Rabbi pleads guilty in violent plot to coerce divorce
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — An Orthodox Jewish rabbi admitted Wednesday to traveling interstate to use threats of violence to force a man to give his wife a religious divorce.
Martin "Mordechai" Wolmark — along with Rabbi Mendel Epstein, a prominent ultra-Orthodox divorce mediator from Brooklyn — had been accused of heading a gang of eight thugs who used cattle prods and other devices to torture men into giving their wives a get, a document a woman must obtain from her husband should she seek a divorce under Jewish law.
On Wednesday, Wolmark, 56, appeared in a federal courtroom in Trenton, N.J., and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce to commit extortion, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said in a statement.
Citing court documents, Fishman presented a timeline of the Monsey, N.Y., rabbi's involvement in the plot.
On Aug. 7, 2013, Wolmark, then head of Yeshiva Shaarei Torah on West Carlton Road in Suffern, met with a Jewish woman and her brother about obtaining a get from the woman's husband. The rabbi told the pair, who were working undercover with the FBI, that they should meet Epstein. Wolmark then set up a conference call between the undercover agents and Epstein.
On Oct. 2, 2013, Wolmark, with Epstein present, convened a beth din, or a rabbinical court, in his Suffern office to determine whether there were grounds under Jewish law to coerce the husband into giving a get. Epstein, unaware the female agent was recording the meeting, openly discussed the plan to kidnap and assault the husband to obtain the document, Fishman said.
A week later, on Oct. 9, the muscle of the gang, including Ariel Potash of Monsey, traveled from New York to a warehouse in Edison, N.J., intent on using violent force to coerce the get, Fishman said. Instead, the men were arrested. Authorities seized several items, including masks, rope, surgical blades, plastic bags and a screwdriver. Raids also were conducted at the West Carlton Road yeshiva and at Epstein's Brooklyn home.
Wolmark, who is scheduled to be sentenced on May 18, faces up to five years in federal prison, along with a $250,000 fine.
In a statement Wednesday, Benjamin Brafman, Wolmark's defense lawyer, called his client an "extraordinary man" who is dedicated to assisting others.
"Rabbi Martin Wolmark has agreed to accept responsibility for his limited participation in a conspiracy," Brafman said.
A man who answered the telephone at Wolmark's home in Monsey quickly hung up Wednesday after learning that a reporter was seeking comment on the guilty plea. Subsequent calls were not answered.
Fishman said six others, most of whom hail from Brooklyn, have already pleaded guilty to various charges in connection with the plot.