Women's Minyan by Naomi Ragen

Platinum Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 48139

It's a play and I didn't like it at all - it was sad and not that real sounding.

I recently read it. I seem to be drawn to reading all naomi ragen books even though I hate the tone she writes towards religious judaism.
this book was particularly disturbing becasue she calims it's about a real story. not to assume that such a circumstance couldn't exist, I am sure it coukd and possibly has, but Ragen took this one case and writes as if all reigious women could G-d forbid have such a situation.

Platinum Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 48139

I know. What's with her tone, anyway?

Platinum Member Joined: May 22 2005 Posts: 13795

She hates the "ultra Orthodox" (or the "ultra-ultra Orthodox" as the Jewish paper called the women in this play)

Naomi Regan is an extremely talented writer, but unfortunately, she has expressed her disdain for haredim (I was shocked to learn this while reading an article written by her on Arutz Sheva), and has written in a misleading way about women's issues (she wrote a very sensational piece about wife beating in halacha, concluding that Rambam considers it a "mitzvah" Shocked

G-d forbid. I checked this with a Rav -- she took one posuk way out of context and ran with it..Things like this do nearly as much damage for frum people as sensationalist anti-dati filmakers such as Amos Gitai (of Kadosh "fame". Saw the movie before I became frum)

She is a friend of a friend, and I really do not like saying such things, but since she has such an agenda, I do not believe it is lashon hara to warn that I would steer clear of her books, regardless of the elegance of her prose and her skill at crafting novels. I wish there were a haredi writer I could recommend instead, or at least someone more friendly....some of my friends like Ruth Benjamin, Pomerantz (don't remember first name) other writers published on Targum... but it is a shame there aren't more haredi writers who can write sophisticated books that do not put frumkeit in a negative light. Goodness knows, there is enough talent out there! Smile