Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist, playwright and journalist who has lived in Jerusalem since 1971. Naomi has written for the Jerusalem Post and other publications in Israel and abroad, as well as to her mailing list, about Israel and Jewish issues.
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Naomi's tenth novel The Devil in Jerusalem has been chosen by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as the number one Jewish book of the season.
The story - inspired by true events - is a chilling tale of the paths that so easily lead us astray, and the darkness within us all. 
Click the book’s cover to learn more.
Watch Valérie Abécasis' interview with Naomi on French Channel 24's Culture program. The interview (in French) begins at the 4:00 minute mark.
Naomi has published ten internationally best-selling novels, and is the author of a hit play ( Women's Minyan) that has been performed more than 500 times in Israel's National Theatre ( Habimah) as well as in the United States and Argentina.
An Orthodox woman, feminist and iconoclast, Naomi is a tireless advocate for women's rights in Israel, waging a relentless campaign against domestic abuse and bias in rabbinical courts, as well as a successful Supreme Court case against gender segregation on Israeli buses.
With her tenth novel, The Devil in Jerusalem, Naomi continues her ground-breaking exploration of women in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world she began in 1989 with Jephte's Daughter, followed by Sotah and The Sacrifice of Tamar.
Naomi is a sought-after lecturer all over the world. If your group is interested in hosting Naomi, please click here.
April 2017 – Naomi speaks about her books at the Ivan M. Stettenham Library at the Streicker Centre in New York City.
March 2017 – Naomi tours the Paris region to speak about her new book Les Soeurs Weiss, the French translation of The Sisters Weiss.
January 2017 – Naomi is interviewed by Valérie Abécasis on French Channel 24‘s Culture program. The interview (in French) begins at the 4:00 minute mark.
 December 2016 – Les Soeurs Weiss, the French translation of The Sisters Weiss, is published.
October 2016 – The Devil in Jerusalem is published in paperback.
November 2015 – The Jewish Telegraphic Agency puts The Devil in Jerusalem at the top of its list of the best Jewish books of the season.
November 2015 – Naomi lectured in Newton (MA), Boca Raton (FL), Miami (FL), St. Louis (MO), New York City, Atlanta (GA), Cherry Hill (NJ) and Santa Fe (NM).
August 2015 – Naomi’s new book, שטן בירושלים, a translation of The Devil in Jerusalem, is published.
 8-19 March 2015 – Naomi toured France and Switzerland, speaking to her readers in Paris, Marseilles, Strasbourg and Geneva about her new French book, Le Dixieme Chant, a translation of The Tenth Song.
12-20 November 2014 – Naomi lectured at the Windsor Writer’s Conference in Windsor, ON as well as in Detroit, Toronto and Winnipeg.
 7 October 2014 –
Naomi’s ninth novel, The Sisters Weiss, was published in paperback. It’s the story of two sisters from an ultra-Orthodox family in 1950s Brooklyn who take very different paths, and then find their lives unexpectedly intersecting again forty years later. To order the book from Amazon, click the book cover above.
8-17 August 2014 – Naomi was the scholar-in-residence on Kosherica’s Kosher Baltic Cruise aboard the Norwegian Cruise Lines Star. The 9 night cruise visited Copenhagen, Rostock, Tallinn, Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Stockholm.
8-9 May 2014 – Naomi took part in a panel discussion on women in Israel, together with Fiamma Nirenstein and Elena Loewenthal, at the Salone Internazionale del Libro 2014 in Turin, Italy.
December 2013 - Watch an interview (in French) with Naomi about her struggle against the haredi war on women in Israel.
Watch an interview (in French) with Naomi about Le Serment.
December 2013 - Naomi visited Île-de-France to promote her new book Le serment (the French translation of The Covenant).
15 March 2012 - Sotah was published in Italian as L'amora proibito. Read a
review (in Italian).
March 2012 - Jephte's Daughter was published in an Italian paperback edition, as Una moglie a Gerusalemme.
October 2011 - The Ghost of Hannah Mendes was published in French as Le Fantôme de Dona Gracia Mendes.
Read a
review (in French).
October 2011 - The Tenth Song was published in paperback.
May 2011 - Four-time Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh directed a staged reading of Women's Minyan at New York's Westside Theater. The reading was produced by One Circle Productions, in partnership with Safe Horizon.
