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The accusations in an FBI criminal complaint seem fantastic: a ring of thugs violently extorted religious divorce agreements from recalcitrant husbands in the observant Jewish community. The price for their services? Tens of thousands of dollars, according to an FBI criminal complaint. Threats, beatings and even a cattle prod were employed, according to FBI documents, but the men aimed at leaving no physical mark.The trail of such alleged barbaric behavior stretches from Monsey, including the head of a local yeshiva, to New Jersey and New York City. This does not appear to be an isolated incident of intra-community crime. The criminal complaint filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey includes FBI statements that Rabbi Mendel Epstein of Brooklyn, a purported ringleader in the kidnap and extortion scheme, admitted he participated in 24 kidnappings to force “gets,” or Jewish divorce accords.How could such brutality occur with little attention from law enforcement? That’s partially explained by a comment by Epstein, prominent ultra-Orthodox divorce mediator, included in FBI documents. Police, Epstein said, chalk up any complaints to some “Jewish crazy affair.”Sadly, that seems to be true. Who’s at fault? Responsibility falls partially on a community that shuns outside involvement, and on law enforcement agencies that may ignore or play down complaints, either for the reasons cited by Epstein, or even under political pressure not to cause waves in a Custom Arizona Cardinals NFL Jerseys community that wields power at the polls.Shunning outside authoritiesFor a clear example of how criminal activity can fester under law enforcement’s noses, look no further than the 2011 attack on New Square man Aron Rottenberg. A nighttime attack involving a young man who worked in the home of the village’s chief rabbi left Rottenberg burned over 50 percent of his body. An incendiary device the 18-year-old was carrying apparently exploded during a confrontation.Rottenberg had chosen to pray at a nearby nursing facility rather Cheap Authentic New York Giants Jerseys Wholesale than in the main synagogue; he saw his actions as helping the sick, a “mitzvah.” Some New Square residents had different ideas. His family was repeatedly harassed. Rottenberg went to Ramapo police nearly a year before the firebomb confrontation at his home.(Page 2 of 3)<br>In fact, Aron Rottenberg’s family called police eight times in less than two months to report vandalism and intimidation. Ramapo detectives launched a formal investigation about a week before an arson attack at the Rottenberg home.Shortly after the attack, amid evidence of a pattern of intimidation, Ramapo nfl jerseys online for sale Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, also the town’s police commissioner, said he believed the Rottenberg attack was an “isolated incident.”There’s Custom Arizona Cardinals Jerseys also reluctance to engage law enforcement, and instead rely on the community’s safety structures. In the 2011 slaying of little Leiby Kletzky in Borough Park, Brooklyn, the family called the Shomrim, an Orthodox security group, when the 8-year-old failed to arrive home from his first solo walk home from day camp.The Shomrim searched for the cheap nfl jerseys boy but didn’t call police promptly; it was more than two hours before Leiby’s father contacted the NYPD.Leiby’s killer, also a member of Borough Park’s religious community, appeared to have taken the boy to a wedding in New Square, then back to Borough Park, where Leiby was smothered to death and butchered.Then there is the stigma of reporting criminal activity to outside authorities. This has been evidenced by various incidents of backlash after reports of sexual abuse. Such insular denial of Custom Indianapolis Colts Jerseys abuse — which leads to protection for the abuser — isn’t exclusive to the ultra-Orthodox communities. The Catholic Church still suffers from its role during past decades’ coverups; and recently, accusations of abuse dating back to the 1970s have haunted the Green Meadow Waldorf School. Even the sex abuse case of Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky demonstrated the damage that comes from trying to keep scandal quiet within a cloistered community. Not about religion The criminal accusations lodged this week by the FBI allege a trail of brutality, cloaked in religiosity.The Custom Indianapolis Colts [url=http://www.whitemantraspa.com/servicess.html]Custom New York Giants Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys[/url] probe involved an undercover FBI agent posing as a woman unable to obtain a religious divorce from her husband. A woman whose husband has not granted her a “get” to religiously dissolve a marriage is known as an “agunah,” or “chained woman”; it is a tenuous cultural status for a Jewish woman, unable to go on with her life, especially to remarry.(Page 3 of 3)<br>According to the complaint, the woman, and another agent posing as her brother, were told by Epstein that he would hire thugs to extort and physically force a “get” out of the estranged husband for $50,000 to $60,000. It would cost another $10,000 to pay off rabbis to form a “special” rabbinical court, or “beit din,” to approve the kidnap scheme to obtain the “get.”“It was not about religion,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony R. Joseph said Thursday during the arraignment of Monsey Rabbi Mordechai “Martin” Wolmark, head of Yeshiva Shaarei Torah, who is considered to be the operation’s co-ringleader, along with Epstein. The FBI documented the following findings when agents raided a New Jersey warehouse on Wednesday night: masks, rope, surgical blades, a screwdriver, plastic bags, and the ceremonial items needed to record the religious divorce decree. A member of the kidnap team was wearing a garbage bag over his clothes, documents state.Insular communities often “protect” themselves by trying to handle conflicts internally. That leaves their own members as prey to criminal acts. The community cannot look the other way. Neither can local law enforcement agencies, no matter the pressures. The FBI probe demonstrates the risks. Page