“Get” rabbi set to stand trial in kidnapping sting

After a one-day snow delay, Mendel Epstein — the Orthodox rabbi who allegedly would use beatings, cattle prods and other methods of persuasion to convince husbands to grant a “get,” the ritual Jewish divorce required before believers can remarry — is set to go on trial Wednesday on attempted kidnapping charges.

According to the indictment filed in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, a pair of undercover FBI agents recorded Epstein agreeing to kidnap the woman’s husband at a cost of at least $50,000, the Associated Press reports:

The kidnap team brought surgical blades, a screwdriver and rope to a staged kidnapping in 2013, according to the indictment. Epstein, who was indicted last May along with his son and three other Orthodox rabbis, told the undercover agents he arranged similar kidnappings every year or year and a half, the indictment said.

Epstein’s lawyer, Robert Stahl, called him a “champion of women’s rights” and predicted that “the evidence will not be there that he was involved in certain incidents.”

Click here to read the AP story.