NEW YORK A New York rabbi who participated in a ring that violently attempted to coerce Jewish men to grant their wives religious divorces has been sentenced to 38 months in prison.
Martin Wolmark, 57, of Monsey, was sentenced Monday, Dec. 14, in a US District Court in Trenton, NJ, AP reported.
Wolmark was one of nine people, two of them Orthodox rabbis, convicted for their roles in the ring, which kidnapped and tortured recalcitrant husbands.
According to Halachah, or Jewish law, a 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 groups members were busted in an FBI sting operation in 2013.
The other rabbi involved in the ring, Mendel Epstein, 70, was sentenced Tuesday, Dec. 15, in federal court in Trenton, NJ, NJ.com reported.
Epstein, a prominent rabbi in Lakewood, received the most jail time meted out thus far. Among the six already sentenced, the longest sentence is four years in prison.
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.
Two others sentenced in New York were Simcha Blumash and Moshe Goldstein, both 32, who each received four years.
