Skip to Main Content

    • 2018 Jordan Schnitzer Book Awards

    Made possible by funding from Jordan Schnitzer and Arlene Schnitzer through the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer Family Fund of the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, the Association for Jewish Studies is proud to award eight prizes this year (four winners and four finalists) for the annual Jordan Schnitzer Book Prize.

    The categories in this year’s competition were Biblical Studies, Rabbinics, and Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity; Jews and the Arts: Music, Performance, and Visual; Modern Jewish History and Culture: Europe and Israel; and Social Science, Anthropology, and Folklore. Books published in 2016 and 2017 by AJS members were eligible for submission. The competition had over 100 submissions this year and each category was judged by a committee of expert scholars in their field who chose this year’s winners and finalists. Winners receive a $10,000 prize and Finalists receive a $2,000 prize.

    This year’s recipients will receive their awards at a ceremony at the 50th Annual AJS Conference in Boston on Sunday December 16th, 2018 at 2:30 PM, following the plenary. All conference attendees are welcome to attend this ceremony.

    We wish a hearty congratulations to this year’s awardees.

    WINNERS

    In the category of Biblical Studies, Rabbinics, and Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity

    Blood for Thought: The Reinvention of Sacrifice in Early Rabbinic Literature
    MIRA BALBERG, University of California, San Diego
    University of California Press

    In the category of Jews and the Arts: Music, Performance, and Visual

    The Jewish Bible: A Material History
    DAVID STERN, Harvard University
    University of Washington Press

    In the category of Modern Jewish History and Culture: Europe and Israel

    Jabotinsky’s Children: Polish Jews and the Rise of Right-Wing Zionism
    DANIEL KUPFERT HELLER, Monash University
    Princeton University Press

    In the category of Social Science, Anthropology, and Folklore

    When the State Winks: The Performance of Jewish Conversion in Israel
    MICHAL KRAVEL-TOVI, Tel Aviv University
    Columbia University Press

    FINALISTS

    In the category of Biblical Studies, Rabbinics, and Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity

    The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity
    EVA MROCZEK, University of California, Davis
    Oxford University Press

    In the category of Jews and the Arts: Music, Performance, and Visual

    Honest Bodies: Revolutionary Modernism in the Dances of Anna Sokolow
    HANNAH KOSSTRIN, The Ohio State University
    Oxford University Press

    In the category of Modern Jewish History and Culture: Europe and Israel

    A Home for All Jews: Citizenship, Rights, and National Identity in the New Israeli State
    ORIT ROZIN, Tel Aviv University
    Brandeis University Press

    In the category of Social Science, Anthropology, and Folklore

    Modernity and the Jews in Western Social Thought
    CHAD ALAN GOLDBERG, University of Wisconsin-Madison
    The University of Chicago Press

    For further information, contact Amy Weiss, Grants and Communications Manager, at aweiss@associationforjewishstudies.org, 917-606-8249