Rabbi and Wife Charged With Abduction
A New Jersey rabbi and his wife have been released on $500,000 bond each after being arrested by the FBI for allegedly luring an Israeli man to their home where they tied him up and threatened to kill him if he didn't agree to a divorce.
David and Judy Wax, 49 and 47, allegedly also beat the man, showed him a body bag and insisted that he would be buried alive in the Pennsylvania mountains if he didn't do as he was told.
The pair surrendered to FBI agents in Red Bank, New Jersey on Monday and are facing kidnapping charges, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Trenton.
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The whole affair apparently stems from a divorce dispute in Israel's Rabbinical Court over the victim's refusal to give his wife a "get," an Orthodox Jewish divorce document permitting a wife to remarry, according to court papers.
Authorities have not disclosed the nature of the relationship between the victim's wife, who lives in Israel, and his assailants, Rebekah Carmichael, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office told The Huffington Post.
The alleged victim, Yisrael Briskman, apparently fled Israel after refusing to grant his wife the divorce, according to media reports.
Briskman told FBI agents that he had been lured to Wax's home in New Jersey in October 2010 to discuss a new book Mr. Wax, a rabbi, had purportedly been working on. According to his filed complaint, two men jumped Briskman from behind and handcuffed and blindfolded him. Briskman also told agents that he was robbed.
Court documents indicate that Briskman was taken by taxi to an ATM and ordered to withdraw $800. When the transaction was unsuccessful, the couple drove Briskman to Brooklyn, where he was staying.
Briskman, who claims the ordeal lasted several hours, reported the incident to the police before the FBI took over the case, according to AP.
The Waxes pleaded not guilty to the charges.
An attorney for Mr. Wax told AP that his client “has no history of any type of criminal behaviors or violent behaviors” and that once all the facts are disclosed his client will be “cleared of these charges and his good and honorable name will be restored."
A grand jury has yet to decide whether the New Jersey couple will be indicted on the kidnapping charges, which carry a maximum potential penalty of life in prison.
