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{{Short description|American-Israeli author and playwright}}
] ]
'''Naomi Ragen''' (born July 10, 1949) is an ]-]i ] author, playwright and ] activist. Ragen lives in ] and writes in English. A recurring theme in her fictional works is injustice against women in the ] Jewish community. She has been sued three times, and was convicted twice<ref>http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=21449</ref><ref name="cross-currents.com">http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2013/11/10/naomi-ragen-drops-plagiarism-appeal-claims-victory/</ref><ref>http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2014/11/27/judgment-rendered/</ref> of plagiarism in lawsuits filed by writers Sarah Shapiro and Sudy Rosengarten, from whose works Ragen had convicted of having plagiarized, and which Ragen had transformed for purposes the original authors not intended (i.e. fictionalized criticism of Haredim).<ref>http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/jerusalem-court-finds-author-naomi-ragen-guilty-of-plagiarism-1.400891</ref><ref>http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2007/04/24/naomi-ragen-and-the-plagiarism-case/</ref> During the 4-year trial, the defendant Naomi Ragen counter-accused the plaintiff herself, Sarah Shapiro, of having plagiarized from ''Raising Children to Care'' and ''Effective Jewish Parenting,'' by Dr.Miriam Adahan and Dr. Miriam Levi respectively. Ragen also counter-accused her accuser of having quoted verses of a popular 1960s song made famous by Carol King, without giving proper attribution to the copyright holder. Dr.Adahan and Dr. Levi testified under oath in court and submitted written testimony on Sarah Shapiro's behalf, calling Ragen's charge "absurd," since ''Growing With My Children'' was in large part about Shapiro's participation in their parenting workshops, and all quotes had been sent to both teachers, Dr. Adahan and Dr. Levi, for pre-publication review and approval, and had been attributed to them in full. Ragen's charge of plagiarism concerning "You've Got a Friend" elicited an acknowledgment by Sarah Shapiro that the song she quoted on pg. 354 of her diary was an entry about having heard the song on the radio, and that the song's copyright-owner should indeed have been asked for permission to reprint
'''Naomi Ragen''' ({{langx|he|נעמי רגן}}; born July 10, 1949) is an ]-]i modern-Orthodox Jewish author and playwright. Ragen lives in ], and writes in English. A recurring theme in her fictional works is injustice against women in the ] Jewish community. Ragen has been the subject of various lawsuits over claims of plagiarism.


== Biography == ==Biography==
Naomi Ragen (née Terlinsky) was born in ]. She received an Orthodox Jewish education before completing a degree in literature at ]. In 1971, she moved to Israel with her husband. In 1978, she received a master’s degree in literature from the ]. She has four children and lives in ]. Naomi Ragen (née Terlinsky) was born in ]. She received an Orthodox Jewish education before completing a ] in literature at ]. In 1971, she moved to Israel with her husband. In 1978, she received a master's degree in literature from the ].


She has four children and lives in ].
⚫ == Literary career ==

⚫ Ragen’s first three novels describe the lives of Haredi Jewish women in Israel and the United States, dealing 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 Haredi communities was mixed. Some hailed her as a pioneer for exposing problems which the communities had pretended did not exist, while others criticized her for “hanging out the dirty laundry” for all to see and for obsessively seeking to portray Haredi life negatively.
⚫ ==Literary career==
⚫ Ragen's first three novels describe the lives of Haredi Jewish women in Israel and the United States, dealing 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).


Her next novel (''The Ghost of Hannah Mendes'': 1998) is the story of a ] family brought back from assimilation by the spirit of their ancestor ], a 16th-century ] ]. Her next novel (''The Ghost of Hannah Mendes'': 1998) is the story of a ] family brought back from assimilation by the spirit of their ancestor ], a 16th-century ] ].
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''Chains Around the Grass'' (2002) is a semi-autobiographical novel dealing with the failure of the ]. ''Chains Around the Grass'' (2002) is a semi-autobiographical novel dealing with the failure of the ].


In ''The Covenant'' (2004) Ragen deals with an ordinary family confronted with ]. In ''The Covenant'' (2004), Ragen deals with an ordinary family confronted with ].


