The Natan Fund and Jewish Book Council are thrilled to announce the Summer 2024 Natan Notable Book: Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream by Francine Klagsbrun (Yale Jewish Lives, 2024).
Twice a year, Natan Notable Books recognizes recently published or about-to-be-published non-fiction books that promise to catalyze conversations aligned with the themes of Natan’s grantmaking: reinventing Jewish life and community for the twenty-first century, shifting notions of individual and collective Jewish identity, the history and future of Israel, understanding and confronting contemporary forms of antisemitism, and the evolving relationship between Israel and world Jewry.
In this new biography of Henrietta Szold, Francine Klagsbrun details the incredible achievements of an extraordinary woman who understood not just ideals but the actions that were required of her — and of the world around her — to address those ideals. Known most widely as the founder of Hadassah — the Women’s Zionist Organization of America — Szold was also a scholar and editor, an educator who started a night school for new immigrants in Baltimore which became a model for schools across the United States, the director of Youth Aliya to Israel, and an advocate for numerous public health initiatives. She changed the lives of countless people — not only the people in the United States and Israel who benefited from services that her initiatives provided, but generations of American women for whom Hadassah became a mission and a lifelong community.
As Natan Notable Books committee member Felicia Herman said, “Henrietta Szold’s life is a model for us all, especially in difficult times. She was a true pioneer: as a woman in the world of Jewish intellectual life; as a Zionist in America long before Zionist ideas became popular here; and, literally, as pioneer in the pre-State Yishuv, building healthcare and child welfare institutions that have become core institutions in Israeli society.” Now, when so much of our world needs rebuilding, the Natan Notable Books committee is choosing – through the selection of this book– to highlight and honor the memory of a leader who took it upon herself to not only raise awareness about the issues that she saw but to raise money and mobilize generations of American Jewish women in particular on behalf of Israel.
On selecting Klagsbrun’s book as a Natan Notable Book, the committee noted that Szold’s grassroots organizations were initiatives designed to, like Natan, to respond to the needs of the time, and the community around her. Committee chair, Tali Rosenblatt-Cohen noted, “It is particularly resonant for Natan to honor a book about Henrietta Szold, a woman who identified the needs of the communities she was a part of and catalyzed tremendous change. Szold ‘set her eyes on the future,’ a clarion call for us all. Natan is also privileged to recognize Francine Klagsbrun, who has herself had tremendous impact on the story of American Jewish women, and has written a compelling, nuanced biography of a woman we would do well to remember.”
The author will receive a $5,000 cash prize, as well as customized support for promoting the book and its ideas, drawing on Natan’s and Jewish Book Council’s extensive networks throughout the Jewish philanthropic and communal worlds.
An event honoring/celebrating the book will be held on October 28, 2024 at the Center for Jewish History with author Francine Klagsbrun in conversation with Felicia Herman. More information and tickets for this event can be found at https://ajhs.org/events/lessons-from-henrietta-szolds-legacy-a-conversation-with-francine-klagsburn/.
For those interested in submitting a recent or soon-to-come non-fiction title, the deadline for submission for Winter 2024 Natan Notable Books is October 1, 2024. Titles must have a publication date between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025. Inquiries can be directed to natannotable@jewishbooks.org.
For more information on the award and eligibility or to submit a title, go to the Natan Notable Books page.
Natan Notable Books at the Jewish Book Council has previously been awarded to Bari Weiss’ How to Fight Anti-Semitism (2019), Susie Linfield’s The Lion’s Den (2019), Ilan Stavans’ The Seventh Heaven (2020), Nancy Sinkoff’s From Left to Right (2020), Dara Horn’s People Love Dead Jews (2021), Michael Frank’s One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World (2022), and Feeding Women of the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves: Uplifting the Voices of Talmudic Heroines and Honoring Them with Simple, Vegan Recipes edited by Kenden Alfond (2022), The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel’s Battle for its Inner Soul by Isabel Kershner (2023), Target Tehran: How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination – and Secret Diplomacy – to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East (2023). Natan Notable Books is an evolution of the Natan Book Award, which was previously awarded to Matti Friedman’s Spies of No Country (2018) and Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land (2013).
About Natan
Natan catalyzes emerging philanthropists to become actively engaged in building the Jewish future by giving collaboratively to cutting-edge initiatives in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world, and by building an interconnected community of givers through grantmaking, events and other programs. Natan believes that engaged and entrepreneurial philanthropy can transform givers, grant recipients, and the fields in which Natan invests.
About Jewish Book Council
Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating, enriching, and strengthening the Jewish community through Jewish interest literature. With over 270 touring authors each year; over 2,800 book clubs; 1,400 events; its annual print publication, Paper Brigade; the National Jewish Book Awards; Natan Notable Books; its popular literary series Unpacking the Book: Jewish Writers in conversation; and a vibrant digital presence, JBC ensures that Jewish-interest authors have a platform, and that readers are able to find these books and have the tools to discuss them with their community.