Naomi RagenBest-Selling Novelist & Syndicated Columnist
Preferred Topics:
- Worldwide Islamic Jihad
- War on Terrorism
- Religious Persecution & Desecration of Religious Sites
- A Palestinian State?
She is a noted best-selling novelist and author of many published articles on contemporary problems in Israel. In addition to her writing skills, she is a brilliant speaker and lecturer.
Ragen's novels have sold more than a half million copies, and aside from the American and English editions, her first novel, Jephte's Daughter, has been translated into other languages.
Her large suburban home in Ramot, a mixed religious and secular neighborhood in Jerusalem, seems more than a cultural stone's throw away from Mea Shearim and B'nei Brak where much of her fiction is set.
Mother of four and grandmother of a 2-year-old, Ragen, 47, writes from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. "Those hours are sacrosanct," she says, then laughs: "Except when a kid gets sick and you have to run to the doctor."
Ragen's most deeply felt persona isn't any given character from her writings, but a city, described in such intimate detail it is brought anthropomorphically alive. "I'm so deeply in love with Jerusalem. See the hills from my house? Somewhere out there David fought Goliath. Over to the right is the tomb of Samuel the prophet." To Ragen, Jerusalem is more than the concrete reality of cars, office buildings and hotels. "There is an otherwordliness here," she says. "What you are looking at is a palpable 2,000-year-old longing."
Born in 1949, Ragen grew up in the Rockaways, NY, in a racially mixed low-income housing project. In 1971, Ragen and her husband moved to Israel without even having been there: "We didn't want to be like the biblical spies."
She wrote freelance articles. By the time she decided to tackle fiction (she already had a BA and MA in English Literature), she and her husband traded their brand of ultra-Orthodoxy for something more modern. Straddling two worlds, Ragen is as comfortable discussing D.H.Lawrence as she is explaining Jewish ritual.
She is currently at work on her fourth novel. Three years into research, Ragen says she is only beginning to scratch the surface. Ragen feels confident her characters will end up in Jerusalem. "It is," she says, "where all roads eventually lead."
<< Return to Previous Page >>
Ragen's novels have sold more than a half million copies, and aside from the American and English editions, her first novel, Jephte's Daughter, has been translated into other languages.
Her large suburban home in Ramot, a mixed religious and secular neighborhood in Jerusalem, seems more than a cultural stone's throw away from Mea Shearim and B'nei Brak where much of her fiction is set.
Mother of four and grandmother of a 2-year-old, Ragen, 47, writes from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. "Those hours are sacrosanct," she says, then laughs: "Except when a kid gets sick and you have to run to the doctor."
Ragen's most deeply felt persona isn't any given character from her writings, but a city, described in such intimate detail it is brought anthropomorphically alive. "I'm so deeply in love with Jerusalem. See the hills from my house? Somewhere out there David fought Goliath. Over to the right is the tomb of Samuel the prophet." To Ragen, Jerusalem is more than the concrete reality of cars, office buildings and hotels. "There is an otherwordliness here," she says. "What you are looking at is a palpable 2,000-year-old longing."
Born in 1949, Ragen grew up in the Rockaways, NY, in a racially mixed low-income housing project. In 1971, Ragen and her husband moved to Israel without even having been there: "We didn't want to be like the biblical spies."
She wrote freelance articles. By the time she decided to tackle fiction (she already had a BA and MA in English Literature), she and her husband traded their brand of ultra-Orthodoxy for something more modern. Straddling two worlds, Ragen is as comfortable discussing D.H.Lawrence as she is explaining Jewish ritual.
She is currently at work on her fourth novel. Three years into research, Ragen says she is only beginning to scratch the surface. Ragen feels confident her characters will end up in Jerusalem. "It is," she says, "where all roads eventually lead."
<< Return to Previous Page >>