''The Saturday Wife'' (2007), the story of a rabbi's wayward wife, is loosely based on ]’s ], and is a satire of modern Jewish Orthodoxy. ''The Saturday Wife'' (2007), the story of a rabbi's wayward wife, is loosely based on ]’s ], 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.<ref></ref> ''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.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.jewishinstlouis.org/page.aspx?id=231950 |title=The Tenth Song |access-date=2013-04-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101231160033/http://www.jewishinstlouis.org/page.aspx?id=231950 |archive-date=2010-12-31 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

⚫ ''The Sisters Weiss'' (2013), a novel about two sisters born into an Orthodox family in 1950's Brooklyn.

⚫ ''The Devil in Jerusalem'' (2015) is a mystery featuring Detective Bina Tzedek.
⚫ === Theater ===
⚫ ''Women’s Minyan'' (2001) is a play about a Haredi woman fleeing from her adulterous and abusive husband. She 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.<ref>{{cite web|author= Esther Solomon|title=Sins of the husbands| url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/sins-of-the-husbands-1.204182| publisher=| work= Haaretz |date=2006-11-06 |accessdate=2011-12-13}}</ref>''Women’s Minyan'' ran for six years in ] (Israel's National Theatre) and has been staged in the United States, ] and ].

⚫ Ragen is also a columnist for ].

== Lawsuits ==
In 2007, two American-Israeli writers accused Ragen of plagiarizing their work. Michal Tal filed a charge of plagiarism against Ragen′s novel ''The Ghost of Hannah Mendes'',.<ref>{{cite web|author= Dan Izenberg|title=Naomi Ragen denies plagiarism |url=http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1171894498711&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull | work=Jerusalem Post|date=2007-02-23 |accessdate=2011-12-13}}</ref> Tal died mid-trial, before a verdict was reached. The court set aside the unfinished trial with a provision that it could be reopened by Tal's descendants if they so desired in future. After their mother's death, Naomi Ragen brought Michal Tal's children to the Supreme Court, to require that they agree in writing that the case was "without basis." In a separate lawsuit, the author Sarah Shapiro filed claim that in her novel ''Sotah'', published in 1992, Ragen had plagiarized from Shapiro's autobiographical non-fiction book ''Growing with My Children: A Jewish Mother's Diary,.'' published in 1990.

Ragen denied both accusations.<ref name="Haaretz1.400891">{{cite news |author = Maya Sela|title = Jerusalem court finds author Naomi Ragen guilty of plagiarism|url = http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/jerusalem-court-finds-author-naomi-ragen-guilty-of-plagiarism-1.400891|work = Haaretz|date = 2011-12-12|accessdate = 2011-12-13}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author= Dan Izenberg|title=Second writer accuses Naomi Ragen, popular novelist, of plagiarism|url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jpost/access/1230982471.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Mar+8%2C+2007&author=DAN+IZENBERG&pub=Jerusalem+Post&edition=&startpage=08&desc=Second+writer+accuses+Naomi+Ragen%2C+popular+novelist%2C+of+plagiarism| publisher=| work= Jerusalem Post|date=2007-03-08 |accessdate=2011-12-13}}</ref>

Shapiro charged that Ragen had extensively copied, often word for word, from two central episodes of Shapiro's autobiographical account. Shapiro related that Ragen had invited Shapiro to her home in 1990, after being given a copy of the book by its publisher's head, Rabbi Moshe Dombe, the head of Targum Press. Shapiro testified that in 1994 she started hearing from readers that ''Sotah'' contained passages and two major episodes obviously copied from ''Growing With My Children''. “In downtown Jerusalem,” said Shapiro, "I found a copy of ''Sotah'' in a rack of best-sellers...and started leafing through the pages. In just moments, to my shock, I ... With a pounding heart I rushed home and immediately dialed Ms. Ragen’s number. I told her what I had found and she said she didn’t know what I was talking about”.<ref>http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Court-rules-Naomi-Ragen-plagiarized-in-best-seller</ref>


⚫ ''The Sisters Weiss'' (2013) is a novel about two sisters born into an ultra-Orthodox family in 1950s Brooklyn who choose very different paths in life.
In 2010, Michal Tal died while her case was being tried.


