Naomi Ragen

We Write the Books We Want to Read

In this speech Ms. Ragen addresses her process for selecting the topics for her books, the real life stories behind them, and why these stories chose her.

It’s Between Hope and a Hard Place, Israel at 60

Ms. Ragen addresses the political challenges Israel faces and how they can be overcome.

To Be a Writer, to be a Woman, to Be an Israeli

Ms. Ragen addresses her work, life and the things that are important to her with regard to gender and Zionist issues.

A Religious Woman’s Voice - Literature as Social Protest

Ms. Ragen talks about how the books she has written cover issues that try to bring light to aspects of the religious world, and the world at large, that need to be re-evaluated.

An American born in New York, Naomi Ragen has lived and worked in Jerusalem for the past 38 years and is the author of seven international bestsellers, an award winning play, and an influential and widely-read internet website. An iconoclast, an Orthodox woman and a fiercely outspoken advocate for gender equality, her novels hold a unique place in the Jewish library. Her first book, Jephte’s Daughter, was listed among the one-hundred most important Jewish books of all time.

Despite the fact that Ms. Ragen writes in English, Israelis voted her the third most popular author in Israel and her books have become a cultural bridge between Israelis and their Diaspora counterparts. For the last fifteen years, Ms. Ragen has been a sought-after speaker all over the world, speaking to enthusiastic audiences from South Africa to New Zealand to North America and Canada about her books, her passion for Israel’s well-being, and the feminist and human rights issues to which she has made a tireless commitment.