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Rabbi Aharon Ramati, who was tried in Israel for enslaving 30 women, was sentenced.
The Jerusalem District Court announced Wednesday that Ramati was sentenced to 9 months of community service. The rabbi will also pay a total of 43 thousand dollars in compensation to the victims.
At the trial, Ramati reportedly pleaded guilty and reached a plea deal. It was also reported that 11 people refused to testify in the trial against the rabbi after the severe traumas they suffered.
Ramati was the director of Baer Miriam, an all-female religious school in Jerusalem’s city center. The rabbi was arrested in February 2020 following allegations against him.
Israeli police had reported that Ramati, whom they described as a “cult leader”, was holding women and girls as slaves in this school. The incident came to the agenda after two women who escaped from this school filed a criminal complaint against the rabbi. Ramati denied the allegations against him at the time.
According to Israeli media reports, Ramati rented sleeping quarters to young women and girls for $220 a month. It was reported that the rabbi used physical and psychological violence against those who attended this school, which was described as a “house of fear”, and isolated them by separating them from their families and children.
Jerusalem Rabbi Aharon Ramati sentenced to 9 months community service for enslaving 30 women in his house.
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It was also stated that women were forcibly held in unhygienic environments and denied proper nutrition.
Ramati reportedly first started his network of torture and abuse in 2008. The rabbi was also arrested in 2015, but was released when he was brought to court after members of the school defended him.
