The Jewish Book Council (
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to
Jewish literature
Jewish literature includes works written by Jews on Jewish themes, literary works written in Jewish languages on various themes, and literary works in any language written by Jewish writers. Ancient Jewish literature includes Biblical literature ...
.
[About the Jewish Book Council]
The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of quality English language books of Jewish content in North America".
[ The council sponsors the National Jewish Book Awards, the ]Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature
The Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature is an annual prize awarded to an outstanding literary work of Jewish interest by an emerging writer. Previously administered by the Jewish Book Council, it is now given in association with the National Libr ...
, the JBC Network, JBC Book Clubs, the Visiting Scribe series, and Jewish Book Month Jewish Book Month is an important annual event in both the North American Jewish community and the publishing world. It is sponsored by the Jewish Book Council. It is held annually in the month before the Chanukah gift-giving season (roughly duri ...
. It publishes an annual literary journal called '' Paper Brigade''.[
It broke off from the JCC Association on January 1, 1994, and became an independent not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation chartered in the State of New York.][ Its primary support is from individuals, and from organizations and foundations in the Jewish community.][
]
History
The Council's origins date back to 1925, when Fanny Goldstein, a librarian at the West End Branch of the Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonwea ...
, set up an exhibit of Judaic books as a focus of what she called Jewish Book Week. In 1927, with the assistance of Rabbi S. Felix Mendelsohn of Chicago, Jewish communities around the country adopted the event.
Jewish Book Week proved so successful that in 1940 the National Committee for Jewish Book Week was founded, with Fanny Goldstein as its chairperson. Dr. Mordecai Soltes succeeded her one year later. Representatives of major American Jewish organizations served on this committee, as did groups interested in promulgating Yiddish and Hebrew literature.
Jewish Book Week activities proliferated and were extended to a one-month period in 1943. At the same time, the National Committee for Jewish Book Week became the Jewish Book Council, reflecting its broader scope. In March of the following year, the National Jewish Welfare Board
The National Jewish Welfare Board (JWB) was formed on April 9, 1917, three days after the United States declared war on Germany, in order to support Jewish soldiers in the U.S. military during World War I. The impetus for creating the organization ...
, which would ultimately become the Jewish Community Centers Association (JCCA), entered into an agreement with the Book Council to become its official sponsor and coordinating organization, providing financial support and organizational assistance. This arrangement reflected the realization that local JCCs were the primary site of community book fairs.
While under the auspices of the JCCA, the Jewish Book Council maintained an executive board, composed of representatives from major American Jewish organizations and leading figures in the literary world.
From 1942 through 1999, the council published an annual journal called the ''Jewish Book Annual''. The journal reflected on "the year’s events, figures, works, and community interests impacting Jewish literature and literacy." In 1999, the journal transformed into the ''Jewish Book World'', a quarterly magazine that was published through 2015.
Today
On January 1, 1994, the Jewish Book Council became an autonomous organization. The Council's executive board voted to create an independent entity. The new organization is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation chartered in the State of New York.
''Paper Brigade''
Jewish Book Council's annual literary magazine, ''Paper Brigade'', is named in honor of the group of writers and intellectuals in the Vilna Ghetto who rescued thousands of Jewish books and documents from Nazi destruction. Each issue provides a 200-page snapshot of the Jewish literary landscape in America and abroad, including essays, fiction, poetry, and visual arts.
JBC Book Clubs
JBC helps book clubs find reading material and discussion questions, whether the book club is formal or informal; social or educational; interested in reading only books of Jewish content, just a few Jewish books throughout the year, or good literature that happens to have Jewish themes.
''Jewish Book World''
''Jewish Book World'' was a quarterly magazine published by the Jewish Book Council from 1982 to 2015. It was devoted to the promotion of books of Jewish interest. ''Jewish Book World'' reached over 5,000 readers with a specific interest in Jewish books, including library professionals, book festival coordinators, book group members, academicians, and lay leaders. The magazine was a tool to help them learn about new books of Jewish interest and make informed reading choices. Often called "the ''Publishers Weekly'' of Jewish literature", ''Jewish Book World'' brought the world of Jewish books to interested readers.
''Jewish Book World'' began as a twelve-page pamphlet that was circulated to Jewish Community Centers, featuring short blurbs on approximately 50 new books of Jewish interest. In 1994, ''Jewish Book World'' expanded from a pamphlet to a full-length magazine that was published three times a year. ''Jewish Book World'' appeared quarterly and included reviews of over 120 books per issue, updates on literary events and industry news, author profiles, and articles on the world of Jewish books.
Since the discontinuance of ''Jewish Book World'', Jewish Book Council has been publishing online content such as book reviews, author interviews, and excerpts from up-and-coming Jewish books on their website, where readers can found hundreds of new reviews each year.
The Prosenpeople
The Prosenpeople is the Jewish Book Council's blog. It posts book reviews, excerpts, and author interviews. The Prosenpeople also includes the Visiting Scribe series, a portion of the blog which features guest bloggers. These guest bloggers offer voices from the new Jewish literary scene and are most often Jewish Book Network authors.
