Awards | Jewish Book Council

National Jewish Book Awards

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.

2023 Winners

Cover of Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance

Jewish Book of the Year

Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance

Cover of Walkers in the City: Jewish Street Photographers of Midcentury New York

American Jewish Studies

Deborah Dash Moore

Walkers in the City: Jewish Street Photographers of Midcentury New York

Cover of Happily: A Personal History-with Fairy Tales

Autobiography and Memoir

Sabrina Orah Mark

Happily: A Personal History-with Fairy Tales

Cover of Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History

Benjamin Balint

Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History

Cover of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Book Club Award

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Cover of Two New Years

Children’s Picture Book

Richard Ho; Lynn Scurfield, illus.

Cover of Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole

Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice

Julia Watts Belser

Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole

Cover of All-Night Pharmacy

All-Night Pharmacy

Cover of Israel 201: Your Next-Level Guide to the Magic, Mystery, and Chaos of Life in the Holy Land

Education and Jewish Identity

Joel Chasnoff and Benji Lovitt

Israel 201: Your Next-Level Guide to the Magic, Mystery, and Chaos of Life in the Holy Land

Cover of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Cover of Kibbitz and Nosh: When We All Met at Dubrow's Cafeteria

Food Writing & Cookbooks

Marcia Bricker Halperin

Kibbitz and Nosh: When We All Met at Dubrow's Cafeteria

Cover of Operation Bethlehem: An Espionage Thriller

Hebrew Fiction in Translation

Yariv Inbar; Dalit Shmueli, trans.

Operation Bethlehem: An Espionage Thriller

Cover of Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance

Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance

Cover of Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance

Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance

Cover of The Ghost Tattoo

Holocaust Memoir Award

The Ghost Tattoo

Mentorship Award

Altie Karper

Cover of The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman

Middle Grade Literature

The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman

Cover of The Eleventh Plague: Jews and Pandemics from the Bible to COVID-19

Modern Jewish Thought and Experience

The Eleventh Plague: Jews and Pandemics from the Bible to COVID-19

Cover of When There Was Light

When There Was Light

Cover of Fractured Tablets: Forgetfulness and Fallibility in Late Ancient Rabbinic Culture

Fractured Tablets: Forgetfulness and Fallibility in Late Ancient Rabbinic Culture

Cover of Kantika

Sephardic Culture

Elizabeth Graver

Cover of Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides after the Holocaust

Women’s Studies

Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides after the Holocaust

Cover of Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides after the Holocaust

Writing Based on Archival Material

Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides after the Holocaust

Cover of The Blood Years

Young Adult Literature

Elana K. Arnold

The Blood Years

Natan Notable Books

Natan Notable Books is a twice-yearly award for nonfiction books on Jewish themes. Natan Notable Books highlight vital books and authors and bring innovative and important ideas to the attention of diverse audiences.

Recent Selections

Cover of Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream

Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream

Francine Klagsbrun

Cover of Target Tehran: How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination–and Secret Diplomacy–to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East

Target Tehran: How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination – and Secret Diplomacy – to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East

Yonah Jeremy Bob

Cover of The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul

The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel’s Battle for Its Inner Soul

Isabel Kershner

Cover of Feeding Women of the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves

Feeding Women of the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves

Cover of One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World

One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World

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