Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature

The Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature is an annual prize awarded to an outstanding literary work of Jewish interest.

Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature
Awarded forrecognising the unique role of contemporary writers in the transmission and examination of the Jewish experience, and to encourage and promote outstanding writing of Jewish interest.
CountryUnited States
First awarded2007
Websitewww.samirohrprize.org

History

In 2006, the family of Jewish philanthropist Sami Rohr honored his lifelong love of Jewish learning and great books by establishing the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature on his 80th birthday.[1]

The annual award, alternating between fiction and non-fiction, seeks to promote writings of Jewish interest, and to encourage the examination of Jewish values among "emerging" writers.[2]

The $100,000 Prize honors an author whose work demonstrates potential for future contribution to the world of Jewish literature. All winners, Choice Award recipients, finalists, judges and advisors are Fellows in the Sami Rohr Jewish Literary Institute. The winner and finalists are honored at an awards ceremony for fiction in New York; the event for non-fiction takes place in Jerusalem.[3]

The $100,000 prize is among the richest literary prizes in the world.

Eligibility and selection

Works are sought and nominated, with specific guidelines, by an advisory panel. The winner and finalists are selected by an independent group of judges, and all deliberations are strictly confidential. The Rohr family has no input or participation in the nomination or selection process.[4]

From 2007 through 2019, the runner-up award was called the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Choice Award. The Choice Award was discontinued in 2020. Three finalists each receive a monetary prize of $5,000.[5]

Translated works are eligible. Eligible non-fiction works are restricted to the domains of biography, history, Jewish current affairs, Jewish scholarship, or contemporary Jewish life.[6]

Finalists and winners

The gold medal () marks the winner, while the silver medal () marks the runner-up.

2020

The nominees were announced on April 3, 2020. The winners were announced on May 12, 2020. [7]

  • Kafka's Last Trial: The Case of a Literary Legacy by Benjamin Balint
  • Tehran Children: A Holocaust Refugee Odyssey by Mikhal Dekel
  • Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life--in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There) by Sarah Hurwitz
  • Shadow Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power by Yaakov Katz

2019

The nominees were announced on 1 April 2019.[8] The winners were announced on 1 May 2019.[9]

2018

The nominees were announced on 30 April 2018.[10] The winners were announced on 25 June 2018.[11]

  • If All the Seas Were Ink: A Memoir by Ilana Kurshan
  • City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement by Sara Yael Hirschhorn
  • The Many Deaths of Jew Süss: The Notorious Trial and Execution of an Eighteenth-Century Court Jew by Yair Mintzker
  • Jews on the Frontier: Religion and Mobility in Nineteenth-Century America by Shari Rabin
  • The Lost Book of Moses: The Hunt For The World’s Oldest Bible by Chanan Tigay

2017

The finalists were announced April 3, 2017.[12] The awardees were announced May 3, 2017.[13]

  • Ways to Disappear by Idra Novey
  • The Last Flight of Poxl West: A Novel by Daniel Torday
  • The Yid by Paul Goldberg
  • Inherited Disorders: Stories, Parables & Problems by Adam Ehrlich Sachs
  • The Bed Moved: Stories by Rebecca Schiff

2016

The winners were awarded on 5 June 2016.[14]

  • The Archive Thief: The Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust by Lisa Leff
  • Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution by Yehuda Mirsky
  • Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel by Dan Ephron
  • The Grammar of God: A Journey into the Words and Worlds of the Bible by Aviyah Kushner
  • The Rag Race: How Jews Sewed Their Way to Success in America and the British Empire by Adam Mendelsohn

2015

The finalists were announced in January 2015.[15] The awardees were announced in February 2015.[16]

2014

The finalists were announced on November 7, 2013.[17] The winners were declared in January 2014.[18]

  • The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible, by Matti Friedman
  • Becoming Frum: How Newcomers Learn the Language and Culture of Orthodox Judaism, by Sarah Bunin Benor
  • Jews and Booze: Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition, by Marni Davis
  • Embodying Hebrew Culture: Aesthetics, Athletics, and Dance in the Jewish Community of Mandate Palestine, by Nina S. Spiegel
  • The Genius: Elijah of Vilna and the Making of Modern Judaism, by Eliyahu Stern

