National Jewish Book Awards

Women’s Studies

Year	Endowment	Winner	Finalists
2025	Barbara Dobkin Award	Debra Kaplan Elisheva Carlebach A Woman Is Responsible for Everything: Jewish Women in Early Modern Europe Princeton University Press
2024	Barbara Dobkin Award	Ronit Irsahi and Tanya Zion-Waldoks Holy Rebellion: Religious Feminism and the Transformation of Judaism and Women’s Rights in Israel Brandeis University Press	Annie Atura Bushnell, Lori Harrison-Kahan, and Ashley Walters, eds. Matrilineal Dissent: Women Writers and Jewish American Literary History Wayne State University Press Ronnie A. Grinberg Write like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals Princeton University Press
2023	Barbara Dobkin Award	Robin Judd Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides after the Holocaust The University of North Carolina Press	Ayelet Brinn A Revolution in Type: Gender and the Making of the American Yiddish Press NYU Press Janine P. Holc The Weavers of Trautenau: Jewish Female Forced Labor in the Holocaust Brandeis University Press
2022	Barbara Dobkin Award	Elisheva Baumgarten Biblical Women and Jewish Daily Life in the Middle Ages University of Pennsylvania Press	Sarah Imhoff The Lives of Jessie Sampter: Queer, Disabled, Zionist Duke University Press Allison Schachter Women Writing Jewish Modernity, 1919 – 1939 Northwestern University Press
2021	Barbara Dobkin Award	Judy Batalion The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos William Morrow	Federica Francesconi and Rebecca Lynn Winer (Editors) Jewish Women’s History from Antiquity to the Present Wayne State University Press
2020	Barbara Dobkin Award	Laura Arnold Leibman The Art of the Jewish Family: A History of Women in Early New York in Five Objects Bard Graduate Center	Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz and Dalia Ofer (eds.) Her Story, My Story? Writing About Women and the Holocaust Peter Lang Rachel Manekin The Rebellion of the Daughters: Jewish Women Runaways in Habsburg Galicia Princeton University Press
2019	Barbara Dobkin Award	Naomi Seidman Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
2018	Barbara Dobkin Award	Alice Shalvi Never a Native Halban Publishers	Beth Ricanati Braided: A Journey of A Thousand Challahs She Writes Press Mara H. Benjamin The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought Indiana University Press
2017	Barbara Dobkin Award	Eve Krakowski Coming of Age in Medieval Egypt: Female Adolescence, Jewish Law, and Ordinary Culture Princeton University Press	Myrna Goldenberg Before All Memory is Lost: Women’s Voices From the Holocaust Azrieli Foundation Ilana Kurshan Finalist for the 2018 Natan Book Award If All the Seas Were Ink st. martin’s press Jane L. Kanarek, Marjorie Lehman,‎ Simon J Bronner, eds. Mothers in the Jewish Cultural Imagination The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization in association with Liverpool University Press
2016	Barbara Dobkin Award	Rabbi Rebecca Einstein Schorr, Rabbi Alysa Mendelson Graf, eds. The Sacred Calling: Four Decades of Women in the Rabbinate CCAR Press
2015	Barbara Dobkin Award	Beverley Chalmers Birth, Sex and Abuse: Women’s Voices Under Nazi Rule Grosvenor House Publishers
2014	Barbara Dobkin Award	Kathryn Hellerstein A Question of Tradition: Women Poets in Yiddish, 1586 – 1987 Stanford University Press	Elisheva Baumgarten Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz: Men, Women, and Everyday Religious Observance University of Pennsylvania Press Sue Levi Elwell and Nancy Fuchs Kreimer Chapters of the Heart: Jewish Women Sharing the Torah of our Lives Wipf and Stock Publishers
2013	Barbara Dobkin Award	Melissa R. Klapper Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women’s Activism, 1890 – 1940 NYU Press	Elizabeth Shanks Alexander Gender and Timebound Commandments in Judaism Cambridge University Press Natalie Naimark-Goldberg Jewish Women in Enlightenment Berlin Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
2012	Barbara Dobkin Award	Elana Sztokman The Men’s Section: Orthodox Jewish Men in an Egalitarian World The Hadassah Brandeis Institute, University Press of New England	Mira Katzburg-Yungman Hadassah: American Women Zionists and the Rebirth of Israel The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
2011	Barbara Dobkin Award	Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Tikva Frymer-Kensky, eds. The JPS Bible Commentary: Ruth The Jewish Publication Society	Sonia M. Hedgepeth and Rochelle G. Saidel, eds. Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women During The Holocaust Brandeis University Press Eliyana R. Adler In Her Hands: The Education of Jewish Girls in Tsarist Russia Wayne State University Press Sandra E. Rapoport Biblical Seductions: Six Stories Retold Based on Talmud and Midrash KTAV
2010	Barbara Dobkin Award	Pauline Wengeroff; Shulamit S. Magnus, trans. with notes and commentary Memoirs of a Grandmother: Scenes from the Cultural History of the Jews of Russia in the Nineteenth Century Stanford University Press	Hasia R. Diner, Shira Kohn, and Rachel Kranson, eds. A Jewish Feminine Mystique? Jewish Women in Postwar America Rutgers University Press Lori Hope Lefkovitz In Scripture: The First Stories of Jewish Sexual Identities Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
2009	Barbara Dobkin Award	Ayala Fader Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up The Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn Princeton University Press
2008	Barbara Dobkin Award	Aliza Lavie A Jewish Woman’s Prayer Book Spiegel & Grau
2007	Barbara Dobkin Award	Tova Hartman Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation Brandeis University Press
2006	Barbara Dobkin Award	Shaye J.D. Cohen Why Aren't Jewish Women Circumcised University of California Press
2005	Barbara Dobkin Award	Ruth Andrew Ellenson The Modern Jewish Girl’s Guide to Guilt Dutton
2004	Barbara Dobkin Award	Hannah Naveh, ed. Gender and Israeli Society: Women's Time: New Studies from Israel Vallentine Mitchell
2002-2003	Barbara Dobkin Award	Tivka Frymer-Kensky Reading the Women of the Bible Schocken Books
2000	Barbara Dobkin Award	Susan Martha Kahn Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Contraception in Israel Duke University Press
1999	Barbara Dobkin Award	Renee Levine Melammed Heretics or Daughters of Israel? The Cyrpto-Jewish Women of Castile Oxford University Press
1998	Barbara Dobkin Award	Paula E. Hyman and Deborah Dash Moore, eds. Jewish Women in America Routledge

Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards

By Year

By Category

Wom­en’s Studies

About this award

Debra Kaplan Eli­she­va Carlebach

Ronit Irsahi and Tanya Zion-Waldoks

Annie Atura Bushnell, Lori Harrison-Kahan, and Ashley Walters, eds.

Ron­nie A. Grinberg

Robin Judd

Ayelet Brinn

Janine P. Holc

Eli­she­va Baumgarten

Sarah Imhoff

Alli­son Schachter

Judy Batal­ion

Federica Francesconi and Rebecca Lynn Winer (Editors)

Lau­ra Arnold Leibman

Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz and Dalia Ofer (eds.)

Rachel Manekin

Naomi Seidman

Alice Shalvi

Beth Rica­nati

Mara H. Benjamin

Eve Krakowski

Myrna Goldenberg

Ilana Kurshan Finalist for the 2018 Natan Book Award

Jane L. Kanarek, Marjorie Lehman,‎ Simon J Bronner, eds.

Rabbi Rebecca Einstein Schorr, Rabbi Alysa Mendelson Graf, eds.

The Sacred Calling: Four Decades of Women in the Rabbinate

Bev­er­ley Chalmers

Kathryn Hellerstein

Elisheva Baumgarten

Sue Levi Elwell and Nancy Fuchs Kreimer

Melissa R. Klapper

Elizabeth Shanks Alexander

Natalie Naimark-Goldberg

Elana Sztok­man

Mira Katzburg-Yungman

Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Tikva Frymer-Kensky, eds.

Sonia M. Hedgepeth and Rochelle G. Saidel, eds.

Eliyana R. Adler

Sandra E. Rapoport

Pauline Wengeroff; Shulamit S. Magnus, trans. with notes and commentary

Hasia R. Diner, Shira Kohn, and Rachel Kranson, eds.

Lori Hope Lefkovitz

Ayala Fader

Aliza Lavie

Tova Hartman

Shaye J.D. Cohen

Why Aren't Jewish Women Circumcised

Ruth Andrew Ellenson

Hannah Naveh, ed.

Gender and Israeli Society: Women's Time: New Studies from Israel

Tivka Frymer-Kensky

Reading the Women of the Bible

Susan Martha Kahn

Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Contraception in Israel

Renee Levine Melammed

Heretics or Daughters of Israel? The Cyrpto-Jewish Women of Castile

Paula E. Hyman and Deborah Dash Moore, eds.

Jewish Women in America

National Jewish Book Awards

Women’s Studies

Debra Kaplan

Elisheva Carlebach

Ronnie A. Grinberg

Elisheva Baumgarten

Allison Schachter

Judy Batalion

Laura Arnold Leibman

Beth Ricanati

Beverley Chalmers

Elana Sztokman