⚫ ''The Devil in Jerusalem'' (2015) is a mystery featuring Detective Bina Tzedek investigating a corrupt haredi cult rabbi.
A third writer, Sudy Rosengarten, claimed that Chapter 24 of Ragen's fictional novel ''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 plagiarized from Rosengarten's autobiographical short story ''A Marriage Made in Heaven,'' published in 1991 in Volume I (pgs. 302-316) of ''Our Lives: An Anthology of Jewish Women's Writings,'' a series compiled and edited by Sarah Shapiro''.'' Ragen denied this allegation as well.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}}


''An Unorthodox Match'' (2019) a novel set in the ultraorthodox community of Boro Park, Brooklyn, in which a secular Jewish woman adopts a haredi lifestyle and marries a haredi widower.
On 11 December 2011, the Jerusalem District Court in a 92-page opinion by Judge ] 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.”<ref name="JP249203"/><ref>{{cite web|author= Akiva Novick|title=Naomi Ragen found guilty of plagiarism|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4160630,00.html| publisher=| work= Ynetnews|date=2011-12-13 |accessdate=2011-12-13}}</ref> Shapiro had asked for NIS 1 million in damages. The court gave the parties a month to negotiate compensation, and indicated it would decide at a later date if copyright infringement had taken place.<ref name="Haaretz1.400891"/>


''An Observant Wife'' (2021) is a sequel to ''An Unorthdox Match''.
On 3 January 2012, Israel's Supreme Court accepted author Naomi Ragen’s appeal in the case brought against her by Michal Tal, although no verdict had been issued by the lower court due to Tal's death while the case was being tried. The decision, by Supreme Chief Justice ] and Justices Gronis and Arbel, required Tal's descendants to agree and sign on to a document which stated 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."<ref>{{cite web|author=YNet |title=Court rules Naomi Ragen did not plagiarize |url=http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4171752,00.html|publisher=YNet}}</ref>


⚫ ===Theater===
On 27 March 2012, Naomi Ragen and Sarah Shapiro reached a settlement. Ragen was ordered to pay Shapiro 233,000 NIS (over $62,500) for copyright infringement, an unprecedented amount in a plagiarism case in Israel.<ref>Cross-Currents Blog, March 28, 2012 http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2012/03/28/naomi-ragen-ordered-to-pay-233000-shch-for-plagiarism/</ref>
⚫ ''Women's Minyan'' (2001) is a play about a Haredi woman fleeing from her adulterous and abusive husband. She 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.<ref>{{cite web|author= Esther Solomon|title=Sins of the husbands| url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/sins-of-the-husbands-1.204182| work= Haaretz |date=2006-11-06 |access-date=2011-12-13}}</ref> ''Women’s Minyan'' ran for six years in ] (Israel's National Theatre) and has been staged in the United States, ] and ].
In June 2012, Ragen appealed the District Court's decision, claiming that it set a precedent that would deny Israeli writers freedom of expression.<ref>Haaretz, July 5, 2012 http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-author-naomi-ragen-files-appeal-against-plagiarism-ruling-1.448905/</ref>


===Columnist===
On 6 November 2013, the Supreme Court accepted a settlement between Ragen and Shapiro which did not overturn the verdict of the District Court's decision, but which sought a "softening" of the financial settlement. Shapiro was asked by the Supreme Court, "for the sake of peace between the parties" to donate her personal winnings to one or two charities of her choice, as the condition for Naomi Ragen's dropping of the Supreme Court appeal. To the media Ragen claimed victory,<ref>Walla, November 6, 2013 http://e.walla.co.il/?w=/6/2692498&m=1</ref> although it was Ragen who lost 233,000 shekels to Shapiro and who paid Shapiro's attorneys and court costs. Ragen is still subject to an injunction against reprinting her book ''Sotah''.<ref name="cross-currents.com"/>
⚫ Ragen was also a ] for '']''.


