court, David Hellman, 33, and Simcha Bulmash, 32, were sentenced to 44 months and 48 months respectively, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced Tuesday in a statement.
All three defendants, who were arrested in 2013 in an FBI sting operation, pleaded guilty to various charges.
According to the statement, which cited court records, Hellman, Bulmash and a group of co-conspirators traveled in October 2013 from New York to a warehouse in Edison, New Jersey, with the intent of forcing a Jewish husband to give his wife a “get,” or a Jewish religious divorce.
An Orthodox woman cannot remarry without receiving a “get” from her husband. The women who are trapped in such marriages are called agunot, or “chained women.”
Two Orthodox rabbis, Mendel Epstein, 70, of Lakewood, New Jersey, and Martin Wolmark, 57, of Monsey, New York, were also charged in the scheme.
In addition to the prison term, both Hellman and Bulmash were sentenced to two years of supervised release.
Three more defendants in the scheme — Avrohom Goldstein,36; Ariel Potash, 42; and Sholom Shuchat, 31, are scheduled for sentencing on Thursday, while the remaining defendants will be sentenced in December, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
