Click here to pur­chase tick­ets to the 75th Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards Gala on March 25, 2026!

Longest-Run­ning Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Awards Short­list Announced

Over six­ty books are rec­og­nized for their con­tri­bu­tions to Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture and storytelling

NEW YORK — In antic­i­pa­tion of the 75th Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards, hon­or­ing out­stand­ing Eng­lish-lan­guage books of Jew­ish inter­est pub­lished in 2025, Jew­ish Book Coun­cil unveiled the inau­gur­al short­list for win­ners and final­ists today. As the longest-run­ning North Amer­i­can awards pro­gram of its kind, the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards cel­e­brate the writ­ers, schol­ars, and sto­ry­tellers whose work illu­mi­nates Jew­ish life, his­to­ry, cul­ture, and ideas.

These titles rep­re­sent a vari­ety of gen­res, includ­ing fic­tion, his­to­ry, biog­ra­phy, and con­tem­po­rary thought, all exem­pli­fy­ing the pow­er of Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture. Short­list­ed titles include books by authors from around the globe, includ­ing Israel, Eng­land, Cana­da, and more. Win­ners of the 75th Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards will be announced in February. 

Award-win­ning author, pod­cast­er, and enter­tain­er Jon­ah Platt will host the 75th Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards Gala to cel­e­brate the win­ners on Wednes­day, March 25, 2026, in New York City. Tick­ets can be pur­chased here.

The short­list­ed titles are:

Fic­tion:

This includes the short­list­ed titles for the fol­low­ing cat­e­gories: Debut Fic­tion, Fic­tion, Book Club, and Hebrew Fic­tion in Trans­la­tion, list­ed in alpha­bet­i­cal order:

• 33 Place Brug­mann, Alice Austen, Grove Atlantic
• The Anato­my of Exile, Zee­va Bukai, Del­phini­um Books Ltd.
• Behind the Trig­ger, Yariv Inbar, Dalit Shmueli (trans.), Gen­era Ven­tures Ltd.
• Boy From the North Coun­try: A Nov­el, Sam Suss­man, Pen­guin Press
• Dog, Yishay Ishay Ron, Yardenne Greenspan trans., Son­ca­ta Press
• Fagin the Thief, Alli­son Epstein, Pen­guin Ran­dom House, Doubleday
• Hap­py New Years, Maya Arad, Jes­si­ca Cohen, trans., New Ves­sel Press
• Mrs. Lilienblum’s Cloud Fac­to­ry: A Nov­el, Iddo Gefen, Daniel­la Zamir, trans., Astra Pub­lish­ing House
• Unfin­ished Acts of Wild Cre­ation, Sarah Yahm, Dzanc Books

Non­fic­tion:

This includes the short­list­ed titles for the fol­low­ing cat­e­gories: Amer­i­can Jew­ish Stud­ies, Book Club, Con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish Life & Prac­tice, Edu­ca­tion & Jew­ish Iden­ti­ty, Food Writ­ing & Cook­books, His­to­ry, Holo­caust, Mod­ern Jew­ish Thought and Expe­ri­ence, Schol­ar­ship, Sephardic Cul­ture, Writ­ing Based on Archival Mate­r­i­al, and Wom­en’s Stud­ies, list­ed in alpha­bet­i­cal order:

