Naomi Ragen To Pay $62,000 for Plagiarism

Image by Daniel Bar-On

By Ido Balass March 28, 2012

Crossposted from Haaretz

A Jerusalem court yesterday ordered best-selling author Naomi Ragen to pay about $62,000 to writer Sarah Shapiro for plagiarizing parts of her work. This is the highest amount ever awarded by an Israeli court to an author for intellectual property infringement.

Image by Daniel Bar-On

Yesterday’s decision comes in the wake of the Jerusalem District Court’s ruling in December that in her novel “Sotah,” Ragen had knowingly copied from Shapiro. Ragen’s attorney said she would appeal the ruling in the Supreme Court and yesterday Judge Joseph Shapira ruled on compensation.

The plaintiff, who lives in Jerusalem, requested NIS 1 million in damages, or about $260,000 but the court granted only 40,000 NIS, or just over $10,000 in compensation, plus court costs and lawyers fees. In addition, the court ordered Ragen to remove the plagiarized passages from any future printings of the book.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO