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<\/a><\/p>\nThe four finalists for the 2026 Sami Rohr Prize are, from left, Shaul Kelner, Amir Tibon, Jordan Salama and Laura Hobson Faure. (Anne Rayner, Ofir Berman, Becky Hale, Patrick Clavier\/Archives de Paris)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The annual award \u2014 which alternates each year between works of fiction and nonfiction and which honors emerging Jewish writers \u2014 is considered one of the most prominent awards in Jewish literature.<\/p>\n
The winner of the award, which comes with a $100,000 prize, will be announced on June 16.<\/p>\n
A panel of judges will decide among four nonfiction finalists for this year\u2019s award. Since the prize was established in 2006 \u2014 the first award was presented in 2007 \u2014 Sami Rohr Prize panelists and advisors have included historian and diplomat Deborah Lipstadt, historian Jonathan Sarna and longtime Columbia University journalism professor Sam Freedman.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat strikes me about this year\u2019s finalists for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature is the remarkable range of stories they tell and the depth of insight they bring to Jewish life and history,\u201d Debra Goldberg, director of the Sami Rohr Prize, said in an email. \u201cEach of the four books explores questions of memory, identity, displacement, resilience and responsibility through deeply personal narratives that feel both timely and enduring.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2026 Sami Rohr Prize finalists are:<\/p>\n
Laura Hobson Faure, \u201cWho Will Rescue Us?: The Story of the Jewish Children who Fled to France and America During the Holocaust.\u201d Faure is a professor of modern Jewish history at Universit\u00e9 Paris 1-Panth\u00e9on-Sorbonne. Yale University Press, her publisher, describes \u201cWho Will Rescue Us\u201d as \u201cthe first comprehensive study of Jewish children\u2019s flight from Nazi Germany to France \u2014 and their subsequent escape to America from the Vichy regime.\u201d It is her second book.<\/p>\n
Shaul Kelner, \u201cA Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews.\u201d A professor of Jewish studies and sociology at Vanderbilt University, Kelner\u2019s second book details how American Jews transformed a largely overlooked human rights issue into a landmark 20th-century mass-mobilization effort.<\/p>\n
Jordan Salama, \u201cStranger in the Desert: A Family Story.\u201d Salama, an author and contributor to The New Yorker, National Geographic and other publications, traces his Jewish family\u2019s history \u201cfrom Moorish Spain and Ottoman Syria to Argentina and beyond.\u201d A mix of travelogue, memoir, history and reportage, \u201cStranger in the Desert\u201d is his second book.<\/p>\n
Amir Tibon, \u201cThe Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel\u2019s Borderlands.\u201d The first book by the Israeli journalist is a first-person account of his family\u2019s ordeal as residents of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which was violently attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. Alongside accounts of the day\u2019s losses, Tibon also recounts the heroic efforts by his father, a retired major general, to race into the battle zone and rescue his son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters from Hamas gunmen.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the Prize approaches its 20th year, I hope it will continue to support writers whose work expands our understanding of the Jewish experience and sparks meaningful conversation for generations to come,\u201d Goldberg said. \u201cI am immensely grateful to share in the Prize\u2019s mission to honor excellence, nurture talent and connect Jewish voices across the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sami Rohr Prize, named for the late American real estate developer and philanthropist who fled Nazi Germany as a boy, is administered in association with the National Library of Israel. 70 Faces Media, the parent company of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, is the prize\u2019s media partner.<\/p>\n