Watch the reading.
Watch an interview with Naomi and Tovah Feldshuh.
November 2013 - The Covenant was published in French as Le serment.
November 2013 - Watch an interview with Naomi by Sharon Mor of Shaulina Productions about Naomi's new book The Sisters Weiss in Hebrew or in English.
6 November 2013 - Israel's Supreme Court reversed the District Court's decision against Naomi in the Sarah Shapiro case and ordered Shapiro to return the money she was awarded. Naomi agreed that the money be donated to charity.
October-November 2013 - Naomi toured the US, visiting twelve US cities and speaking about her new book, The Sisters Weiss.
October 2013 - Naomi's ninth novel, The Sisters Weiss, was published. Read an article about it in the San Diego Jewish World.
August 2013 - Chains Around the Grass was published in an Amazon Kindle edition.
July 2013 - An interview with Naomi about her trips to Spain to research her best-selling The Ghost of Hannah Mendes was featured in Jewish Travel.
December 2012 - Naomi's play Women's Minyan was performed by the West Boca Theatre Company at the Levis JCC in Boca Raton, Florida.
November 2012 - Naomi visited Île-de-France speaking about her books.
5 November 2012 - Naomi spoke at the Cockfosters and North Southgate Synagogue in London, England.
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by Naomi Ragen on August 2nd, 2017 
It is Friday night in Venice’s Ghetto Vecchio. I am seated in the women’s section of the Scola Spagnola, one of the most beautiful synagogues of Europe. It is packed. The women, hair covered in everything from traditional head scarves to trendy turbans wound around their heads with breathtaking panache, hug and kiss each other, sure signs of a family simcha. Young boys climb to the area in front of the Ark, undertaking various ritual roles reserved for the cute and inexperienced. The women beam.
The next day, at the end of the service, the star …
…continue reading Are Jews Historical Artifacts in Europe?
by Naomi Ragen on July 17th, 2017 
The amazing thing about actually living in Israel, is that even the simplest daily activities are sometimes infused with so much meaning. Let me give you an example.
I was going to get a haircut. My hairdresser is in Ramat Gan, which means I have to take a bus from the Jerusalem Central Bus Station. So I go. And as I’m walking through the doors of the bus station, I see so many young soldiers in uniform, men and women. And they’re walking in with their heavy backpacks, probably after a day or a few hours …
…continue reading The Girl with the Rucksack
by Naomi Ragen on July 6th, 2017 
Something is terribly broken in the relationship between American and Israeli Jews. I say this as an American Jew who has lived in Israel for almost half a century. But if anyone thinks this started with Women of the Wall or PM Netanyahu’s recent – and I believe unfortunate – backtracking on the agreement over egalitarian prayer space at the Kotel, he is suffering from selective memory, if not total denial.
There was a time when American Jews not only put their pennies in their pushkas to help the struggling Jewish homeland. They put their lives …
…continue reading A Good Relationship Gone Bad
by Naomi Ragen on April 19th, 2017 Dear Friends,
I will be speaking at the Ivan M. Stettenham Library at the Streicker Centre, One East 65th Street in Manhattan at 6:30 on April 25, next Tuesday.
I’ll be answering lots of questions about myself, my books, Israel, and the lives we lead. It should be a memorable conversation! It’s free and open to the public, but places are filling up fast. Please just register online here.
Looking forward to seeing all of you there!
by Naomi Ragen on January 29th, 2017 
I can’t believe I actually have to write this article. But I’ve been asked to by intelligent Jews who can’t seem to get through to their brain-washed brethren glued to the NY Slimes and CNN. So I’ll say it slowly. Our President’s temporary entry ban of all non-U.S. citizens from terror sponsoring and infected countries (countries chosen, by the way, by Barack Hussein Obama and contained in a law passed by Congress) is nothing like what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust.
First of all, do you know what the Holocaust was? I didn’t think …
…continue reading Muslim Refugees Are Not Holocaust Victims
by Naomi Ragen on January 16th, 2017 
Last week I was interviewed in my home by Valérie Abécasis for French Channel 24‘s Culture program. We discussed my work (the French version of The Sisters Weiss was just published) and my pursuit of fair treatment of women by the Israeli rabbinical establishment.
You can watch the program here. The interview (in French) begins at the 4:00 minute mark.
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