An account of the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians October 7, 2023 has been named the National Jewish Book Award Book of the Year by the Jewish Book Council. The council and the Marlen Meyerson JCC Manhattan today announced the award for Lee Yaron's 10/7: 100 Human Stories (St. Martin's), a collection of oral histories of the event coupled with investigative journalism. It was cited for providing "a vital window into the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," according to the council.
Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg also received a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his teaching and writing about Jewish philosophy and theology. The judges described Rabbi Greenberg as “a towering figure in Jewish life and education" and called the Modern Orthodox scholar's latest book, The Triumph of Life: A Narrative Theology of Judaism (The Jewish Publication Society / University of Nebraska Press), "his magnum opus."
Israeli-Canadian author Ayelet Tsabari's novel Songs for the Brokenhearted (Random House) about a Yemeni-Israeli daughter confronting her family history and heritage took top honors for fiction. And the winner for history is Jonathan Marc Gribetz, a Princeton professor of Near Eastern Studies who teaches about religion and nationalism in the Middle East, for Reading Herzl in Beirut: The PLO Effort to Know the Enemy (Princeton Univ.).
The 74th annual awards were chosen by more than 120 judges considering 700 submissions for 30 categories. The full list of winners and finalists can be found here. They will be celebrated at a ceremony in Manhattan March 12.
