In the lead-up to the 75th Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards Gala on March 25, Jew­ish Book Coun­cil announces that enter­tain­er and pod­cast­er Jon­ah Platt will serve as the host for the event, cel­e­brat­ing the win­ners of the longest-run­ning North Amer­i­can awards pro­gram of its kind. 

The cel­e­bra­tion will rec­og­nize out­stand­ing authors and dri­ve atten­tion to phe­nom­e­nal Eng­lish-lan­guage books of Jew­ish inter­est, pub­lished in 2025. Jew­ish Book Coun­cil will announce the short­list for the 75th Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards on Jan­u­ary 14, 2026, and the win­ners will be announced in mid-February.

“The 75th Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards cel­e­brate out­stand­ing Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture. It’s a fes­ti­val of ideas, sto­ries and voic­es that help read­ers across gen­er­a­tions con­nect to Jew­ish life, val­ues and iden­ti­ty,” said Elisa Spun­gen Bild­ner, pres­i­dent of the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil. ​“And, Jon­ah Platt, an influ­en­tial cul­tur­al voice, is the per­fect host for this his­toric moment in our orga­ni­za­tion’s history.”

Platt is one of America’s most trust­ed voic­es on mod­ern Jew­ish iden­ti­ty, cul­ture, and cur­rent events. He is host of the world’s #1 Jew­ish cul­ture pod­cast, Being Jew­ish with Jon­ah Platt, known for its deeply hon­est and per­son­al con­ver­sa­tions with notable Jew­ish fig­ures and allies, includ­ing Jason Alexan­der, Van Jones, Tiffany Had­dish, Bernard-Hen­ry Lèvy, Cindy Craw­ford, and Sheryl Sandberg. 

“I’m so excit­ed to be host­ing the 75th Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards! We are The Peo­ple of the Book, the peo­ple who lit­er­al­ly kiss books, whose very exis­tence has always been sus­tained by the pow­er of the writ­ten word,” said enter­tain­er and activist Jon­ah Platt. ​“It’s deeply mean­ing­ful for me to cel­e­brate an insti­tu­tion that upholds that lega­cy, cham­pi­ons our sto­ry­tellers, and ensures Jew­ish sto­ries con­tin­ue to be told now and for gen­er­a­tions to come.”

A cel­e­brat­ed enter­tain­er, Jonah’s cred­its span screen, stage, and stu­dio – from act­ing in the Oscar-nom­i­nat­ed Being the Ricar­dos and Broadway’s Wicked, to writ­ing for mul­ti­ple TV come­dies, voic­ing beloved ani­mat­ed char­ac­ters, and pro­duc­ing his first fea­ture film, ​“The Men­sch,” shoot­ing this fall. He is a sought-after singer and musi­cian, an award-win­ning vocal arranger, and direc­tor of improv and the­ater. He is co-writ­ing the musi­cal adap­ta­tion of Lois Lowry’s best­selling nov­el, The Giv­er.

“Jew­ish Book Coun­cil has a long and proud his­to­ry of ele­vat­ing the writ­ers and sto­ries that define Jew­ish life,” said Nao­mi Fire­stone-Teeter, CEO of the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil. ​“At a time when thought­ful sto­ry­telling and vis­i­bil­i­ty mat­ter more than ever, these awards demon­strate the pow­er of books to strength­en com­mu­ni­ty, spark mean­ing­ful dia­logue, and affirm who we are. We are hon­ored to wel­come Jon­ah Platt as our host – a dynam­ic cul­tur­al leader who brings both heart and clar­i­ty to the con­ver­sa­tions shap­ing Jew­ish life today.” 

“This year’s Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards feel par­tic­u­lar­ly mean­ing­ful on the heels of our 100th anniver­sary of Jew­ish Book Month,” not­ed this year’s co-chairs for the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award Cel­e­bra­tion, Joy Grenadier Green­berg, Co-Pres­i­dent of JBC, and Lin­da Ster­ling, a mem­ber of JBC’s Board of Direc­tors. ​“For gen­er­a­tions, Jew­ish Book Coun­cil has served as a haven for read­ers, writ­ers and ideas. This mile­stone gala will hon­or those books that chal­lenge us, con­nect us and car­ry our sto­ry for­ward. We are excit­ed to con­tin­ue decades of cel­e­brat­ing and hon­or­ing the books that mold our con­ver­sa­tions and our communities.” 

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 800,000 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.

The win­ners of the 75th Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards will be hon­ored on Wednes­day, March 25, 2026 at Tem­ple Emanu-El at an in-per­son cel­e­bra­tion, and tick­ets can be pur­chased here.