National Jewish Book Awards

The winners of the 2008 National Jewish Book Awards have been announced by the Jewish Book Council. Click here for a printable press release.

And the winners are:

Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award
The Torah: A Women's Commentary by Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss (URJ Press and Women of Reform Judaism)

American Jewish Studies Celebrate 350 Award
Winner: Exiles on Main Street: Jewish American Writers and American Literary Culture by Julian Levinson (Indiana University Press)

Finalists:

The First to Cry Down Injustice?: Western Jews and Japanese Removal During WWII by Ellen M. Eisenberg (Lexington Books)

From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books by Arie Kaplan (Jewish Publication Society)

Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir, In Memory of Simon & Shulamith (Sofi) Goldberg

Winner: Marie Syrkin: Values Beyond the Self by Carole S. Kessner (Brandeis University Press/University Press of New England)

Finalists:

The Journal of Hélène Berr by Helene Berr (Weinstein Books)

Benjamin Disraeli by Adam Kirsch (Schocken Books/Nextbook)

Children’s and Young Adult Literature

Winner: The Diary of Laura's Twin by Kathy Kacer (Second Story Press)

Finalists:

Checkpoints by Marilyn Levy (Jewish Publication Society)

Memories of Babi by Aranka Siegal (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Torah and Commentary: The Five Books of Moses: Translation, Rabbinic and Contemporary Commentary by Sol Scharfstein (KTAV Publishing House)

Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice

Winner: Conscience: The Duty to Obey and the Duty to Disobey by Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis (Jewish Lights Publishing)

Finalists:

Inspired Jewish Leadership: Practical Approaches to Building Strong Communities by Dr. Erica Brown (Jewish Lights Publishing)

The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey by Janna Gur (Schocken Books)

Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe by Lisa Alcalay Klug (Andrews McMeel Publishing)

Education and Jewish Identity

Winner: What We Now Know About Jewish Education: Perspectives on Research for Practice
by Roberta Louis Goodman, Paul A. Flexner, Linda Dale Bloomberg, eds. (Torah Aura Productions)

Finalists:

Family Matters: Jewish Education in an Age of Choice by Jack Wertheimer, ed. (Brandeis University Press/University Press of New England)

Back to School : Jewish Day School in the Lives of Adult Jews by Alex Pomson and Randal F. Schnoor (Wayne State University Press)

Ten Days of Birthright Israel: A Journey in Young Adult Identity by Leonard Saxe and Barry Chazan (Brandeis University Press/University Press of New England)

Fiction

Winner: Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter: A Novel by Peter Manseau (Free Press)

Finalists:

Light Fell by Evan Fallenberg (Soho Press)

Memory: A Novel by Philippe Grimbert (Simon & Schuster)

People of the Book: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks (Viking Adult)

History, Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award

Winner: 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War by Benny Morris (Yale University Press)

Finalists:

The Lost Spy: An American in Stalin's Secret Service by Andrew Meier (W. W. Norton)

Holocaust

Winner: The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest's Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the
Murder of 1.5 Million Jews by Father Patrick Desbois (Palgrave Macmillan)

Finalists:

Dominican Haven: The Jewish Refugee Settlement in Sosua, 1940-1945 by Marion A. Kaplan (Museum of Jewish Heritage)

Ghettostadt: Lódz and the Making of a Nazi City by Gordon J. Horwitz (Harvard University Press)

Illustrated Children’s Books

Winner:

The Mysterious Guests: A Sukkot Story by Eric A. Kimmel; Katya Krenina, illus. (Holiday House)

Finalists:

As Good as Anybody: Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel's Amazing March Toward Freedom by Richard Michelson; Raul Colon; illus. (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

Hanukkah Haiku by Harriet Ziefert; Karla Gudeon, illus. (Blue Apple Books)

Jewish Family Literature, In Memory of Dorothy Kripke

Winner: Genesis-the Book with Seventy Faces: A guide for the Family by Esther Takac (Pitspopany Press)

Finalists:

A Time to Every Purpose: Letters to a Young Jew by Jonathan D. Sarna (Basic Books)

Modern Jewish Thought & Experience, Dorot Foundation Award In memory of Joy Ungerleider Mayerson

Winner: Emil L. Fackenheim: A Jewish Philosopher’s Response to the Holocaust by David Patterson (Syracuse University Press)

Finalists:

Rabbi and the CEO: The Ten Commandments for 21st Century Leaders by Thomas D. Zweifel and Aaron L. Raskin (Select Books)

My People's Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries by Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman and David Arnow, eds. (Jewish Lights Publishing)

The Beast That Crouches at the Door: Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel, and Beyond by Rabbi David Fohrman (Devora Publishing)

Scholarship, Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award

Winner: The Kuzari and the Shaping of Jewish Identity, 1167-1900 by Adam Shear (Cambridge University Press)

Finalists:

Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought by Joshua A. Berman (Oxford University Press)

Sephardic Culture, Mimi S. Frank Award in Memory of Becky Levy

Winner: Greece: A Jewish History by K.E. Fleming (Princeton University Press)

Finalists:

Iraq's Last Jews: Stories of Daily Life, Upheaval, and Escape from Modern Babylon by Tamar Morad, Dennis Shasha, Robert Shasha, eds. (Palgrave Macmillan)

Memories of Eden: A Journey Through Jewish Baghdad by Violette Shamash; Mira and Tony Rocca, eds. (Forum Books)

Women’s Studies, Barbara Dobkin Award

Winner: A Jewish Woman’s Prayer Book by Aliza Lavie, ed. (Spiegel & Grau)

Finalists:

New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein (Jewish Lights Publishing)

Writing Based on Archival Material , The JDC-Herbert Katzki Award

Winner: Robbing the Jews: The Confiscation of Jewish Property in the Holocaust, 1933-
1945 by Martin Dean (Cambridge University Press)