National Jewish Book Awards | Jewish Book Council

Inaugurated in 1950, the National Jewish Book Awards is the longest-running North American awards program of its kind and is recognized as the most prestigious. The Awards are intended to recognize authors, and encourage reading, of outstanding English-language books of Jewish interest.

Awards are presented in over eighteen categories, and the winning authors are celebrated at an annual gala in the year following the publication of the books under consideration. Past notable winners include Chaim Grade, Deborah Lipstadt, Bernard Malamud, Michael Oren, Chaim Potok, Philip Roth, Elie Wiesel, Jonathan Safran Foer, Deborah Dash Moore, and Sandy Eisenberg Sasso.

2019 Submissions Will Open in June

June 18, 2019

Submissions Open

Oct 31, 2019

Submissions Close

Jan 9, 2020

Awardees Announced

Mar 5, 2020

Awards Ceremony

2018 Submission Guidelines

2018 Winners

Jewish Book of the Year

Beate Klarsfeld, Serge Klarsfeld; Sam Taylor, trans.

Hunting the Truth: Memoirs of Beate and Serge Klarsfeld

American Jewish Studies

Jack Wertheimer

The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today

Autobiography and Memoir

My Country, My Life: Fighting for Israel, Searching for Peace

Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom

Book Club Award

Ronald H. Balson

The Girl from Berlin

Children’s Literature

All Three Stooges

Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice

Leon Wiener Dow

The Going: A Meditation on Jewish Law

The Book of Dirt

Education and Jewish Identity

Barry Scott Wimpfheimer

The Talmud: A Biography

Michael David Lukas

The Last Watchman of Old Cairo

Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations

Modern Jewish Thought and Experience

Alan L. Mittleman

Does Judaism Condone Violence? Holiness and Ethics in the Jewish Tradition

Holy Moly Carry Me: Poems

Marcin Wodziński

Historical Atlas of Hasidism

Sephardic Culture

Jonathan Decter

Dominion Built of Praise: Panegyric and Legitimacy Among Jews in the Medieval Mediterranean

Women’s Studies

Writing Based on Archival Material

Rebecca Erbelding

Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America's Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe

2018 Judges

Sarah Abrevaya Stein

Michlean Amir

Nancy Bachrach

Judith Baskin

Ira Bedzow

Elana Bernstein Storch

Elisa Bildner

Tracy Brown

Stacy Burdett

Jeremy Burton

Menachem Butler

Susan Caller

Ezra Cappell

Rabbi Carie Carter

Julia P. Cohen

Ellen Cole

Allison Davis

Zev Eleff

Zach Fasman

Cindy Beer Fouey

Geri Gindea

Zvi Gitelman

Debra Glasberg

Joy Greenberg

Blu Greenberg

Steve Gross

Tully Harcsztark

Jay M. Harris

Eli Havivi

Tali Herenstein

Joel Hoffman

Rita Jacobs

Robin Jacobson

Howard Jaeckel

Alan Kadish

Marc Katz

Sharon Keller

Jonathan Kirsch

Rebecca Kobrin

Fred Lazin

Seth Leibsohn

Linda Levi

Fred Levick

Sheri Levin

Judith Lieberman

Sue Littauer

Joshua London

Karen Medwed

Joshua Mikutis

Debby Miller

Rela Mintz Geffen

Karen Moss

Avinoam Patt

Shari Rabin

Deborah Rabner

Ethel Rackin

Jonathan S. Ray

Robert Rifkind

Matthue Roth

Danya Ruttenberg

Jonathan Sarna

Benjamin Schreier

Josh Schreier

Shuly Schwartz

Amir Shaviv

Bill Shulman

Lisa Silverman

Nancy Sims

Rena Singer

Brian Smollett

Abe Steinberger

Lilian Stern

Marion Stoltz-loike

Livia Straus

Marc Straus

Cathy Sussman

Shelby Tauber

Susan Tourial

Mike Uram

Stephen Weiss

Jane Weitzman

Lenore Weitzman

Alan Wiener

William Daroff

Etta Zimmerman

Naming Opportunities

There are naming opportunities for the following award categories

Anthologies and Collections
Children’s Literature
Visual Arts
Young Adult Literature

For further information about naming opportunities call Naomi Firestone-Teeter at (212) 201‑2921.