TRENTON, NJ
A federal judge sentenced two Orthodox Jewish Rabbis to prison for conspiring to kidnap Jewish men in an effort to force them to give their wives religious divorces, referred to as “gets,” officials announced this week.
Rabbis Mendel Epstein, 70, of Lakewood, New Jersey, and Binyamin Stimler, 40, of Brooklyn, New York, were sentenced to ten years and three years and three months in prison, respectively. They were both convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
Stimler was additionally convicted on attempted kidnapping.
According to documents filed in this case and the evidence at trial:
- On Dec. 1, 2009, in Lakewood, an Orthodox Jewish man, Israel Markowitz, was assaulted, placed in a van, tied up, beaten and shocked with a stun-gun until he agreed to give his wife a get.
- On Oct. 16, 2010, in Lakewood, another Orthodox Jewish man, Ysrael Bryskman, was assaulted, tied up and beaten until he agreed to give his wife a get.
- On Aug. 22, 2011, in Brooklyn, another Orthodox Jewish man, Usher Chaimowitz, and his roommate, Menachem Teitlebaum, were assaulted, tied up and beaten until Chaimowitz agreed to give his wife a get.
Based upon these incidents, the FBI began an undercover operation in August 2013 in which two FBI agents posed as a wife who was seeking a get from her recalcitrant husband, and her brother, who was trying to help her obtain the get.
Over the next several weeks, the undercover agents had multiple recorded phone calls and in-person meetings with defendant Epstein. In those meetings, Epstein arranged to have his team kidnap the husband at a warehouse in exchange for $60,000, according to officials
On October 9, 2013, Stimler and others—including Jay Goldstein, 61, Moshe Goldstein, 32, Avrohom Goldstein, 36, Simcha Bulmash, 32, David Hellman, 33, and Sholom Shuchat, 31, all of Brooklyn, and Ariel Potash, 42, of Monsey, New York—traveled from New York to a warehouse in Middlesex County, New Jersey, to execute the planned kidnapping of the husband to force him to give the get.
Law Enforcement Makes Arrests
They arrived at the warehouse in two dark minivans shortly after 8:00 p.m., according to officials
Some of the kidnap team members put on masks and entered the warehouse office with the undercover agent posing as the brother.
The remaining kidnappers walked around the outside with flashlights.
Over the next 15 minutes, members of the kidnap team went in and out of the warehouse office wearing disguises, including ski masks, Halloween masks and bandanas.
They discussed their plan for kidnapping and assaulting the husband, how they planned to grab him, pull him down, tie him up, and take his phone.
Members of the kidnap team brought with them to the warehouse a 30-foot nylon rope, a blindfold, vodka, license plates they had switched out, and items usedRabbis Mendel Epstein, ceremonially record the get.
At 8:23 p.m., law enforcement moved into the warehouse office and arrested the eight men, including Stimler. Epstein was arrested at his Brooklyn home the same night.
Avrohom Goldstein, Potash, Shuchat, Moshe Goldstein, Hellman, and Bulmash have all plead guilty to one count of traveling in interstate commerce to commit extortion.
Avrohom Goldstein and Potash were sentenced Nov. 19 to three years and nine months and 14 months in prison, respectively.
Shuchat was sentenced to time served on Nov. 19. Moshe Goldstein was sentenced Nov. 16 to four years in prison.
Hellman and Bulmash were sentenced Nov. 17 to three years and eight months and four years in prison, respectively.
Martin Wolmark, 57, of Monsey, previously plead guilty to conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce to commit extortion and was sentenced Monday to three years and two months in prison.
Jay Goldstein, who was convicted at trial of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and attempted kidnapping, is scheduled for sentencing this week.