==Plagiarism lawsuits==
Shapiro donated the 97,000 shekels awarded her for personal damages, not including Ragen's payment of Shapiro's legal costs, to Yad Eliezer and Yad Sarah, two charity organizations.<ref name="cross-currents.com"/> Ragen was required to remove the plagiarized passages from future editions of ''Sotah''.<ref>http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173699#.Unq3sySE4kN</ref>
===Michal Tal===
In 2007, Michal Tal, an American-Israeli writer, claimed that lines and sentences contained in Tal's novel ''The Lion and the Cross'' were plagiarized in Naomi Ragen's novel ''The Ghost of Hannah Mendes''.<ref>{{cite web |author=Dan Izenberg |title=Naomi Ragen denies plagiarism |url=http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1171894498711&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull |work=Jerusalem Post |date=2007-02-23 |access-date=2011-12-13 }}{{dead link|date=February 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Ragen vigorously denied the accusation and charged that Tal's "Table of Similarities" was riddled with fabricated quotes from both of the books. Tal died mid-trial, before a verdict was reached. The court set aside the unfinished trial with a provision that it could be reopened by Tal's descendants if they so desired in future. In 2010, Jerusalem District Court judge ] ruled that since Tal's descendants did not wish to continue with the litigation, the claim would be dismissed.<ref name=":0" /> In 2012, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled there was no basis to the claim.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.co.il/1.1610494|title=רגן נוקתה מתביעה קודמת על גניבה ספרותית|last=סלע|first=מיה|date=2012-01-06|newspaper=הארץ|language=he|access-date=2016-09-08}}</ref>


===Sarah Shapiro===
In November 2014, the District court of Jerusalem upheld Sudy Rosengarten's lawsuit in its entirety, ruling that Naomi Ragen had consciously copied, extensively and blatantly, from Sudy Rosengarten's autobiographical story in the novel ''The Sacrifice of Tamar''. She was ordered to compensate Rosengarten in shekels worth app. $19,000).
In 2007, Sarah Shapiro brought a claim against Ragen which alleged that Ragen had plagiarized from Shapiro's book ''Growing with My Children'' in her novel ''Sotah''.<ref name="Haaretz1.400891" /> Ragen acknowledged at the trial that she had read Shapiro's book two or three years before writing her own, but she had not copied the sentences and ideas.<ref name="toi2012" /> On 11 December 2011, Judge Shapira upheld the plagiarism claim.<ref name="JP249203">{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?ID=249203|title=Court rules Naomi Ragen plagiarized in best-seller|date=2011-12-13|access-date=2011-12-13|author=Ben Hartman|work=Jerusalem Post}}</ref> Shapiro had asked for NIS 1 million in damages, and the court ordered the parties to negotiate the amount to be awarded. It also indicated it would decide at a later date the copyright infringement claim.<ref name="Haaretz1.400891">{{cite news |author = Maya Sela|title = Jerusalem court finds author Naomi Ragen guilty of plagiarism|url = http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/jerusalem-court-finds-author-naomi-ragen-guilty-of-plagiarism-1.400891|work = Haaretz|date = 2011-12-12|access-date = 2011-12-13}}</ref> On 27 March 2012, Ragen and Shapiro reached a settlement, and Ragen was ordered to pay Shapiro 233,000 ].<ref name="toi2012">{{cite web|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/author-naomi-ragen-to-pay-nis-233000-for-plagiarism/|publisher=]|title=Author Naomi Ragen to pay NIS 233,000 for plagiarism|date=March 27, 2012|access-date=2016-02-04}}</ref>