National Jewish Book Awards
The National Jewish Book Awards is the longest-running North American awards program of its kind in the field of Jewish literature and is recognized as the most prestigious. The awards, presented by category, are designed to give recognition to outstanding books, to stimulate writers to further literary creativity and to encourage the reading of worthwhile titles.
The National Jewish Book Awards program began in 1950 when the Jewish Book Council presented awards to authors of Jewish books at its annual meeting. The first book awarded the prize was ''Philo: Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism, Christianity and Islam'' by Harry Austryn Wolfson Harry Austryn Wolfson (November 2, 1887 – September 19, 1974) was an American scholar, philosopher, and historian at Harvard University, and the first chairman of a Judaic Studies Center in the United States. He is known for his seminal work on ...
. Among the past notable literary winners are Sonia Levitin
Sonia Wolff Levitin (born August 18, 1934) is a German-American novelist, artist, producer. Levitin, a Holocaust survivor, has written over forty novels and picture books for young adults and children, as well as several theatrical plays and publ ...
, Howard Fast
Howard Melvin Fast (November 11, 1914 – March 12, 2003) was an American novelist and television writer. Fast also wrote under the pen names E.V. Cunningham and Walter Ericson.
Biography Early life
Fast was born in New York City. His mother, ...
, Chaim Grade
Chaim Grade ( yi, חיים גראַדע) (April 4, 1910 – June 26, 1982) was one of the leading Yiddish writers of the twentieth century.
Grade was born in Vilnius, Russian Empire and died in The Bronx, New York. He is buried in Riverside Cemet ...
, Samuel Heilman
Samuel C. Heilman is a professor of Sociology at Queens College of the City University of New York who focuses on social ethnography of contemporary Jewish Orthodox movements.
Personal
Heilman was born in May, 1946, to Henry and Lucia Heilman, ...
, John Hersey
John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to n ...
, Bernard Malamud
Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseba ...
, Cynthia Ozick
Cynthia Ozick (born April 17, 1928) is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist.
Biography
Cynthia Ozick was born in New York City, the second of two children. She moved to the Bronx with her Belarusian-Jewish parents from Hlusk, ...
, Chaim Potok, Arthur A. Cohen
Arthur Allen Cohen (June 25, 1928 – September 30, 1986) was an American scholar, art critic, theologian, publisher, and author.
Scholar David M. Stern has written of Cohen: "Though he was best known as a novelist and theologian, he also pursue ...
, Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer.
Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...
, I.B. Singer, Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon ( ;
born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, DC, he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, gr ...
, Lauren Belfer
Lauren Belfer is an American author of four novels: '' City of Light'', ''A Fierce Radiance'', ''And After the Fire and'' ''Ashton Hall,'' which was published in June of 2022.
Personal life
Lauren Belfer was born in Rochester, New York and grew ...
, and Elie Wiesel.
In addition to the category awards, every year since 2002, one non-fiction book has been selected as the winner of the Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award. The last winner was Daniel Gordis
Daniel Gordis (born 1959) is an American-born Israeli author and speaker, who is best known as a passionate advocate of Israel. He is Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College in Jerusalem, where he previously also served as Senior Vice Preside ...
. With such prominent, influential thinkers participating in the program, the awards have a significant impact on American Jewish
American Jews or Jewish Americans are Americans, American citizens who are Jewish, whether by Judaism, religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who desce ...
cultural life.
JBC Network
The JBC Network is a membership organization of over 120 participating sites, JCCs, synagogues
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wors ...
, Hillels, Jewish Federations
The Jewish Federation (JFED), is generally a secular Jewish non-profit organization, found within many metropolitan areas across the United States with a significant Jewish community. They provide supportive and human services, philanthropy, fina ...
and other related organizations that host Jewish book programs. Through the Network, the Jewish Book Council is able to provide extensive resources to the program coordinators, including introduction to authors interested in touring Jewish book festivals, advice from experts on topics that affect a book program, and a chance to learn from the experiences of others in the field.
Jewish books are an essential part of Jewish culture. Programming for Jewish book events is a vital component. In recent years, the Jewish book festivals have grown into a $3 million industry. The Jewish Book Network goes a long way towards assisting in the preparation of successful events and connecting authors of Jewish interest books with the coordinators of these programs.
The Jewish Book Council formed the JBC Network in 1999 to serve as a central address for book programming. It functions on a year-round basis, although the primary focus remains on the Fall Jewish Book Month Jewish Book Month is an important annual event in both the North American Jewish community and the publishing world. It is sponsored by the Jewish Book Council. It is held annually in the month before the Chanukah gift-giving season (roughly duri ...
season. The Jewish Book Council assists with program suggestions and coordinates the speaking tours of more than 260 authors who travel country-wide during the Fall season and throughout the year. The Jewish Book Council annually prepares a book providing information about the authors on tour.
Each year the Jewish Book Council sponsors a conference for all JBC Network members and their lay leaders in conjunction with the annual BookExpo America
BookExpo America (commonly referred to within the book publishing industry as BEA) was an annual book trade fair in the United States. BEA is almost always held in a major city over four days in late May and/or early June. Nearly all significan ...