• Arthurs: Home of the Nosh, Rae­gan Stein­berg, Alexan­dre Cohen and Eve­lyne Eng, Appetite / Pen­guin Ran­dom House
• A Woman Is Respon­si­ble for Every­thing: Jew­ish Women in Ear­ly Mod­ern Europe, Debra Kaplan and Eli­she­va Car­lebach, Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty Press
• A World of Piety: The Aims of Castil­ian Kab­bal­ah, Jere­my Phillip Brown, Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Press
• Anti­semitism, an Amer­i­can Tra­di­tion, Pamela S. Nadell, W. W. Nor­ton & Company
• Beyond Dis­pute: Redis­cov­er­ing the Jew­ish art of Con­struc­tive Dis­agree­ment, Daniel Taub, Hod­der Faith
• Brazil­ian Belong­ing: Jew­ish Pol­i­tics in Cold War Latin Amer­i­ca, Michael Rom, Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Press
• Dobre Dobre: Bak­ing from Poland and Beyond, Lau­rel Kra­tochvi­la, Chron­i­cle Books
• Ene­mies, a Love Sto­ry: Mizrahi-Arab-Ashke­nazi Rela­tions Since the Dawn of Zion­ism, Hil­lel Cohen, Haim Watz­man, trans., Penn State Uni­ver­si­ty Press
• Fear No Pharaoh: Amer­i­can Jews, the Civ­il War, and the Fight to End Slav­ery, Richard Kre­it­ner, Far­rar, Straus and Giroux
• Gold­en Threads, Ariel­la Aïsha Azoulay, Ayin Press
• Gur­sha: Time­less Recipes for Mod­ern Kitchens, from Ethiopia, Israel, Harlem, and Beyond: A Cook­book, Bee­jhy Barhany, Alfred A. Knopf / Pen­guin Ran­dom House
• Hebrew Ori­en­tal­ism: Jew­ish Engage­ment with Arabo-Islam­ic Cul­ture in Late Ottoman and British Pales­tine, Mostafa Hus­sein, Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty Press
• The Holy and the Bro­ken: A Cry for Israeli-Pales­tin­ian Peace from a Land that Must be Shared, Ittay Flesch­er, HarperCollins
• The Hour of Revenge: Holo­caust Sur­vivors and Their Search for Revenge and Ret­ri­bu­tion, Katarzy­na Per­son, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Press
• The Jew­ish South: An Amer­i­can His­to­ry, Shari Rabin, Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty Press
• Jews in the Sovi­et Union: A His­to­ry: Rev­o­lu­tion, Civ­il War, and New Ways of Life, 1917 – 1930, Vol­ume 1, Elis­sa Bem­po­rad, New York Uni­ver­si­ty Press
• Liv­ing in Both Worlds: Mod­ern Ortho­dox Judaism in the Unit­ed States, 1945 – 2025, Lawrence Gross­man, Aca­d­e­m­ic Stud­ies Press
• Mod­ern Jew­ish World­mak­ing Through Yid­dish Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture, Miri­am Udel, Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty Press
• On Democ­ra­cies and Death Cults, Dou­glas Mur­ray, Harper­Collins Publishers
• Peo­ple With­out His­to­ry are Dust: Queer Desire in the Holo­caust, Anna Hájková, William Ross Jones, trans., Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Press
• The Rise of Tal­mud, Moulie Vidas, Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty Press
• Saints and Liars:The Sto­ry of Amer­i­cans Who Saved Refugees from the Nazis, Debórah Dwork, W. W. Nor­ton & Company
• Soul Full: Gate­ways to Jew­ish Prayer, Dr. Ronit Ziv-Kreger, Koren Publishers
• Uncer­tain Empire: Jews, Nation­al­ism, and the Fate of British Impe­ri­al­ism, Eliz­a­beth E. Imber, Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Press
• Who Will Res­cue Us? The Sto­ry of the Jew­ish Chil­dren Who Fled to France and Amer­i­ca Dur­ing the Holo­caust, Lau­ra Hob­son Fau­re, Yale Uni­ver­si­ty Press
• World Ene­my No. 1: Nazi Ger­many, Sovi­et Rus­sia, and the Fate of the Jews, Jochen Hell­beck, Pen­guin Press / Pen­guin Ran­dom House

Poet­ry:

This includes the short­list­ed titles for the Poet­ry cat­e­go­ry, list­ed in alpha­bet­i­cal order:

• In This Dis­tance, Brooke Sah­ni, TRP: The Uni­ver­si­ty Press of SHSU
• King of the Jews, Matthew Lipp­man, Ben Yehu­da Press
• PRO­TO­COLS: An Era­sure, Daniela Nao­mi Mol­nar, Ayin Press
• Requiem & Oth­er Poems, Aharon Shab­tai, Peter Cole, trans., New Direc­tions Publishing

Chil­dren’s:

This includes the short­list­ed titles for the fol­low­ing cat­e­gories: Chil­dren’s Pic­ture Book, Mid­dle Grade Lit­er­a­ture, and Young Adult Lit­er­a­ture, list­ed in alpha­bet­i­cal order:

• Fan­ny’s Big Idea, Richard Michel­son, Alyssa Rus­sell, illus., Pen­guin Young Read­ers / Pen­guin Ran­dom House
• Hono­ria: A For­tu­itous Friend­ship, Jan­ice Shapiro, Fantagraphics
• I Wish I Did­n’t Have to Tell You This: A Graph­ic Mem­oir, Eugene Yelchin, Can­dlewick Press
• Loud­mouth: Emma Gold­man vs. Amer­i­ca (A Love Sto­ry), Deb­o­rah Heilig­man, Far­rar Straus Giroux 
• Max in the Land of Lies, Adam Gid­witz, Pen­guin Young Read­ers / Pen­guin Ran­dom House
• On The Wings of Eagles, Tami Lehman-Wilzig, Alisha Mon­nin, illus., Apples & Hon­ey Press / Behrman House
• The Remem­ber­ing Can­dle, Ali­son Gold­berg, Seli­na Alko, illus., Bare­foot Books
• Right Back At You, Car­olyn Mack­ler, Scholastic
• Scat­ter­good, H. M. Bouw­man, Hol­i­day House

Auto­bi­og­ra­phy, Mem­oir, and Biography:

This includes the short­list­ed titles for the fol­low­ing cat­e­gories: Auto­bi­og­ra­phy & Mem­oir, Biog­ra­phy, Con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish Life & Prac­tice, Sephardic Cul­ture, Holo­caust Mem­oir, and Book of the Year, list­ed in alpha­bet­i­cal order.

