Aharon Friedman, staffer of Rep Dave Camp refuses to grant his wife a get!

A social-media campaign is being waged to pressure Rep. Dave Camp to encourage a top staffer to grant his wife a Jewish divorce, and the lawmaker restricted public posts on his Facebook page after a flood of comments about the issue

Protesting Aharon Friedman

Camp, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, employs a staff member, Aharon Friedman, who is the subject of intense anger from some in the Orthodox Jewish community for refusing to provide his wife with a Jewish divorce decree, known as a “get,” despite the finalization of their civil divorce nearly two years ago.

Friedman, a tax counsel for Camp who has worked for the Michigan Republican since 2007, must consent to the get in order for his ex-wife, Tamar Epstein, to remarry, have additional children or even for her to wear her hair uncovered as unmarried Orthodox Jewish women are permitted to do. Friedman’s detractors charge that his behavior amounts to “domestic abuse.”

The situation is awkward for Camp because it is rare that the personal lives of congressional staffers become political issues for members of Congress. But the influential committee chairman is being dragged into the highly unusual situation now that Friedman’s opponents have decided to thrust it into the public sphere.

Camp’s office turned off a public posting feature on the Facebook page and declined to answer questions about why it did so. Public users can no longer add original posts to Camp’s wall, but can still comment on existing posts.
Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, the rabbi for Ohev Sholom, an Orthodox synagogue in Washington, D.C., that serves more than 300 families, told POLITICO that he will go further than the online campaign and intends to write a letter of complaint to the House Ethics Committee.