Next week, in mid-September, one of the strangest affairs that ever took place in Israel will come to an end. Tel Aviv’s district court will render a verdict regarding a man who created a very unconventional life for himself. A sort of a harem perhaps, or maybe a cult. This man lived in several apartments in southern Tel Aviv, apartments which barely accommodated more than 30 women and about 80 children they bore for him over the years. The district court will decide if the women and children lived under slavery conditions and if they were victim to severe sexual offenses. This is the first time in the history of the state that a court deals with people living under slavery.

The affair has stirred up the country, especially because of the deviant nature of the charges. In the middle of the night five years ago, in January 2010, scores of policemen broke into the compound in which Goel Ratzon lived with his wives and dozens of children. The ensuing spectacle that appeared on television screens shocked everyone: one after another, women were taken out while holding their babies and children. After them trailed a middle-aged man who introduced himself as the father of the family. He claimed that he did not understand why he was being arrested. Ratzon, with long white hair that reached his shoulders and a well-tended white beard, expressed his surprise at the dead-of-the-night break-in to the journalists who had surrounded the house. “These are my wives and these are my children, what crime have I committed?” he asked.

When he was forced into a police patrol car, several of Ratzon’s wives burst into loud tears while others tried to defend Ratzon and attacked the policemen to prevent the arrest. Even the children, young and old alike, sobbed to see their father under arrest. On that same morning, the women were sent with their children to a shelter for battered wives. The Welfare Ministry was tasked with treating the women, with the objective of severing them from the lifestyle in which they had lived.

Many of the residents in the Hatikva neighborhood, one of Tel Aviv's poorest areas, were aware of the harem that had sprung up under their very noses. They did not find any flaw in it and felt no reason to report it to the authorities. For years, Ratzon “collected” women in crisis and extended his patronage to them. Woman after woman, they left their houses and families and went to live in Ratzon’s apartments. The secret of his powers was not clear, but the women were captivated by him and totally subjugated themselves to his desires. They did whatever he wanted them to do. Some of them tattooed his image on parts of their bodies, and, as if that weren’t enough — they fought each other for the privilege of having his children. Each baby was given “Goel” as a middle name.