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HONORING EXCELLENCE

NURTURING TALENT

CREATING A COMMUNITY FOR JEWISH LITERATURE

Books

2023 FICTION

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ASTRA HOUSE

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TRANSLATOR

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FINALIST

HARPER VIA

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FINALIST

THE NEW PRESS

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FINALIST

HENRY HOLT & CO.

Sean Gasper Bye

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TRANSLATION FINALIST

Anchor 2
In The Press

"Make your bookshelves
your companions" 

-Judah Ibn Tibbon-

SAMI ROHR PRIZE FOR JEWISH LITERATURE

INAUGURATED IN 2007 BY THE ROHR FAMILY

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The Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature honors the legacy of Sami Rohr z”l, who enjoyed a lifelong love of Jewish learning and great books.

As the premier award of its kind, the annual prize recognizes the unique role of contemporary writers in the examination and transmission of the Jewish experience. The $100,000 prize is presented to an emerging writer who demonstrates the potential for continued contribution to the world of Jewish literature.

Finalists and winners of monetary prizes become Fellows in the Sami Rohr Jewish Literary Institute. Past winners have acknowledged the impact of the Prize on their careers and professional pursuits.

Bio

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY

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DEBORAH E. LIPSTADT

Forward review of her new book on Golda Meir

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SAMUEL FREEDMAN

On Hubert Humphrey
Politico Magazine

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HAIM WATZMAN

New story in

Tel Aviv Review of Books

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MIKHAL DEKEL

Yom HaShoah Lecture, UAlbany

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DANIEL GORDIS

Impossible Takes Longer Book Review

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JULIE ORRINGER

Adaptation of The Flight Portfolio for Netflix

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ABBY POGREBIN

The Minyan: Holocaust Survivors

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JOSH LAMBERT

NJBA American Jewish Studies Finalist

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YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI

What Would Yossi Say? Podcast

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JAMES LOEFFLER

On Remembering & Our Greatest Strength webinar

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SARAH ABREVAYA STEIN

"Wartime North Africa" UCLA 

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HAIM WATZMAN

Translation of Elad Ben-Dor's book UNSCOP and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

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MATTI FRIEDMAN

Who By Fire adapted for Israel TV

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ILANA KURSHAN

Spending Rosh Hashanah With a Very Hungry Caterpillar

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YEHUDA MIRSKY

"Five Must-Read Books on Kabbalah"

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DANIEL TORDAY

"Writing Towards Resolution and Everything in Between"

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AYELET TSABARI

New story in Tablet

Anger management in Vancouver 

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PAMELA NADELL

Is the Jewish ‘Golden Age Over?” Debated Bret Stephenson on the issue of the Jewish future

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ABIGAIL POGREBIN

How the Yiddish ‘Fiddler’ changed an actor’s life

 

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MIKHAL DEKEL

UN Outreach Programme

on the Holocaust

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JONATHAN SARNA

Hiddushim: Celebrating Hebrew College’s Centennial Edited with Michael Fishbane and Arthur Green

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MATTI FRIEDMAN

New book 
Out on March 29

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MIKHAL DEKEL

Now available in paperback

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MATTI FRIEDMAN

Cover story for
Smithsonian Magazine

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ADAM KIRSCH

Now available

in paperback

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JAMES LOEFFLER

"Charlottesville Was Only a Preview"  The Atlantic

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NESSA RAPOPORT

"Mourning & Evening"
February 28
Jewish Book Week

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AYALA FADER

Speaker at the Cambridge Interfaith Programme Conference

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JAMES LOEFFLER

New Position at Johns Hopkins

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ABIGAIL POGREBIN

‘I Speak English, but I Don’t Speak American’

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SARAH ABREVAYA STEIN

Lecture on Jewish Culture, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

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ABIGAIL POGREBIN

Ritual, Even as an Atheist, Has Enormous Power

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IDRA NOVEY

In discussion about Characters Who Hear and Mishear Each Other

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KEN­NETH B. MOSS

Winner of NJBA Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award in History

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AYALA FADER

In conversation with

Leora Batnitzky
The Jewish Center Princeton

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GAL BECKERMAN

The Joy of Watching “Wednesday” with Daughters

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YEHUDAH MIRSKY

In conversation with David Makovsky on the ideology of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook

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JOSEPH TELUSHKIN

Five Things That Can Change Your Life Starting Today

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DAVID WOLPE

Unity Shabbat Legacy of Martin Luther King

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SARA YAEL HIRSCHHORN

Received ADL's new Center on Antisemitism Research fellowship

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AVIYA KUSHNER

A portfolio of poetry

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LISA LEFF MOSES

The annual Rabbi Joshua Trachtenberg memorial lecture

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HAIM WATZMAN

"Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Sex" Tel Aviv Review of Books

 

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SANA KRASIKOV

New story in The New Yorker

 

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YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI

In conversation with Doniel Hartman and Elana Stein Hain The role of truth in Israeli politics

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BENJAMIN BALINT

Review of I.B. Singer lost essays collected in Old Truths and New Cliches

 

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MATTI FRIEDMAN

NICOLE KRAUSS

In conversation 

Who By Fire

May 23

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DANIEL TORDAY

New book

Available for pre-order

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GAL BECKERMAN

"Incubating Ideas"
In conversation with
Raquel Ukeles of NLI

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WILLIAM DAROFF

Video conference with Ukraine's President Zelensk

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REBECCA GOLDSTEIN

Videobook on philosophy
and so much more

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AVIYA KUSHNER
Received an NEA grant for
translation of Yudit Shahar poetr

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STUART NADLER

Bennington Writers Readers
January 6 at 7 PM

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JANE EISNER 

On the 50th anniversary of The Jewish Catalog

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RUTH FRANKLIN

The New York Times
Opinion, Guest Essay

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MIKHAL DEKEL

Celebrating the launch
of
Tehran Children in Hebrew on May 22

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JONATHAN ROSEN

The Atlantic’s

May Cover Story:

“American Madness”

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AVIYA KUSHNER

Translating Hope: Israeli “Poet of the Working Class”

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JEREMY DAUBER

Interview for his new book on the history of Mel Brooks as a ‘disobedient Jew’

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DANYA RUTTENBERG

Winner of NJBA Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice Myra H. Kraft Memorial Award

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DAN EPHRON

The World According to Foreign Policy Podcasts

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ADAM KIRSCH

Interview by Brian Anderson

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PAMELA NADELL

Unmasking Antisemitism panel discussion marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day

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DANIEL TORDAY

The 12th Commandment Excerpt

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RUTH FRANKLIN

Guest speaker

American University's Jewish Studies Program's 'Acts of Remembrance: Shaping Holocaust Memory in the 21st Century'

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YAAKOV KATZ

Guest on Dan Senor's Call Me Back podcast "Israel's Next Government"

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BEN LERNER

"Cafe Loup" in The New Yorker

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 ABIGAIL POGREBIN

In conversation with Rabbi Peter Rubinstein  with Letty Cottin Pogrebin and Molly Shapiro "L'dor V'dor"

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ERIKA DREIFUS

Republishing of "HomeComings" in Moment on the 50th anniversary of the Munich Massacre

 

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SARAH HURWITZ

Reflections for the New Year September 18 at the Tucson J

 

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BEN LERNER

New poem

The New York Review

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JAMES LOEFFLER

"Antisemitism and Genocide: Theorizing the Connection in Raphael Lemkin's Thought"

 

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JOSH LAMBERT

On Jewish fiction

in Jewish Currents

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AYELET TSABARI

Featured writer Jewish Heritage Month

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JONATHAN SARNA

First speaker in a 4-part series exploring antisemitism March 24

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