Sub­mis­sions for Natan Notable Books will be accept­ed here.

The Natan Fund and the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil are proud to announce the launch of Natan Notable Books, a twice-year­ly award for non­fic­tion books on Jew­ish themes. Natan Notable Books is a new iter­a­tion of what had pre­vi­ous­ly been called the Natan Book Award, award­ed in 2018 to Mat­ti Friedman’s Spies of No Coun­try and in 2014 to Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land. In 2018, Natan also named three Final­ists for the Book Award: Jere­my Dauber’s Jew­ish Com­e­dy, Ilana Kurshan’s If All the Seas Were Ink, and James Loeffler’s Root­ed Cos­mopoli­tans.

Natan sup­ports Jew­ish and Israeli social inno­va­tion through fund­ing new and emerg­ing ini­tia­tives, lead­ers, and thinkers work­ing in a vari­ety of focus areas around the world. The shift to Natan Notable Books cre­ates many more oppor­tu­ni­ties for Natan mem­bers and JBC to high­light vital books and authors and bring inno­v­a­tive and impor­tant ideas to the atten­tion of diverse audiences.

Twice a year, around Passover and the Jew­ish High Hol­i­days, Natan will select a ​“Natan Notable Book,” a recent­ly-pub­lished or about-to-be pub­lished non-fic­tion title that will 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, and the evolv­ing rela­tion­ship between Israel and world Jewry.

Natan Notable Book win­ners will receive a Natan Notable Book seal and $5,000 for the author, marketing/​distribution coach­ing and pro­mo­tion from Jew­ish Book Coun­cil and Natan, and cus­tomized sup­port designed to bring the book and/​or the author to new audiences.

The Natan Notable Books Com­mit­tee will be made up of Natan mem­bers and part­ners. An Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee made up of jour­nal­ists, schol­ars, media fig­ures, and for­mer Book Award win­ners and final­ists will nom­i­nate books for con­sid­er­a­tion. Pub­lish­ers and authors can also sub­mit books for consideration.

Sub­mis­sions & Eligibility

There are two sub­mis­sion dead­lines per year: Jan­u­ary for the Passover/​Spring award, and July for the High Holidays/​Fall award. The sub­mis­sion dead­line for the Fall 2019 award is July 15, 2019, for books pub­lished for the first time between Jan­u­ary 1, 2019 and Decem­ber 31, 2019. Sub­mis­sions must be made dig­i­tal­ly; only in rare instances can sub­mis­sions be made as hard copy books. Sub­mis­sions should be sent to Miri Pomer­antz Dauber at the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil: natannotable@​jewishbooks.​org.

Natan Notable Books Committee 

Evan Behrens

Joshua C. Block

Daniel Bon­ner

Frank Foer, co-chair

Matthew Hiltzik

Tali Rosen­blatt-Cohen, co-chair

Sarah Gould Steinhardt

Michael Wig­ot­sky

Advi­so­ry Committee

Jere­my Dauber (2018 Natan Book Award Finalist)

Mat­ti Fried­man (2018 Natan Book Award winner)

Jef­frey Goldberg

Ilana Kur­shan (2018 Natan Book Award Finalist)

Rebec­ca Lieberman

Alana New­house

James Loef­fler (2018 Natan Book Award Finalist)

Annie Pol­land

Judith Shule­vitz

About Natan

Natan inspires 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. Natan believes that edu­cat­ed, engaged, and entre­pre­neur­ial phil­an­thropy can trans­form both givers and grant recip­i­ents. Natan is a giv­ing cir­cle — a grant­mak­ing foun­da­tion where mem­bers pool their char­i­ta­ble con­tri­bu­tions, set the group’s phil­an­thropic strat­e­gy and agen­da, and col­lec­tive­ly award grants to emerg­ing ini­tia­tives, work­ing active­ly with their lead­ers to help them grow. We believe that edu­cat­ed, engaged, and entre­pre­neur­ial phil­an­thropy can trans­form both givers and grant recip­i­ents.

About Jew­ish Book Council

Jew­ish Book Coun­cil is a non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to edu­cat­ing and enrich­ing the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty through Jew­ish inter­est lit­er­a­ture. With over 270 tour­ing authors each year; 1,800 book clubs; 1,100 events; its annu­al print pub­li­ca­tion, Paper Brigade; the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards; the Sami Rohr Prize for Jew­ish Lit­er­a­ture; 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.