In June 2012, Ragen appealed the District Court's decision to the Supreme Court, claiming that it set a precedent that would deny Israeli writers freedom of expression.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-author-naomi-ragen-files-appeal-against-plagiarism-ruling-1.448905/|title=Israeli Author Naomi Ragen Files Appeal Against Plagiarism Ruling|last=Sela|first=Maya|website=Haaretz|access-date=2016-09-08}}</ref> On 6 November 2013, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the District Court's judgment regarding Ragen's plagiarism. The Supreme Court judge requested that "for the sake of peace between the two parties", Shapiro's award be donated to a charity of Shapiro's choice, a request to which Shapiro acquiesced. Ragen still had to pay Shapiro's attorneys and Ragen is still subject to an injunction against reprinting ''Sotah'' without removing all plagiarized text, an approximate total of 25 sentences.<ref name="Supreme">{{Cite web|url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173699#.Unq3sySE4kN|title=Supreme Court: Naomi Ragen to Delete Disputed Sentences|website=Israeli National News|date=6 November 2013 |access-date=2016-09-08}}</ref> Shapiro chose to donate the 97,000 shekels personal award, not including Ragen's payment of Shapiro's legal costs, to ] and ].<ref name="Supreme"/>
Ragen claims that the lawsuits against her are an attempt to silence her criticism of the Haredi community’s treatment of women.<ref name="JP249203">{{cite web|author= Ben Hartman |title=Court rules Naomi Ragen plagiarized in best-seller |url=http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?ID=249203| publisher=| work= Jerusalem Post|date=201-12-13 |access-date=2011-12-13}}</ref>


===Sudy Rosengarten===
== Women's rights activism ==
In November 2014, Ragen was found liable for plagiarism for copying content from Sudy Rosengarten's short story "A Marriage Made in Heaven" which had been published in "The Our Lives Anthology" edited by Sarah Shapiro.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=21449|title=Author Naomi Ragen loses plagiarism suit|last=Harel|first=Zvi|work=Israel Hayom|access-date=2016-08-09}}</ref> Ragen had claimed that she had only used Rosengarten's work as literary inspiration, and that the few sentence fragments at issue constituted an insignificant portion of her full length novel.<ref name=":1" /> Ragen was ordered to pay 73,000 NIS to Rosengarten.<ref name=":1" />
In 2006, Ragen joined several other women in petitioning the courts to force the ] and public bus companies to discontinue ], in which men and women sit apart. Ragen claims that she was once herself harassed after riding in the "wrong" section.<ref name="TVNZ">{{cite web|title=Israel bus rule sparks religious row |url=http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1545926 |work=One News (New Zealand) |date=2008-01-15 |access-date=2008-02-11}}</ref>


== References == ==References==
{{Reflist}} {{Reflist}}


== External links == ==External links==
* * {{Official website|http://www.naomiragen.com/}}


{{Authority control}} {{Authority control}}


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⚫ ]
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Latest revision as of 06:21, 1 November 2024

American-Israeli author and playwright
Naomi Ragen

Naomi Ragen (Hebrew: נעמי רגן; born July 10, 1949) is an American-Israeli modern-Orthodox Jewish author and playwright. Ragen lives in Jerusalem, and writes in English. A recurring theme in her fictional works is injustice against women in the Haredi Jewish community. Ragen has been the subject of various lawsuits over claims of plagiarism.

Biography

Naomi Ragen (née Terlinsky) was born in New York City. She received an Orthodox Jewish education before completing a bachelor's degree in literature at Brooklyn College. In 1971, she moved to Israel with her husband. In 1978, she received a master's degree in literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

She has four children and lives in Jerusalem.

Literary career

Ragen's first three novels describe the lives of Haredi Jewish women in Israel and the United States, dealing 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).

Her next novel (The Ghost of Hannah Mendes: 1998) is 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 dealing with the failure of the American dream.

In The Covenant (2004), Ragen deals with 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.

The Sisters Weiss (2013) is a novel about two sisters born into an ultra-Orthodox family in 1950s Brooklyn who choose very different paths in life.

The Devil in Jerusalem (2015) is a mystery featuring Detective Bina Tzedek investigating a corrupt haredi cult rabbi.

An Unorthodox Match (2019) a novel set in the ultraorthodox community of Boro Park, Brooklyn, in which a secular Jewish woman adopts a haredi lifestyle and marries a haredi widower.

An Observant Wife (2021) is a sequel to An Unorthdox Match.

