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.

2020 Submissions Are Open

June 24, 2020

Submissions Open

Sept 30, 2020

Submissions Close

Jan 27, 2021

Awardees Announced

<a href="https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/sites/default/files/downloads/2020-NJBA-Guidelines_2.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="142282" title="2020-NJBA-Guidelines_2.pdf" target="_blank">2020 NJBA Guidelines</a>

Submissions are Closed

<a href="https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/sites/default/files/downloads/Packing-Slip-NJBA.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="22075" title="Packing-Slip-NJBA.pdf" target="_blank">Packing Slip for 2020 NJBA Submissions</a>

Submit to the Mentorship Award

2019 Winners

Jewish Book of the Year

Pamela S. Nadell

America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today

American Jewish Studies

Kenneth D. Wald

The Foundations of American Jewish Liberalism

Anthologies and Collections

Naomi B. Sokoloff and Nancy E. Berg

What We Talk about When We Talk about Hebrew What We Talk about When We Talk about Hebrew (and What It Means to Americans)

Autobiography and Memoir

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love

Touched with Fire: Morris B. Abram and the Battle against Racial and Religious Discrimination

Book Club Award

The World That We Knew: A Novel

Children’s Literature

Lesléa Newman; Amy June Bates, illus.

Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story

Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice

How to Fight Anti-Semitism

Education and Jewish Identity

Deborah E. Lipstadt

Antisemitism: Here and Now

Food Writing & Cookbooks

Jewish Cuisine in Hungary: A Cultural History with 83 Authentic Recipes

The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America

The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught In Between

Lifetime Achievement

The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary

Mentorship Award

Dena W. Neusner

Executive Editor at Behrman House and its children’s book imprint, Apples & Honey Press.

Modern Jewish Thought and Experience

Elissa Bemporad

Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Lands of the Soviets

Rashi's Commentary on the Torah: Canonization and Resistance in the Reception of a Jewish Classic

Sephardic Culture

Lethal Provocation: The Constantine Murders and the Politics of French Algeria

Rebecca Shaykin

Edith Halpert, The Downtown Gallery, and the Rise of American Art

Women’s Studies

Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement

Writing Based on Archival Material

Elisabeth Gallas, Alex Skinner (trans.)

A Mortuary of Books: The Rescue of Jewish Culture after the Holocaust

Young Adult Literature

Rachel DeWoskin

Someday We Will Fly

2019 Judges

Nancy Bachrach

Judith Baskin

Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum

Elisa Spungen Bildner

Aaron Bisman

Elli Bloomberg

Tracy Brown

Stacy Burdett

Menachem Butler

Susan Caller

Ezra Cappell

Rabbi Carie Carter

Seth Cohen

Ellen Cole

Bobbi Coller

Maurice Corson

Allison Davis

Zev Eleff

Zach Fasman

Malka Fleischmann

Martin Fletcher

Geri Gindea

Zvi Gitelman

Darra Goldstein

Joy Greenberg

Blu Greenberg

Tully Harcsztark

Jay M. Harris

Eli Havivi

Tali Herenstein

Rita Jacobs

Robin Jacobson

Howard Jaeckel

Alan Kadish

Marc Katz

Rabbi Jan Kaufman

Sharon Keller

Jonathan Kirsch

Francine Klagsbrun

Rebecca Kobrin

Carmel Krauss

Fred Lazin

Lauren Lerner

Linda Levi

Fred Levick

Sheri Levin

Judith Lieberman

Sara Lippman

Sue Littauer

Jessica Marglin

Devi Mays

Karen Medwed

Erika Meitner

Joshua Mikutis

Mike Miller

Debby Miller

Lisa Moses-Leff

Karen Moss

Devin Naar

Beverly Nadel

Carol Neuberger

Lindsey Newman

Rachel Norton

Amy Oringel

Avinoam Patt

Annie Polland

Shari Rabin

Deborah Rabner

Ethel Rackin

Jonathan S. Ray

Robert Rifkind

Judith Rosenbaum

Matthue Roth

Amelia Saltsman

Jonathan Sarna

Rebecca Einstein Schorr

Benjamin Schreier

Rachel Schultz

Shuly Schwartz

Amir Shaviv

Karen Shawn

Naama Shefi

Bill Shulman

Lisa Silverman

Nancy Sims

Brian Smollett

Amy Spungen

Lilian Stern

Marion Stoltz-Loike

Marc Straus

Cathy Sussman

Regina Tapoohi

Shelby Tauber

Susan Tourial

Tevi Troy

Michael Twitty

Mike Uram

Jane Weitzman

Alan Wiener

William Daroff

Molly Yeh

Jeffrey Yoskowitz

Etta Zimmerman

Naming Opportunities

There are naming opportunities for the following award categories

Middle Grade Literature
Visual Arts
Young Adult Literature

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