Naomi Ragen

Finding Orthodoxy

Naomi Ragen is the author of ten novels and an award-winning play, Women’s Minyan. Her latest book, The Sisters Weiss, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in October, 2013. Born in America, she has lived in Jerusalem since 1971, and is deeply involved in gender rights issues in religious life, including the successful court case against gender-separation on public buses. Read more at www.naomiragen.com.

This article appears in issue 17 of Conversations, the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. My path to Orthodoxy was unorthodox, and that has made all the difference, I think, in what I hope for and expect as part of Orthodox Jewry. Read more

 

Moving Backward: A Look at "Mehadrin" Bus Lines

Naomi Ragen is an Orthodox novelist and playwright who has written extensively about women's issues in the Orthodox world. She is a graduate of the Hebrew Institute of Long Island and attended the Sara Schenirer Hebrew Teachers Seminary in Boro Park. She has an M.A. in English Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This article originally appeared in issue 5 of Conversations, the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.

There was no Rabbi more concerned with tseni'ut (modesty) than R. Moshe Feinstein. He was against men shaking a woman's hand even as a polite greeting (IM OH 1:113; EH 1:56). Even in circumstances when the law didn't strictly prohibit the mingling of men and women, he encouraged God-fearing people to avoid such situations. Read more