When we get divorced, it is overwhelming as hell. Imagine if you had to go through all of that AND get divorced in religious court as well. Imagine if your civil divorce didn’t really matter if your religious divorce wasn’t valid. That is a reality for a lot of women in the Orthodox Jewish Community when their husbands refuse to grant them a get, the religious document needed for divorce according to Jewish Religious Law.

Enter Rabbi Mendel Epstein, aka “The Prodfather.” Leader of the New York Divorce Coercion Gang – a group of rabbis and other Jewish men that kidnapped, assaulted and tortured men that refused to give their wives a get using cattle prods, acid, and other scary objects that nobody, including angry Rabbis, should be wielding.

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Netflix documentary mentioned in the episode: One of Us

Thank you to this week's sources:

Aranoff,S., Haut, R. (2015). The wed-locked agunot: Orthodox jewish women chained to dead marriages. McFarland.

Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office District of New Jersey
Two Orthodox Jewish Rabbis Sentenced To Prison For Conspiring To Kidnap Jewish Husbands, Force Them To Consent To Religious Divorces
www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/two-orthodox-jewish-rabbis-sentenced-prison-conspiring-kidnap-jewish-husbands-force-them

Jewish Divorce Basics: What Is a ‘Get’? https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/557906/jewish/Divorce-Basics.htm

Kariyeva, M. (2018). Chained against her will: What a get means for women under jewish law. Touro Law Review. 34(3).

Outline of the Beth Din Divorce Proceedings https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/557976/jewish/The-Divorce-Proceedings.htm

Radzyner, A. (2018). Jewish law, state, and social reality: prenuptial agreement for the prevention of divorce refusal in israel and the united states. Journal of Law and Religion, 33(1), 61-88.

Raise Your Hand if You’re a Kohen https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/762109/jewish/Raise-Your-Hand-If-Youre-A-Kohen.htm

Shaer, M. (2014). The orthodox hit squad. GQ.

United States District Court District of New Jersey
Criminal Complaint
United States of America v.
Mendel Epstein,
Martin Wolmark,
Ariel Potash and
FNU LNU aka “Yaakov”

United States District Court District of New Jersey
United States of America v.
Mendel Epstein,
Jay Goldstein,
David Aryeh Epstein and
Binyamin Stimler
Decided Dec 11, 2015

What Is a Beit Din?
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3582308/jewish/What-Is-a-Beit-Din.htm

Who Are the Israelites?
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4300915/jewish/Who-Are-the-Israelites.htm

Who Were the Levites?
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4254752/jewish/Who-Were-the-Levites.htm