2013

The winners were announced on April 9, 2013.[19][20]

2012

The winners were announced on February 15, 2012.[21]

  • When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry, by Gal Beckerman
  • Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero, by Abigail Green
  • A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction, by Ruth Franklin
  • The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education, by Jonathan B. Krasner
  • The Most Musical Nation: Jews and Culture in the Late Russian Empire, by James Loeffler

2011

The winners were announced on March 24, 2011.[22]

2010

The winners were announced on January 26, 2010. The judges were unable to decide on the top honour, so the prize was shared and the runner-up prize eliminated.[23]

  • Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution, by Kenneth B. Moss
  • Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews, and a Lost World of Global Commerce, by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
  • Speaking of Jews: Rabbis, Intellectuals, and the Creation of an American Public Identity, by Lila Corwin Berman
  • Station Identification: A Cultural History of Yiddish Radio in the United States, by Ari Y. Kelman
  • Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion, by Danya Ruttenberg

2009

The winners were announced on March 25, 2009.[24][25]

2008

The winners were announced on February 13, 2008.[26][27]

  • The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, by Lucette Lagnado
  • Houses of Study, by Ilana Blumberg
  • The Price of Whiteness, by Eric Goldstein
  • Churchill's Promised Land, by Michael Makovsky
  • A Crack in the Earth, by Haim Watzman

2007

The winners were announced in March 2007.[28][29]

References
  1. Dennis Hevesi (August 10, 2012). "Sami Rohr, Jewish Philanthropist Remembered by a Writing Prize, Dies at 86". New York Times. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  2. Jessica Weinberg (March 15, 2013). "A Dispatch from the National Jewish Book Awards Ceremony". Tablet. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  3. "Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature guidelines". Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  4. "Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature guidelines". Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  5. "Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature guidelines". Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  6. "Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature guidelines". Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  7. "'Kafka's Last Trial' Garners Prestigious Rohr Prize". Times of Israel. 11 May 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  8. Grisar, PJ (1 April 2019). "The Sami Rohr Prize For Jewish Literature Announces Its Nominees". Forward. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  9. Grisar, PJ (1 May 2019). "Michael David Lukas Wins 2019 Sami Rohr Prize". Forward. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  10. Zax, Talya (30 April 2018). "Sami Rohr Prize Finalists include Ilana Kurshan, Yair Mintzker". Forward. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  11. JTA. "Author Ilana Kurshan wins $100,000 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  12. "2017 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Fellows Announced". Facebook: Jewish Book Council. April 3, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  13. "Idra Novey wins Sami Rohr prize for Jewish literature". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. May 3, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  14. Steinberg, Jessica (5 June 2016). "Sami Rohr prize-winners tell of books that insisted on being written". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  15. "Sami Rohr Prize 2015". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  16. "Ayelet Tsabari Wins Sami Rohr Prize". The Jewish Daily Forward. February 23, 2015.
  17. Adam Chandler (November 7, 2013). "'The Aleppo Codex' Nabs the Sami Rohr Prize". Tablet. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  18. Beth Kissileff (January 23, 2014). "2014 Sami Rohr Prize Awarded In Jerusalem". Tablet.
  19. Joe Winkler (April 10, 2013). "Novelist Francesca Segal wins Sami Rohr Prize with 'The Innocents'". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  20. "2013 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature" (Press release). Jewish Book Council. April 9, 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  21. "Gal Beckerman Wins $100,000 Sami Rohr Prize". Publishers Weekly. February 15, 2012.
  22. Marcy Oster (March 24, 2011). "Austin Ratner wins Rohr prize for first novel". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  23. "2010 Sami Rohr Prize Winners Announced". Jewish Book Council. January 26, 2010. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  24. "Sana Krasikov wins Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature". The Jerusalem Post. March 25, 2009. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  25. "Sami Rohr Prize 2009". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  26. Sarah Crown (February 13, 2008). "Exile's tale takes $100,000 Jewish book prize". The Guardian. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  27. "Sami Rohr Prize 2008". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  28. Juliet Lapidos (March 30, 2007). "A Chat With Tamar Yellin, Winner of New Fiction Prize". The Jewish Daily Forward. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  29. "Sami Rohr Prize 2007". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
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