Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

New Jersey Couple Who Helped Jewish Divorce Ring Sentenced to Prison

A New Jersey husband and wife whose testimony helped convict the leader of a ring that violently pressured husbands to provide Jewish divorces were sentenced for their roles in the ring’s crimes.

David and Judy Wax of Lakewood were both sentenced in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey Tuesday for assisting in a kidnapping, the Asbury Park Press reported.

U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson sentenced David Wax, 53, to seven years in federal prison for luring a recalcitrant husband to his home, where the man was blindfolded, physically restrained and tortured until he agreed to give his wife a divorce. Wax’s wife, Judy, 51, was sentenced to two years of probation for hiding her husband’s involvement.

According to Jewish law, a Jewish woman cannot remarry without receiving a Jewish divorce, or get, from her husband. Women who are trapped in such marriages are called agunot, or chained women.

The Waxes testified against Rabbi Mendel Epstein, the leader of the divorce ring, which was busted in an FBI sting in 2013. Ten members of the ring, including three Orthodox rabbis, were sentenced in 2015.

Judy Wax admitted she and her husband had replaced a blood-soaked carpet in their home to conceal a kidnapping and said she had knowingly refraining from reporting the kidnapping to the police.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.