As interesting if not more so than the actual books themselves is the broad range of categories identified by the Award organizers and the way these categories map out the shape of American Jewish culture. The shape of American Jewish culture is fiction, debut fiction, Sephardic culture, Holocaust, children’s literature, modern thought and experience, biography, memoir, womens’ studies, education, visual art, poetry, and so on and so on and so on. Of note too is the mix of non-scholarship and scholarship as constitutive blocks of American Jewish culture.
2013 National Jewish Book Award Winners
Awards
The Jewish Book Council, more than any single organization, is responsible for keeping Jews literate. It is the true manifestation of the idea that we are the People of the Book. As an author, it’s hard to imagine life without the Jewish Book Council.
— Jeffrey Goldberg
National correspondent for The Atlantic
2013 National Jewish Book Award Winners
Read the press release here
Jewish Book of the Year
Everett Family Foundation Award
Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation
Yossi Klein Halevi
HarperCollins
American Jewish Studies
Celebrate 350 Award
Winner:
FDR and the Jews
Richard Breitman and Allan J. Lichtman
Harvard University Press
Finalist:
Louis Marshall and the Rise of Jewish Ethnicity in America
M. M. Silver
Syracuse University Press
Theatrical Liberalism: Jews and Popular Entertainment in America
Andrea Most
NYU Press
Anthologies and Collections
Winner:
1929: Mapping the Jewish World
Hasia R. Diner and Gennady Estraikh, eds.
NYU Press
Finalists:
Letters to President Clinton: Biblical Lessons on Faith and Leadership
Rabbi Menachem Genack, ed.
Sterling
Resurgent Antisemitism: Global Perspectives
Alvin H. Rosenfeld, ed.
Indiana University Press
Elie Wiesel: Jewish, Literary, and Moral Perspectives
Steven T. Katz and Alan Rosen, eds.
Indiana University Press
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
The Krauss Family Award in Memory of Simon & Shulamith (Sofi) Goldberg
Winner:
An American Bride In Kabul: A Memoir
Phyllis Chesler
Palgrave Macmillan
Finalists:
The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye
Jeremy Dauber
Schocken Books/Nextbook Press
The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan: A Boy Avenger, a Nazi Diplomat, and a Murder in Paris
Jonathan Kirsch
W. W. Norton & Company
The Rise of Abraham Cahan
Seth Lipsky
Schocken Books/Nextbook Press
Children’s and Young Adult Literature
Winner:
The War within These Walls
Aline Sax; Caryl Strzelecki, illus.; Laura Watkinson, trans.
Wm. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Finalists:
Shanghai Escape
Kathy Kacer
Second Story Press
The Extra
Kathryn Lasky
Candlewick Press
Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice
Myra H. Kraft Memorial Award
Winner:
Kaddish: Women’s Voices
Michal Smart and Barbara Ashkenas
Urim Publications
Finalists:
Guidance, Not Governance: Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof and Reform Responsa
Joan S. Friedman
Hebrew Union College Press
Jews of Nigeria: An Afro-Judaic Odyssey
William F.S. Miles
Markus Wiener Publishers
Nosh on This: Gluten-Free Baking Classics from a Jewish American KitchenLisa Stander-Horel and Tim Horel
Tim Horel & Lisa Stander Horel
The Experiment
Education and Jewish Identity
In Memory of Dorothy Kripke
Winner:
Educating in the Divine Image: Gender Issues in Orthodox Jewish Day Schools
Chaya Rosenfeld Gorsetman and Elana Maryles Sztokam
Brandeis University Press
Finalists:
Loving the Real Israel: An Educated Agenda for Liberal Zionism
Alex Sinclair
Ben Yehuda Press
Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community
Dr. Ron Wolfson
Jewish Lights Publishing
Fiction
JJ Greenberg Memorial Award
Winner:
Between Friends
Amos Oz; Sondra Silverston, trans.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Finalists:
Jacob’s Folly
Rebecca Miller
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The Golem and the Jinni
Helene Wecker
HarperCollins
In The Courtyard of the Kabbalist
Ruchama King Feuerman
New York Review of Books
History
Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award
Winner:
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel
Ari Shavit
Spiegel & Grau
Finalists:
Contested Land, Contested Memory: Israel’s Jews and Arabs and the Ghosts of Catastrophe
Jo Roberts
Dundum
Kafka: The Years of Insight
Reiner Stach; Shelley Frisch, trans.
Princeton University Press
Holocaust
Winner:
The Geographical Encyclopedia of the Holocaust in Hungary
Randolph L. Braham, ed.
Northwestern University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Finalists:
Looking for Strangers: The True Story of My Hidden Wartime Childhood
Dori Katz
University of Chicago Press
Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields
Wendy Lower
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Illustrated Children’s Book
Louis Posner Memorial Award
Winner:
Hanukkah Bear
Eric A. Kimmel; Mike Wohnoutka, illus.
Holiday House
Finalists:
Creation’s First Light
Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso; Joanie Rothenberg, illus.
