Rockland rabbi admits role in scheme to kidnap, torture Jewish man into divorce

BY JERRY DEMARCO

CLIFFVIEW PILOT: An Orthodox rabbi from Rockland County pleaded guilty in federal court in Trenton today to his role in a scheme to kidnap and torture a Jewish man into granting his wife a religious divorce.

Martin Wolmark, 56, the head of Yeshiva Shaarei Torah in Monsey, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiring to travel in interstate commerce to commit extortion.

Authorities said eight men went to a warehouse in Edison with the intent of forcing the man into a “get” — a divorce document that, under Jewish law, must be presented by a husband to his wife in order to divorce her.

Some wore Halloween masks and another a Metallica T-shirt, while carrying rope, flashlights, surgical blades, a screwdriver, and plastic bags, authorities said.

The group met at the warehouse with a man they thought was the woman’s brother — actually, an undercover FBI agent.

There, one defendant admitted, they “discussed a plan and prepared to confine, restrain and threaten the victim.”

When the undercover agent left — purportedly to fetch the reluctant husband — agents moved in and arrested the group.

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