A New Jersey mom claims the Brooklyn matchmaker who introduced her to her now-estranged husband has become a relentless yenta who gossips about her sex life, aims to “destroy” her marriage and wants to ruin her chances of landing a new hubby in the close-knit Orthodox Jewish community.
Frayda Basha Rubinov, 25, is suing 61-year-old Esther Gartenhaus for allegedly telling friends, relatives and even rabbis that she “is incapable of sexual intercourse,” according to court papers.
Frayda married Avraham Rubinov in 2010, six months after Gartenhaus brought the pair, who are both hearing impaired, together. The couple soon had a son, Dovid.
But when problems arose, Avraham Rubinov went running to Gartenhaus, a close friend of his family, said Frayda’s lawyer, Joel Yacoob.
The matchmaker’s marriage-counseling methods allegedly included refusing to let Frayda leave Brooklyn after a weekend visit for Shabbat and telling Frayda to “let your husband do to you what any husband wants to do to his wife,” Yacoob told The Post.
When Avraham abandoned his wife and child, Gartenhaus made sure everyone knew why, Frayda claims in a defamation lawsuit filed last week in Brooklyn federal court.
Gartenhaus spread the word from Brooklyn to New Jersey, where Frayda lives, that “Fraidy refused to engage in sexual activity with her husband,” according to court papers.
“This is a woman who is giving marriage lessons to brides-to-be,” Yacoob said. “She’s like a misogynist, but she’s female.”
She’s even interfered with the couple’s divorce, Yacoob insists.
Lawyers for Avraham Rubinov have described Gartenhaus as the “charging force” behind the young man’s refusal to settle or pay child support, Yacoob said.
“We worked hard to try to settle it,” he said. “Three different times we came close to settling it. This whole case is nuts.”
The situation has ruined Frayda’s reputation, Yacoob explains.
“In these communities, people remarry, but they always ask around, ‘Why didn’t the marriage work out before?’ ” Yacoob said. “So this woman is going around and basically killing her opportunity to remarry.”
Frayda Rubinov, who is seeking unspecified damages, claims Gartenhaus has been “malicious.”
Gartenhaus did not respond to requests for comment.