Mendel Epstein: Last News

New York TimesMagazine writer and author Taffy Brodesser-Akner has been tapped by Sister, the production shingle headed byStacey Snider, to penThe Get, a feature based on Matt Shaer’s GQ piece ‘The Orthodox Hit Squad.’ The Get will tell the story of Mendel Epstein,one notorious rabbi in New York and New Jersey's ultra-orthodox communities, who was sought for help in managing the worst divorce cases, where husbands exploited Jewish law to deny their wives freedom from miserable marriages. This help included beatings, open graves and cattle prods to the testicles, and it worked, but it also showed how a noble goal can sometimes only be accomplished by the most unconscionable of methods.

Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office EditorSister is teaming with New York Times bestselling author and journalist Taffy Brodesser-Akner to develop and produce the feature film The Get, based on Matt Shaer’s GQ article “The Orthodox Hit Squad.” Brodesser-Akner will write the feature.Carolyn Strauss and Kate Fenske are producing for Sister alongside Shaer.The Get follows how communities take care of each other in the name of what’s right, and how “right” can be a moving target. In New York and New Jersey’s ultra-orthodox communities, one notorious rabbi, Mendel Epstein, was sought for help in managing the worst divorce cases, where husbands exploited Jewish law to deny their wives freedom from miserable marriages.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaSister will partner with Taffy Brodesser-Akner on “The Get,” a feature film based on Matt Shaer’s GQ piece “The Orthodox Hit Squad.”Brodesser-Akner, best known for her New York Times Magazine profiles of the likes of Val Kilmer to Bradley Cooper along with her best-seller “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” will write the screenplay. “The Get” unfolds in New York and New Jersey’s ultra-orthodox communities.