Danny Adeno Abebe, Ayala Fader, and Menachem Kaiser are the finalists for this year’s Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, given each year to “an emerging writer who demonstrates the potential for continued contribution to the world of Jewish literature.”
The Rohr Prize is unusual in that it alternates yearly between fiction and nonfiction. This year’s finalists are all nonfiction writers.
Israeli journalist Abebe was honored for his memoir, From Africa to Zion: The Shepherd Boy Who Became Israel’s First Ethiopian-Born Journalist, published by Miskal-Yedioth last April.
Anthropologist Fader was named a finalist for Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age, about ultra-Orthodox Jews who secretly explore the secular world.
And Kaiser earned a finalist spot for Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure, about his attempts to reclaim his family’s apartment building in Poland, which had been stolen by Nazis. A critic for Kirkus gave the book a starred review, calling it “an exemplary contribution to the recent literature on the fraught history of the Shoah.”
The Rohr Prize was established in 2006 by the family of the Jewish philanthropist. Past winners have included Michael David Lukas for The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, Idra Novey for Ways To Disappear, and Gal Beckerman for When They Come for Us We’ll Be Gone.
The winner of this year’s prize will be announced next month.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
