Jephte's Daughter by Naomi Ragen

From the Author's Foreword ...

There is something indefinably moving in the relationship an author has with her first book to see print. Perhaps because it finally provides the incontrovertible evidence needed to convince sceptical friends, relatives and acquaintances that your claim of vocation is no idle boast. Or perhaps it is the aura that hangs over all dreams made flesh...

Jephte's Daughter was my first published novel. I wrote it in a rush over a year's time, little realising in the innocence and passion of bringing to life the tragedy of a local Ultra Orthodox girl, what a storm of controversy would greet it’s birth. In bringing to the attention of the public the whole subject of domestic abuse in Chassidic circles, as well as the rich inner life of ultra-Orthodox women - a subject hardly touched in American Jewish literature of the time-many felt was an unwelcome intrusion into that very private community.

While I appreciated those feelings, I could not agree with them. Literature is the way mankind speaks to each other and to itself. To put any society off-limits to literary exploration, is to deny not only the society's worth as a source of powerful truths to others, but also to surrender to a self-serving censorship which denies society members the ability to view themselves honestly, and with a clearer perspective towards improvement.

While the decision to explore a world I admire, and love and know so well was not without its pangs of conscience and pitfalls, I am happy to say that today, twelve years later with the re-publication of Jephte's Daughter, the Jewish world has grown to accommodate its reality. The growth of shelters for battered Orthodox Jewish women, guidelines for Orthodox Rabbis in handling domestic abuse, and outspoken Orthodox women's' organisations are proof to me that words are tools for the betterment of the human condition. The writer not only has the right, but the obligation to shine the light of inquiry on that world they know best, whatever the personal price.