JERUSALEM (JTA) — Police in Jerusalem arrested a man in his 60s who is accused of running a cult in which dozens of women lived in slave-like conditions.
The man was arrested on Monday, according to the Israel Police, which also detained eight women accused of helping the man run the cult.
The group lived in a building in Jerusalem’s Bukharim Quarter identified as a woman’s seminary. Some 50 women, many with children, lived in the building in overcrowded conditions. The man, who has not been named, isolated them from their families, controlled their lives and punished them for transgressions, according to the police.
Women who held jobs transferred their wages directly to the man, according to police.
The man is also believed to have sexually exploited some of the women and minors, according to Hebrew-language reports.
The arrest comes after a months-long investigation, begun after several women who escaped the cult brought complaints to police.
The man, who reportedly considers himself a rabbi, was arrested on similar charges in 2015, the Times of Israel reported, but was set free after women testified on his behalf. Reports of his abuse date back to 2011.
The Jerusalem District Court ordered him held in jail for another week.