• As A Jew: Reclaim­ing Our Sto­ry From Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us, Sarah Hur­witz, Harper­Collins Publishers
• Crash of the Heav­ens, Dou­glas Cen­tu­ry, Avid Read­er Press
• The Court­yard, Ben­jamin Par­ket and Alexa Mor­ris, Ams­ter­dam Publishers
• Going Out with Knots: My Two Kad­dish Years with Hebrew Poet­ry, Wendy I. Zier­ler, Jew­ish Pub­li­ca­tion Society/​University of Nebras­ka Press
• Heart of a Stranger, Angela Buch­dahl, Pamela Dor­man Books
• Hid­den Lives, Rachelle Gold­stein, Sec­ond Sto­ry Press
• Hostage, Eli Shara­bi, Harper­Collins Publisers
• Moses Mai­monides: A Very Short Intro­duc­tion, Ross Brann, Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty Press
• Moth­er­land, Julia Ioffe, Harper­Collins Publishers
• The Pros­e­cu­tor: One Man’s Bat­tle to Bring Nazis to Jus­tice, Jack Fair­weath­er, Crown / Pen­guin Ran­dom House
• Return to the Place I Nev­er Left, Tobias Schiff, Dani James, trans., Wayne State Uni­ver­si­ty Press
• The Ruda­shevs­ki Diary, Yit­skhok Ruda­shevs­ki (z“l), Solon Bein­feld, trans., The Jew­ish Quarterly
• Will Eis­ner: A Comics Biog­ra­phy, Stephen Wein­er & Dan Mazur, NBM Graph­ic Novels

“This year’s short­list reflects the extra­or­di­nary depth of Jew­ish lit­er­ary tra­di­tion and the diver­si­ty of the con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish voic­es shap­ing con­ver­sa­tions today,” said Elisa Spun­gen Bild­ner, pres­i­dent of Jew­ish Book Coun­cil. ​“The select­ed books hon­or the past, engage with the present and thought­ful­ly chart the course for the future of Jew­ish thought and text, all demon­strat­ing the endur­ing pow­er of Jew­ish sto­ry­telling to illu­mi­nate, chal­lenge, and connect.”

On the heels of the cel­e­bra­tion of the 100th Jew­ish Book Month in Decem­ber, the 75th awards year marks the Jew­ish Book Council’s endur­ing work to ele­vate Jew­ish voic­es and sto­ries across gen­er­a­tions of readers.

“Jew­ish-cen­tered books mat­ter! JBC’s mile­stone 75th Anniver­sary reflects the endur­ing pow­er of con­nect­ing through Jew­ish sto­ry­telling and Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture,” said Joy Green­berg, co-pres­i­dent of JBC, and co-chair with Lin­da Ster­ling for the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards Cel­e­bra­tion. Ster­ling, a JBC Board mem­ber, added, ​“Our short­list­ed selec­tions high­light the dynam­ic authors shap­ing Jew­ish his­to­ry and Jew­ish life, which speak to issues affect­ing our world today.”

“Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture and sto­ry­telling are essen­tial to under­stand­ing our­selves, pre­serv­ing our his­to­ry and teach­ing val­ues from one gen­er­a­tion to the next,” said Nao­mi Fire­stone-Teeter, CEO of Jew­ish Book Coun­cil. ​“In moments of change and chal­lenge, Jew­ish books cre­ate con­nec­tion, encour­age dia­logue and ensure both the vis­i­bil­i­ty and vibran­cy of a rich and diverse Jew­ish life. Jew­ish Book Coun­cil is proud to cel­e­brate and cham­pi­on these writ­ers who help us make mean­ing and spark con­ver­sa­tions that res­onate beyond the page.”

About the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil: Jew­ish Book Coun­cil is a non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to edu­cat­ing, enrich­ing, and strength­en­ing the com­mu­ni­ty through Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture. Each year, JBC reach­es 900,000 read­ers with its vibrant dig­i­tal pres­ence, in addi­tion to work­ing with near­ly 300 tour­ing authors each year, cre­at­ing resources for over 3,000 book clubs, facil­i­tat­ing over 1,400 events, pre­sent­ing the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards and Natan Notable Books, curat­ing its bimonth­ly book sub­scrip­tion series, Nu Reads, co-host­ing the pop­u­lar lit­er­ary series Unpack­ing the Book: Jew­ish Writ­ers in Con­ver­sa­tion, and pub­lish­ing its annu­al print pub­li­ca­tion, Paper Brigade. JBC ensures that the authors of Jew­ish-inter­est books have a plat­form, and that read­ers are able to find these books and have the tools to dis­cuss them with their communities.

About the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards: The Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards were estab­lished by Jew­ish Book Coun­cil in 1950 in order to rec­og­nize out­stand­ing works of Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture. They are the old­est awards of their kind.