The Jewish Book Council announced that The Aleppo Codex (Algonquin) by Matti Friedman has been named this year’s winner of the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, which honors emerging writers who explore the Jewish experience. Since its founding in 2007, the award has honored works of fiction and nonfiction in alternating years. Friedman will receive a $100,000 award for her real-life detective story of a thousand-year-old Hebrew bible, while runner-up Sarah Bunin Benor will be awarded $25,000 for Becoming Frum (Rutgers University), about how newcomers learn to act and sound Orthodox.
The other finalists included: Marni Davis, author of Jews and Booze (NYU Press); Nina S. Spiegel, author of Embodying Hebrew Culture (Wayne State University Press); and Eliyahu Stern, author of The Genius (Yale University Press). The winner and finalists will be honored at a ceremony in Jerusalem on January 21, 2014.