IBJ Book Publishing
When Sarah Laughed
Allegra Magrisso; Beth Shadur, illus.
Modern Jewish Thought and Experience
Dorot Foundation Award in Memory of Joy Ungerleider Mayerson
Winner:
The Koren Sacks Pesach Machzor
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
The Toby Press/Koren Publishers Jerusalem
Finalists:
Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story
Maxim D. Shrayer
Syracuse University Press
Jewish Poland Revisited: Heritage Tourism in Unquiet Places
Erica T. Lehrer
Indiana University Press
Outstanding Debut Fiction
Foundation for Jewish Culture’s Goldberg Prize
Winner:
The Lion Seeker
Kenneth Bonert
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Finalist:
Forgiving Maximo Rothman
A.J. Sidransky
Berwick Court Publishing
My Mother’s Secret: A Novel Based on a True Holocaust Story
J.L. Witterick
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Poetry
Winner:
Who Touches Everything
Peter Waldor
Settlement House
Finalists:
Night of the Republic
Alan Shapiro
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
The Eighth Day
Geoffrey Hartman
Texas Tech University Press
Scholarship
Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award
Winner:
Maimonides: Life and Thought
Moshe Halbertal
Princeton University Press
Finalists:
The Intellectual History and Rabbinic Culture of Medieval Ashkenaz
Ephraim Kanarfogel
Wayne State University Press
Sephardic Culture
Mimi S. Frank Award in Memory of Becky Levy
Winner:
Mixing Musics: Turkish Jewry and the Urban Landscape of a Sacred Song
Maureen Jackson
Stanford University Press
Visual Arts
Winner:
Kabbalah in Art and Architecture
Alexander Gorlin
Pointed Leaf Press
Finalists:
Beth Sholom Synagogue: Frank Lloyd Wright and Modern Religious Architecture
Joseph M. Siry
The University of Chicago Press
Mastering Hebrew Calligraphy
Izzy Pludwinski
Koren Publishers Jerusalem
Hatemail
Salo Aizenberg; Michael Berenbaum, fwd.
University of Nebraska Press
Women’s Studies
Barbara Dobkin Award
Winner:
Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women’s Activism, 1890-1940
Melissa R. Klapper
NYU Press
Finalists:
Gender and Timebound Commandments in Judaism
Elizabeth Shanks Alexander
Cambridge University Press
Jewish Women in Enlightenment Berlin
Natalie Naimark-Goldberg
Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
Writing Based on Archival Material
The JDC-Herbert Katzki Award
Winner:
Becoming Soviet Jews: The Bolshevik Experiment in Minsk
Elissa Bemporad
Indiana University Press
Finalists:
Embodying Hebrew Culture: Aesthetics, Athletics, and Dance in the Jewish Community of Mandate Palestine
Nina S. Spiegel
Wayne State University Press
Read the press release here
Jewish Book of the Year
Everett Family Foundation Award
Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation
Yossi Klein Halevi
HarperCollins
American Jewish Studies
Celebrate 350 Award
Winner:
FDR and the Jews
Richard Breitman and Allan J. Lichtman
Harvard University Press
Finalist:
Louis Marshall and the Rise of Jewish Ethnicity in America
M. M. Silver
Syracuse University Press
Theatrical Liberalism: Jews and Popular Entertainment in America
Andrea Most
NYU Press
Anthologies and Collections
Winner:
1929: Mapping the Jewish World
Hasia R. Diner and Gennady Estraikh, eds.
NYU Press
Finalists:
Letters to President Clinton: Biblical Lessons on Faith and Leadership
Rabbi Menachem Genack, ed.
Sterling
Resurgent Antisemitism: Global Perspectives
Alvin H. Rosenfeld, ed.
Indiana University Press
Elie Wiesel: Jewish, Literary, and Moral Perspectives
Steven T. Katz and Alan Rosen, eds.
Indiana University Press
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
The Krauss Family Award in Memory of Simon & Shulamith (Sofi) Goldberg
Winner:
An American Bride In Kabul: A Memoir
Phyllis Chesler
Palgrave Macmillan
Finalists:
The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye
Jeremy Dauber
Schocken Books/Nextbook Press
The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan: A Boy Avenger, a Nazi Diplomat, and a Murder in Paris
Jonathan Kirsch
W. W. Norton & Company
The Rise of Abraham Cahan
Seth Lipsky
Schocken Books/Nextbook Press
Children’s and Young Adult Literature
Winner:
The War within These Walls
Aline Sax; Caryl Strzelecki, illus.; Laura Watkinson, trans.
