Novelist Naomi Ragen Found Guilty of Plagiarism
After four years of adjudication, the Jerusalem District Court yesterday upheld the writer Sarah Shapiro’s plagiarism claim against best-selling writer Naomi Ragen. The court ruled that Ragen knowingly copied from Shapiro’s work in her novel “Sotah.”
Shapiro submitted her claim against Ragen in 2007. Both writers come from America’s Orthodox Jewish community; Shapiro lives in Jerusalem and writes in English. In 1990, Shapiro sought Ragen’s opinion about her debut novel. The two met; subsequently, Shapiro claims she was surprised to find selections from her book Growing with My Children in Ragen’s Sotah.
In a 92-page opinion, Judge Joseph Shapira fully upheld Shapiro’s claim against Ragen. The court opined that the plagiarism was “tantamount to a premeditated act,” saying that Ragen acted knowingly and copied work created by the plaintiff.
The court relied on testimony furnished by Ragen herself.
Ragen, the court noted, “testified that work written by the plaintiff served as ‘raw materials’ for her, and that her method of writing is based on drawing from a ‘well’ and ‘imagination’ in ways that include the works of others, including those rendered by the plaintiff.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30