Theater

Women's Minyan (2001) is a play about a Haredi woman fleeing from her adulterous and abusive husband. She 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. Women’s Minyan ran for six years in Habima (Israel's National Theatre) and has been staged in the United States, Canada and Argentina.

Columnist

Ragen was also a columnist for The Jerusalem Post.

Plagiarism lawsuits

Michal Tal

In 2007, Michal Tal, an American-Israeli writer, claimed that lines and sentences contained in Tal's novel The Lion and the Cross were plagiarized in Naomi Ragen's novel The Ghost of Hannah Mendes. Ragen vigorously denied the accusation and charged that Tal's "Table of Similarities" was riddled with fabricated quotes from both of the books. Tal died mid-trial, before a verdict was reached. The court set aside the unfinished trial with a provision that it could be reopened by Tal's descendants if they so desired in future. In 2010, Jerusalem District Court judge Yosef Shapira ruled that since Tal's descendants did not wish to continue with the litigation, the claim would be dismissed. In 2012, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled there was no basis to the claim.

Sarah Shapiro

In 2007, Sarah Shapiro brought a claim against Ragen which alleged that Ragen had plagiarized from Shapiro's book Growing with My Children in her novel Sotah. Ragen acknowledged at the trial that she had read Shapiro's book two or three years before writing her own, but she had not copied the sentences and ideas. On 11 December 2011, Judge Shapira upheld the plagiarism claim. Shapiro had asked for NIS 1 million in damages, and the court ordered the parties to negotiate the amount to be awarded. It also indicated it would decide at a later date the copyright infringement claim. On 27 March 2012, Ragen and Shapiro reached a settlement, and Ragen was ordered to pay Shapiro 233,000 NIS.

In June 2012, Ragen appealed the District Court's decision to the Supreme Court, claiming that it set a precedent that would deny Israeli writers freedom of expression. On 6 November 2013, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the District Court's judgment regarding Ragen's plagiarism. The Supreme Court judge requested that "for the sake of peace between the two parties", Shapiro's award be donated to a charity of Shapiro's choice, a request to which Shapiro acquiesced. Ragen still had to pay Shapiro's attorneys and Ragen is still subject to an injunction against reprinting Sotah without removing all plagiarized text, an approximate total of 25 sentences. Shapiro chose to donate the 97,000 shekels personal award, not including Ragen's payment of Shapiro's legal costs, to Yad Eliezer and Yad Sarah.

Sudy Rosengarten

In November 2014, Ragen was found liable for plagiarism for copying content from Sudy Rosengarten's short story "A Marriage Made in Heaven" which had been published in "The Our Lives Anthology" edited by Sarah Shapiro. Ragen had claimed that she had only used Rosengarten's work as literary inspiration, and that the few sentence fragments at issue constituted an insignificant portion of her full length novel. Ragen was ordered to pay 73,000 NIS to Rosengarten.

References

  1. "The Tenth Song". Archived from the original on 2010-12-31. Retrieved 2013-04-11.
  2. Esther Solomon (2006-11-06). "Sins of the husbands". Haaretz. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
  3. Dan Izenberg (2007-02-23). "Naomi Ragen denies plagiarism". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
  4. ^ סלע, מיה (2012-01-06). "רגן נוקתה מתביעה קודמת על גניבה ספרותית". הארץ (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  5. ^ Maya Sela (2011-12-12). "Jerusalem court finds author Naomi Ragen guilty of plagiarism". Haaretz. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
  6. ^ "Author Naomi Ragen to pay NIS 233,000 for plagiarism". The Times of Israel. March 27, 2012. Retrieved 2016-02-04.
  7. Ben Hartman (2011-12-13). "Court rules Naomi Ragen plagiarized in best-seller". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
  8. Sela, Maya. "Israeli Author Naomi Ragen Files Appeal Against Plagiarism Ruling". Haaretz. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  9. ^ "Supreme Court: Naomi Ragen to Delete Disputed Sentences". Israeli National News. 6 November 2013. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  10. ^ Harel, Zvi. "Author Naomi Ragen loses plagiarism suit". Israel Hayom. Retrieved 2016-08-09.

External links

Categories: