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.

2022 Submissions Are Closed

June 22, 2022

Submissions Open

Sept 16, 2022

Submissions Close

Jan 18, 2023

Awardees Announced

March 1, 2023

72nd NJBA Celebration

Submissions are Closed

<a href="http://staging.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 2022 NJBA Submissions</a>

Submit to the Mentorship Award

2022 Winners

Cover of Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew

Jewish Book of the Year

Michael W. Twitty

Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew

Cover of American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York

American Jewish Studies

Nomi M. Stolzenberg, David N. Myers

American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York

Cover of Chosen: A Memoir of Stolen Boyhood

Autobiography and Memoir

Chosen: A Memoir of Stolen Boyhood

Cover of The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

Jonathan Freedland

The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

Cover of Shayna

Book Club Award

Miriam Ruth Black

Cover of The Very Best Sukkah: A Story from Uganda

Children’s Picture Book

Shoshana Nambi; Moran Yogev, illus. 

The Very Best Sukkah: A Story from Uganda

Cover of On Repentance And Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World

Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice

Danya Ruttenberg

On Repentance And Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World

Cover of Abomination

Ashley Goldberg

Cover of My Second-Favorite Country

Education and Jewish Identity

My Second-Favorite Country

Cover of Signal Fires

Cover of Cooking alla Giudia: A Celebration of the Jewish Food of Italy

Food Writing & Cookbooks

Benedetta Jasmine Guetta

Cooking alla Giudia: A Celebration of the Jewish Food of Italy

Cover of Love

Hebrew Fiction in Translation

Cover of An Unchosen People: Jewish Political Reckoning in Interwar Poland

Kenneth B. Moss

An Unchosen People: Jewish Political Reckoning in Interwar Poland

Cover of The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

Jonathan Freedland

The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

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

Holocaust Memoir Award

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

Mentorship Award

Ellen Frankel

Cover of The Prince of Steel Pier

Middle Grade Literature

Stacy Nockowitz

The Prince of Steel Pier

Cover of Figuring Jerusalem: Politics and Poetics in the Sacred Center

Modern Jewish Thought and Experience

Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi

Figuring Jerusalem: Politics and Poetics in the Sacred Center

Cover of Today in the Taxi

Today in the Taxi

Cover of The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth

The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth

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

Sephardic Culture

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

Cover of Let There Be Light: The Real Story of Her Creation

Let There Be Light: The Real Story of Her Creation

Cover of Biblical Women and Jewish Daily Life in the Middle Ages

Women’s Studies

Elisheva Baumgarten

Biblical Women and Jewish Daily Life in the Middle Ages

Cover of A "Jewish Marshall Plan" The American Jewish Presence in Post-Holocaust France

Writing Based on Archival Material

Laura Hobson Faure

A "Jewish Marshall Plan" The American Jewish Presence in Post-Holocaust France

Cover of It's My Whole Life: Charlotte Salomon: An Artist in Hiding During World War II

Young Adult Literature

It's My Whole Life: Charlotte Salomon: An Artist in Hiding During World War II

2022 Judges

Marjorie Agosin

Michlean Amir

Adina Applebaum

Yaron Ayalon

Nancy Bachrach

Rachel Barenbaum

Judith Baskin

Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi

Gal Beckerman

Ruth Behar

Dr. Elissa Bemporad

Kazia Berkley-Cramer

Elisa Spungen Bildner

Mijal Bitton

Joan Bright

Tracy Brown

Susan Caller

Ezra Cappell

Rabbi Carie Carter

Rena Citrin

Joshua Cohen

Seth Cohen

Dani Colman

Miranda Cooper

Allison Davis

Deborah Davis

Rachel DeWoskin

Zev Eleff

Adam Eli

Marc Michael Epstein

Jonathan Fass

David Fishman

Ruth Franklin

Jane Gerber

Gabriella Gershenson

Geri Gindea

Ari Gofman

Darra Goldstein

Joy Greenberg

Blu Greenberg

Max Gross

Bonnie Gurewitsch

Eli Havivi

Carolivia Herron

Wayne Hoffman

Jordana Horn Gordon

Rita Jacobs

Pati Jinich

Alan Kadish

Sarit Kattan Gribetz

Marc Katz

Sharon Keller

Rebecca Kobrin

Rachel Kranson

Carmel Krauss

Aviya Kushner

Faye Landes

Fred Lazin

Lisa Moses Leff

Linda Levi

Fred Levick

Sheri Levin

Judith Lieberman

Tara Lynn Masih

Karen Medwed

Erika Meitner

Rich Michelson

Joshua Mikutis

Debby Miller

Yair Mitzker

Karen Moss

Devin Naar

Beverly Nadel

Pam Nadell

Jeff Oliver

Amy Oringel

Liora Ostroff

Avinoam Patt

Dr. Hannah Pressman

Deborah Rabner

Ethel Rackin

Dana Raucher

Yael Raviv

Haim O. Rechnitzer

Isabelle Rohr

Judith Rosenbaum

Matthue Roth

Jonathan Sarna

Jason Schneiderman

Rachel Schultz

Lacey Schwartz

Amir Shaviv

Karen Shawn

Lisa Silverman

Lilian Stern

Claire Sufrin

Cathy Sussman

Shelby Tauber

Magda Teter

Susan Tourial

Tevi Troy

Mike Uram

Dov Weiss

Jane Weitzman

Lenore Weitzman

Alan Wiener

Evan Wolkenstein

Jeffrey Yoskowitz

Maayan Zik

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.