In May, David Wax pleaded guilty to his role in the kidnapping of Meir Bryskman. But he told the court that he had done the hit on behalf of someone else, a man purported to be the mastermind of the forced-get ring, a man known as the Prodfather: a 69-year-old gray-bearded, frazzle-haired father of eight—and grandfather of forty-four—named Rabbi Mendel Epstein.
Above: Rabbi Mendel Epstein
Matthew Shaer reports in GQ:
…Peeking through a gap in the blindfold, [Meir Bryskman] caught a glimpse of [Rabbi David] Wax in a cartoonishly large white cowboy hat. "Do you like my hat?" Wax asked before delivering a few kicks to the ribs. Bryskman raised his head, revealing a spreading pool of blood.
"You ruined my carpet!" Wax squealed. Adequately terrified, Bryskman agreed to his tormentor's [kidnapper’s] terms. He would grant the get—anything to save his life. Line by line, he was led through the process:
...Hereby I do release thee and send away and put thee aside that thou mayest have permission and control over thyself to go to be married to any man whom thou desirest and no man shall hinder you in my name...
At 3 A.M., Wax hustled Bryskman downstairs and into a waiting taxi. He ordered the driver to take them both toward Brooklyn. On the way, he phoned Bryskman's father, Zalman, in Israel. Wax said he had a team on the ground there; as proof, he named a fast-food spot where Zalman had recently dined. If Zalman didn't wire $100,000 to the family of Bryskman's wife, Wax would have both Bryskman and Zalman murdered. "For you, there's a special gift," he told Zalman. "It's called a bullet...in your head."
Bryskman was deposited, bloody and aching, at the doorstep of his cousin's apartment in central Brooklyn. Meanwhile, Wax turned back for Lakewood, apparently untroubled by the possibility that Bryskman might rat him out. After all, ultra-Orthodox Jews consider it blasphemous to involve secular authorities in a dispute that should be rightly settled in the community. But at this point Bryskman no longer cared.…
In May, David Wax pleaded guilty to his role in the kidnapping of Meir Bryskman. But he told the court that he had done the hit on behalf of someone else, a man purported to be the mastermind of the forced-get ring, a man known as the Prodfather: a 69-year-old gray-bearded, frazzle-haired father of eight—and grandfather of forty-four—named Rabbi Mendel Epstein.…
Read it all here.