National Jewish Book Awards | Jewish Book Council

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.

Awards are presented in over eighteen categories, and the winning authors are celebrated at an annual gala in the year following the publication of the books under consideration. Past notable winners include Chaim Grade, Deborah Lipstadt, Bernard Malamud, Michael Oren, Chaim Potok, Philip Roth, Elie Wiesel, Jonathan Safran Foer, Deborah Dash Moore, and Sandy Eisenberg Sasso.

74th NJBA Submissions Are Closed

June 10, 2024

Submissions are Open

Sept 13, 2024

Submissions Close

Jan 15, 2025

Awardees Announced

March 12, 2025

74th National Jewish Book Award Celebration

Submissions are Closed

<a href="https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/sites/default/files/downloads/Packing-Slip-NJBA.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="22075" title="Packing-Slip-NJBA.pdf" target="_blank">Packing Slip for 74th NJBA Submissions</a>

Submit to the Mentorship Award

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

2023 Judges

Marjorie Agosin

Michlean Amir

Adina Applebaum

Yaron Ayalon

Nancy Bachrach

Judith Baskin

Ruth Behar

Dr. Elissa Bemporad

Elisa Spungen Bildner

Mijal Bitton

Isaac Blum

Tracy Brown

Susan Caller

Ezra Cappell

Rabbi Carie Carter

Rena Citrin

Rabbi Daniel Cohen

Seth Cohen

Dani Colman

Miranda Cooper

Allison Davis

Mitchell Davis

Zev Eleff

Jonathan Fass

Rebecca Flint Marx

Eva Fogelman

Mary Fraser Kirsch

Amy Friedkin

Jane Gerber

Geri Gindea

Ari Gofman Fishman

Darra Goldstein

Joy Greenberg

Blu Greenberg

Bonnie Gurewitsch

Rachel Harari

Tully Harcsztark

Eli Havivi

Carolivia Herron

Joshua Holo

Jordana Horn Gordon

Sarah Horowitz

Rita Jacobs

Alan Kadish

Menachem Kaiser

Terry Kassel

Sarit Kattan Gribetz

Sharon Keller

Rebecca Kobrin

Rachel Kranson

Carmel Krauss

Sacha Lamb

Faye Landes

Fred Lazin

Shoshanna Leon

Alison Lerner

Linda Levi

Fred Levick

Sheri Levin

Judith Lieberman

Karen Medwed

Erika Meitner

Rich Michelson

Joshua Mikutis

Debby Miller

Heather Miller

Kitty Morse

Lisa Moses Leff

Karen Moss

Devin Naar

Beverly Nadel

Pam Nadell

David Nasaw

Jeff Oliver

Amy Oringel

Avinoam Patt

Dr. Hannah Pressman

Deborah Rabner

Ethel Rackin

Dana Raucher

Judith Rosenbaun

Matthue Roth

Jonathan Sarna

Rachel Schultz

Lacey Schwartz

Sean Singer

Amir Shaviv

Karen Shawn

Lisa Silverman

Jill W. Smith

Amy Spungen

Lilian Stern

Lior Sternfeld

Darin Strauss

Claire Sufrin

Cathy Sussman

Ruth Suzman

Frances Tanzer

Magda Teter

Susan Tourial

Tevi Troy

Mike Uram

Jeffrey Veidlinger

Emi Watanabe Cohen

Helene Wecker

Dov Weiss

Jane Weitzman

Lenore Weitzman

Alan Wiener

Evan Wolkenstein

Jeffrey Yoskowitz

James Young

Etta Zimmerman

Naming Opportunities

There are naming opportunities for the following award categories

Middle Grade Literature
Visual Arts
Young Adult Literature

For further information about naming opportunities call Naomi Firestone-Teeter at (212) 201‑2921.