Group of NJ rabbis indicted for using stun guns and beatings to force men to divorce

www.rawstory.com...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Four Orthodox Jewish rabbis and one of their sons were indicted on Thursday on charges of kidnapping Jewish men and violently forcing them to grant divorces to their unhappy wives, New Jersey authorities said on Thursday.

Between 2009 and 2013, the rabbis – Mendel Epstein, Martin Wolmark, Binyamin Stimler and Jay Goldstein, who also went by “Yaakov” – kidnapped or tried to kidnap men and torture them with beatings and stun guns until they agreed to divorce their wives, according to the indictment filed in New Jersey federal court by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.

Since I became an adult; organized religion of any flavor seemed more of a control mechanism than a way to save souls and salvation.
The above article reinforces my decision to seek spiritually thru my own path and and avoid organized religion at all costs.

From the "you just can't make this **** up department"

You usually see this kind of thing with fundamentalist Christians and Muslims...
How this slipped into the media is amazing to say the least. I'm surprised the source isn't being derided as "antisemitic"...yet.

a reply to: olaru12

Five men do not represent an entire religion.

a reply to: olaru12

I don't remember reading that anywhere in Leviticus.

originally posted by: AfterInfinity
a reply to: olaru12

Five men do not represent an entire religion.

How perceptive....


But the agendas, control mechanisms, Holy wars, priesthoods/phony pastors, lies, religious arrogance, and stupid precepts do...

That is the concept I was addressing in the OP.

a reply to: the owlbear

Apparently you haven't been around too many fundamentalist Christians. Because I am one, I can tell you that I have never heard of or seen anything like this. In fact, fundamentalists like me don't believe in divorce for ANY reason. Perhaps you have confused fundamentalism, which is quite mainstream, with the insanity of the fringe cults, like Westboro, who claim to be Christians, when the fact is that they are anything but. Don't believe everything you hear on biased TV shows, "news" reports, and other sources about Christian fundamentalism, because they are very wrong more often than not.

a reply to: olaru12

WOW! Holy moly! That's some serious religious extremism going on! The surprising byline is that it's a handful of Jews in New Jersey .... and not radical Islamists in Saudi Arabia or something. A good example to bring up of what happens when people get too deep into religions .... YIKES!

a reply to: olaru12

This is really about the plight of Jewish women who want divorces and the husbands, who finds the opportunity to exploit their patriachal superior position as only he can grant a divorce and has to sign a documen before she can be free. This affects her status, often finances and the support he provides for his now ex family and also he can blackmail the women into giving him a much larger share of their assets.

The Rabbi's are the only men who can do this, although it seems a bit strong. Its something that they have had to deal with for a long time. They as Rabbi's are trying to protect the rights of the ex wife. When men won't act in a fair manner in a religion that gives precious little rights to women, then other men in authority have to make this issue right - so in truth all I can say is good on them. Jewish law is very ancient and it is a situation where old laws that have travelled into the 21st Century have to be managed as best they can.

originally posted by: Shiloh7
Jewish law is very ancient and it is a situation where old laws that have travelled into the 21st Century have to be managed as best they can.

I'm totally aware of that and it's one of the reasons I think ALL religions are total BS.

Adapt or die....

originally posted by: OptimusSubprime
a reply to: the owlbear

Apparently you haven't been around too many fundamentalist Christians. Because I am one, I can tell you that I have never heard of or seen anything like this. In fact, fundamentalists like me don't believe in divorce for ANY reason. Perhaps you have confused fundamentalism, which is quite mainstream, with the insanity of the fringe cults, like Westboro, who claim to be Christians, when the fact is that they are anything but. Don't believe everything you hear on biased TV shows, "news" reports, and other sources about Christian fundamentalism, because they are very wrong more often than not.

You're missing the point of the story. The rabbis did this so that the unhappy wives were allowed to divorce. The women were unhappy and the men weren't letting them divorce them. While the violence is wrong (I wish the rabbis had used less extreme measures to get the divorces proceeding; it makes it hard to sympathize with their side of the story when they are using stun weapons), not letting an unhappy couple break up because of ingrained misogyny is equally wrong if not worse.

You say you don't believe in divorce then say that Christian fundamentalists don't act like the people in this story. So if your wife was unhappy and wanted a divorce more than anything, would you not let her get one or would you hold her hostage in an unhappy relationship?

Are they gonna get their own reality show too like that amish mafia rubbish? Lol. The whole situation is absurd really. Rabbis thinking they are above the law, and can go around brutalizing people with impunity. Kinda funny, in a sad way, instead of changing their archaic ways, they try to beat people into submission.

What a pity the rabbis never got the top of the range model of stun gun and kept it going on the husbands giving them a heart attack '

Happy RICH widow's