Naomi Ragen
Naomi Ragen (born July 10, 1949) is an American-Israeli Orthodox Jewish author, playwright and women’s rights activist. She has been accused of plagiarism by several young writers.
Life and work
Ragen (née Terlinsky) was born in New York City and received an Orthodox Jewish education before completing a degree in literature at Brooklyn College in 1971, the same year she moved to Israel with her husband, whom she had married in 1969. In 1978 she received a master’s degree in literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has four children and lives in Jerusalem.
 | This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (December 2011) |
Novels
Ragen’s first three novels, which described the lives of ultra-Orthodox Jewish women in Israel and the United States, dealt with themes that had not previously been addressed in that society's literature: wife-abuse (Jephte’s Daughter: 1989), adultery (Sotah: 1992) and rape (The Sacrifice of Tamar: 1995). Reaction to these novels in the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox communities was mixed. Some hailed her as a pioneer who for the first time exposed and opened to public discussion problems which the communities had preferred to pretend did not exist, while others criticized her for “hanging out the dirty laundry” for everyone to see, thus embarrassing the rabbis who were believed by many to be effectively dealing with these problems “behind the scenes” and also putting “ammunition in the hands of the anti-Semites”.
Her next novel (The Ghost of Hannah Mendes: 1998) told the story of a Sephardic family brought back from assimilation by the spirit of their ancestor Gracia Mendes, a 16th century Portuguese crypto-Jew.
Chains Around the Grass (2002) is a semi-autobiographical novel of the author’s childhood which dealt with the failure of the American dream for her parents.
In The Covenant (2004) Ragen dealt with the contemporary theme of an ordinary family confronted with Islamic terrorism.
The Saturday Wife (2007), the story of a rabbi's wayward wife, is loosely based on Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, and is a satire of modern Jewish Orthodoxy.
The Tenth Song (2010), is the story of a family whose life is shattered when a false accusation of terrorism is made against the father.
Drama
Women’s Minyan, Ragen’s 2001 play, tells the story of a Haredi woman who, upon fleeing from her adulterous and abusive husband, finds that he has manipulated the rabbinical courts to deprive her of the right to see or speak to her twelve children. The story is based on a true incident.[1]
Women’s Minyan ran for six years in Habima (Israel's National Theatre) and has been staged in the United States, Canada and Argentina.
Women's rights
Ragen, who is a columnist for The Jerusalem Post, has long been active in the Agunah struggle through attempting to force rabbinical courts to alter traditional divorce proceedings, and by trying to prevent men from using the granting of a "get" as an instrument of extortion.
In 2006, Ragen joined several other women in petitioning the courts to force the Israeli government and public bus companies to discontinue gender separated bus lines, in which men and women sit apart. Ragen claims that she was once herself harassed after riding in the "wrong" section.[2]
Lawsuits
In 2007, two American-Israeli writers accused Ragen of plagiarizing their first works. Writer Michal Tal filed a charge with the Jerusalem District Court of plagiarism against Ragen′s novel The Ghost of Hannah Mendes,[3] and writer Sarah Shapiro claimed, Ragen copied from her first book Growing with My Children in her novel Sotah.[4] Ragen denied both accusations,.[4][5] In 2010, the first plaintiff, Michal Tal, died. A final decision in the case has not yet been issued.[citation needed] In 2010 a third American-Israeli writer, Sudi Rosengarten, filed suit against Ragen, claiming that Ragen's book The Sacrifice of Tamar which deals with a black child born to a Haredi family as a result of a long-hidden rape of the grandmother, was based on her autobiographical short story A Marriage Made in Heaven. Ragen has denied this allegation as well.[citation needed]
On 11 December 2011, the Jerusalem District Court in a 92-page opinion by Judge Yoseph Shapira partially upheld Shapiro′s plagiarism claim, ruling that Ragen′s “plagiarism was tantamount to a premeditated act”, stating that Ragen knowingly copied from Shapiro's work in her novel Sotah which shows “a resemblance in the subjects and motifs, resemblances in language and terminology, similarity and resemblance in dialogue, at times word for word, and cumulative violations.”[6][7] Shapiro had asked for NIS 1 million in damages. The court gave the parties a month to negotiate the size of compensation, and indicated it would decide at a later date if copyright infringement had taken place.[4] According to The Jerusalem Post, Ragen claims that there is a campaign being waged to silence her, accusing Shapiro of “working out of a desire to silence my criticism of the Haredi community’s treatment of women”, but did not indicate whether she would appeal the decision, as she had not yet read the verdict.[6]
On 3 January 2012, Israel's Supreme Court accepted author Naomi Ragen’s appeal for a decision in the case brought against her by Michal Tal, after the Jerusalem District Court vacated the case following Tal’s death. The decision, by Chief Justice Beinish and Justices Gronis and Arbel, rejected Tal’s case, stating that “There is not and never was any basis whatsoever for any claim of plagiarism or copyright infringement brought against Naomi Ragen in the Jerusalem District Court.” “Tal’s claims were delusional,” Ragen said , “but the travesties and suffering I endured for five years over this frivolous case were very real. It has been a truly horrifying experience for me and my family. I am immensely pleased that justice has been finally been served and that the truth has come out in this case. I also fully expect to prevail in the Shapiro case now before the Jerusalem District Court."[8]
On 27 March 2012, Judge Yosef Shapira accepted a settlement between Naomi Ragen and Sarah Shapiro, whereby Ragen was ordered to pay Shapiro 233,000 NIS (over $62,500) for copyright infringement, representing an unprecedented amount in a plagiarism case in Israel.[9]
References
- ^ Esther Solomon (2006-11-06). "Sins of the husbands". Haaretz. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
- ^ "Israel bus rule sparks religious row". One News (New Zealand). 2008-01-15. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
- ^ Dan Izenberg (2007-02-23). "Naomi Ragen denies plagiarism". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
- ^ a b c Maya Sela (2011-12-12). "Jerusalem court finds author Naomi Ragen guilty of plagiarism". Haaretz. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
- ^ Dan Izenberg (2007-03-08). "Second writer accuses Naomi Ragen, popular novelist, of plagiarism". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
- ^ a b Ben Hartman (201-12-13). "Court rules Naomi Ragen plagiarized in best-seller". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Akiva Novick (2011-12-13). "Naomi Ragen found guilty of plagiarism". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
- ^ YNet. "Court rules Naomi Ragen did not plagiarize". YNet.
- ^ Cross-Currents Blog, March 28, 2012 http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2012/03/28/naomi-ragen-ordered-to-pay-233000-shch-for-plagiarism/