. This conference begins the new season of book festival planning. In addition to workshops and networking among the Network members, the annual conference includes a program called Meet the Author. Through this event, authors are invited to speak to the members of the JBC Network in the hopes of touring and visiting with the Jewish book programs that are represented. Among the authors who were sponsored in the past are Warren Bass, Rich Cohen
Rich Cohen (born July 30, 1968) is an American non-fiction writer. He is a contributing editor at '' Vanity Fair'' and ''Rolling Stone''. He is co-creator, with Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger and Terence Winter, of the HBO series ''Vinyl''. His ...
, Nathan Englander
Nathan Englander (born 1970) is an American short story writer and novelist. His debut short story collection, ''For the Relief of Unbearable Urges,'' was published by Alfred A. Knopf, in 1999. His second collection, ''What We Talk About When We ...
, Samuel G. Freedman
Samuel G. Freedman is an American author and journalist and currently a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
He has authored six nonfiction books, including ''Who She Was: A Son's Search for His Mother's Life'', a ...
, Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer (; born February 21, 1977) is an American novelist. He is known for his novels ''Everything Is Illuminated'' (2002), ''Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close'' (2005), ''Here I Am (novel), Here I Am'' (2016), and for his non-fict ...
, Myla Goldberg
Myla Goldberg (born November 19, 1971) is an American novelist and musician.
Biography
Goldberg was born into a Jewish family. She was raised in Laurel, Maryland, and graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High School, where she was one of the Schola ...
, Ari L. Goldman, Rabbi Irving Greenberg
Irving Yitzchak Greenberg (born May 16, 1933), also known as Yitz Greenberg, is an American scholar, author and rabbi. He is known as a strong supporter of Israel, and a promoter of greater understanding between Judaism and Christianity.
Early ...
, Dara Horn
Dara Horn (born 1977) is a Jewish American novelist, essayist, and professor of literature. She has written five novels and in 2021, released a nonfiction essay collection titled ''People Love Dead Jews'', which was a finalist for the 2021 Kirku ...
, David Horowitz
David Joel Horowitz (born January 10, 1939) is an American conservative writer. He is a founder and president of the right-wing David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC); editor of the Center's website '' FrontPage Magazine''; and director of Disco ...
, Dr. Eric Kandel
Eric Richard Kandel (; born Erich Richard Kandel, November 7, 1929) is an Austrian-born American medical doctor who specialized in psychiatry, a neuroscientist and a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the College of Physicians and Surge ...
, Nicole Krauss
Nicole Krauss (born August 18, 1974) is an American author best known for her four novels '' Man Walks into a Room'' (2002), ''The History of Love'' (2005), ''Great House'' (2010) and '' Forest Dark'' (2017), which have been translated into 35 l ...
, Rabbi Harold Kushner
Harold Samuel Kushner (born April 3, 1935) is a prominent American rabbi and author. He is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism and served as the congregational rabbi of Temple Israel of Natick, in Natick, Massachusetts, ...
, Aaron Lansky, Daniel Libeskind, Tova Mirvis, Dr. Deborah Dash Moore
Deborah Dash Moore (born 1946, in New York City) is the former director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and a Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Early li ...
, Judea Pearl
Judea Pearl (born September 4, 1936) is an Israeli-American computer scientist and philosopher, best known for championing the probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence and the development of Bayesian networks (see the article on beli ...
, Naomi Ragen, Nessa Rapoport, Shulamit Reinharz
Shulamit Reinharz (born 1946) was the Jacob Potofsky Professor of Sociology at Brandeis University until 2017. During her tenure at Brandeis, she was director of the women's studies program from 1991 to 2001 and launched ''The Scholars Program' ...
, Steven V. Roberts
Steven V. Roberts (born February 11, 1943) is an American journalist, writer, and political commentator.
Life and career
Roberts was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, and graduated from Bayonne High School.Rahman, Sarah"Author Steven V. Roberts pays a ...
, Jonathan Rosen, Ambassador Dennis Ross
Dennis B. Ross (born November 26, 1948) is an American diplomat and author. He has served as the Director of Policy Planning in the State Department under President George H. W. Bush, the special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clin ...
, and Dr. Jonathan Sarna.
Sami Rohr Prize
This is an annual $100,000 prize awarded to the finest works of Jewish interest. Established in 2006 by Sami Rohr's descendants on his 80th birthday, it is one of the richest literary prizes in the world. It alternates between fiction and non-fiction.
See also
*List of winners of the National Jewish Book Award
This is a list of the winners of the National Jewish Book Award by category. The awards were established in 1950 to recognize outstanding Jewish Literature. They are awarded by the Jewish Book Council, a New-York based non-profit organization ded ...
References
External links
Home page
Jewish Book Annual
The full run of the Annual has been fully digitized by the Center for Jewish History
The Center for Jewish History is a partnership of five Jewish history, scholarship, and art organizations in New York City: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute New York, Yeshiva University Museu ...
and is text-searchable
{{authority control
Jewish educational organizations
Jewish American literature
Jewish organizations based in the United States
Publishing-related professional associations
Literary awards honoring minority groups
Arts organizations established in 1944
1944 establishments in the United States