FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 6, 2007




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New York, NY � The Jewish Book Council, administrator of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, is pleased to announce the selection of five finalists for the prestigious Sami Rohr Prize. This year, the prize of $100,000 will be awarded to a writer of non-fiction. This is the largest prize of its kind in the Jewish literary world, and one of the largest literary prizes worldwide. In 2006, in celebration of Sami Rohr�s 80th birthday, his children and grandchildren inaugurated the Sami Rohr Prize to honor his lifelong love of Jewish literature.


The five finalists have been selected by an anonymous panel of distinguished judges drawn from the literary and academic community. The names of the judges will be released upon the announcement of the Winner. An awards ceremony will be held this spring. Authors were selected based on their demonstration of a fresh vision and evidence of future potential to further contribute to the Jewish literary community.


The inaugural Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature was awarded last year to fiction writer Tamar Yellin for The Genizah at the House of Shepher (Toby Press). The prize considers fiction and non-fiction in alternating years. The prize honors an emerging author in the field of Jewish literature who has written a book of exceptional literary merit that stimulates an interest in themes of Jewish concern.


THE NON-FICTION FINALISTS ARE:

Ilana M. Blumberg for Houses of Study: A Jewish Woman Among Books (University of Nebraska Press)
Blumberg is Assistant Professor of Humanities at James Madison College at Michigan State University.

Eric L. Goldstein for The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race and American Identity (Princeton University Press)
Goldstein is Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Emory University.

Lucette Lagnado for The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World (Ecco)
Lagnado is a senior special writer and investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal who covers the uninsured and the elderly.

Michael Makovsky for Churchill's Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft (Yale University Press)
Makovsky is Foreign Policy Director of the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Haim Watzman for A Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel's Rift Valley (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Watzman is a Jerusalem based writer, translator, and journalist and is Israel correspondent for the science journal Nature.


ABOUT SAMI ROHR:

After spending his early years in post WWII Europe, Sami Rohr moved to Bogota, Colombia, where he was a leading real estate developer for over 30 years. He currently lives in Florida and continues to be very active in various business endeavors internationally. His philanthropic commitment to Jewish education and community-building throughout the world is renowned. This Prize is a gift by his family to honor his love of Jewish writing, and to help encourage the continuation of the magnificent legacy of the People of the Book.


ABOUT THE JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL:

The Jewish Book Council is a not-for-profit organization devoted exclusively to the promotion of Jewish-interest literature. Through an ever-growing list of projects and programs, including the National Jewish Book Awards, the Jewish Book NETWORK, and the quarterly publication Jewish Book World, the Jewish Book Council serves as a catalyst for the reading, writing, and publishing of books of Jewish interest.




For information about the 2007 Winner, click here