Wm. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Finalists:
Shanghai Escape
Kathy Kacer
Second Story Press
The Extra
Kathryn Lasky
Candlewick Press
Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice
Myra H. Kraft Memorial Award
Winner:
Kaddish: Women’s Voices
Michal Smart and Barbara Ashkenas
Urim Publications
Finalists:
Guidance, Not Governance: Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof and Reform Responsa
Joan S. Friedman
Hebrew Union College Press
Jews of Nigeria: An Afro-Judaic Odyssey
William F.S. Miles
Markus Wiener Publishers
Nosh on This: Gluten-Free Baking Classics from a Jewish American KitchenLisa Stander-Horel and Tim Horel
Tim Horel & Lisa Stander Horel
The Experiment
Education and Jewish Identity
In Memory of Dorothy Kripke
Winner:
Educating in the Divine Image: Gender Issues in Orthodox Jewish Day Schools
Chaya Rosenfeld Gorsetman and Elana Maryles Sztokam
Brandeis University Press
Finalists:
Loving the Real Israel: An Educated Agenda for Liberal Zionism
Alex Sinclair
Ben Yehuda Press
Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community
Dr. Ron Wolfson
Jewish Lights Publishing
Fiction
JJ Greenberg Memorial Award
Winner:
Between Friends
Amos Oz; Sondra Silverston, trans.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Finalists:
Jacob’s Folly
Rebecca Miller
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The Golem and the Jinni
Helene Wecker
HarperCollins
In The Courtyard of the Kabbalist
Ruchama King Feuerman
New York Review of Books
History
Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award
Winner:
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel
Ari Shavit
Spiegel & Grau
Finalists:
Contested Land, Contested Memory: Israel’s Jews and Arabs and the Ghosts of Catastrophe
Jo Roberts
Dundum
Kafka: The Years of Insight
Reiner Stach; Shelley Frisch, trans.
Princeton University Press
Holocaust
Winner:
The Geographical Encyclopedia of the Holocaust in Hungary
Randolph L. Braham, ed.
Northwestern University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Finalists:
Looking for Strangers: The True Story of My Hidden Wartime Childhood
Dori Katz
University of Chicago Press
Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields
Wendy Lower
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Illustrated Children’s Book
Louis Posner Memorial Award
Winner:
Hanukkah Bear
Eric A. Kimmel; Mike Wohnoutka, illus.
Holiday House
Finalists:
Creation’s First Light
Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso; Joanie Rothenberg, illus.
IBJ Book Publishing
When Sarah Laughed
Allegra Magrisso; Beth Shadur, illus.
Modern Jewish Thought and Experience
Dorot Foundation Award in Memory of Joy Ungerleider Mayerson
Winner:
The Koren Sacks Pesach Machzor
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
The Toby Press/Koren Publishers Jerusalem
Finalists:
Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story
Maxim D. Shrayer
Syracuse University Press
Jewish Poland Revisited: Heritage Tourism in Unquiet Places
Erica T. Lehrer
Indiana University Press
Outstanding Debut Fiction
Foundation for Jewish Culture’s Goldberg Prize
Winner:
The Lion Seeker
Kenneth Bonert
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Finalist:
Forgiving Maximo Rothman
A.J. Sidransky
Berwick Court Publishing
My Mother’s Secret: A Novel Based on a True Holocaust Story
J.L. Witterick
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Poetry
Winner:
Who Touches Everything
Peter Waldor
Settlement House
Finalists:
Night of the Republic
Alan Shapiro
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
The Eighth Day
Geoffrey Hartman
Texas Tech University Press
Scholarship
Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award
Winner:
Maimonides: Life and Thought
Moshe Halbertal
Princeton University Press
Finalists:
The Intellectual History and Rabbinic Culture of Medieval Ashkenaz
Ephraim Kanarfogel
Wayne State University Press
Sephardic Culture
Mimi S. Frank Award in Memory of Becky Levy
Winner:
Mixing Musics: Turkish Jewry and the Urban Landscape of a Sacred Song
Maureen Jackson
Stanford University Press
Visual Arts
Winner:
Kabbalah in Art and Architecture
Alexander Gorlin
Pointed Leaf Press
Finalists:
Beth Sholom Synagogue: Frank Lloyd Wright and Modern Religious Architecture
Joseph M. Siry
The University of Chicago Press
Mastering Hebrew Calligraphy
Izzy Pludwinski
Koren Publishers Jerusalem
Hatemail
Salo Aizenberg; Michael Berenbaum, fwd.
University of Nebraska Press
Women’s Studies
Barbara Dobkin Award
Winner:
Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women’s Activism, 1890-1940
Melissa R. Klapper
NYU Press
Finalists:
Gender and Timebound Commandments in Judaism
Elizabeth Shanks Alexander
Cambridge University Press
Jewish Women in Enlightenment Berlin
Natalie Naimark-Goldberg
Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
Writing Based on Archival Material
The JDC-Herbert Katzki Award
Winner:
Becoming Soviet Jews: The Bolshevik Experiment in Minsk
Elissa Bemporad
Indiana University Press
Finalists:
Embodying Hebrew Culture: Aesthetics, Athletics, and Dance in the Jewish Community of Mandate Palestine
Nina S. Spiegel
Wayne State University Press
Conspicuous by their absence as categories are religion, theology, or inspiration.
i think these were tucked into “thought and experience.” in other words, they have been secularized.
how about noir: http://www.ttbook.org/book/israeli-crime-fiction-d-mishani ?