We are delighted to announce that Naomi Seidman has won a National Jewish Book Award for Sarah Schenir­er and the Bais Yaakov Move­ment, published by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.

Seidman’s pioneering exploration of the Bais Yaakov movement and its founder, Sarah Schenirer, was awarded the Barbara Dobkin Award for Women’s Studies.

Seidman said, “It’s an enormous honour to have won the most prestigious book award that the Jewish world has to offer. But even more than this honour, being awarded the National Jewish Book Award also opens the possibility of reaching a wider audience than most academics can hope for. After spending years working alone in archives and at the computer, that relationship with readers is particularly sweet.”

The book was also chosen as a finalist for the Education and Jewish Identity award whilst Bracha Yaniv’s Cer­e­mo­ni­al Syn­a­gogue Tex­tiles, a richly illustrated and documented survey of the evolution of synagogue ceremonial textiles over fifteen centuries, was a finalist for the Visual Arts category.

Yaniv said, “I am very pleased at being a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in the category “Visual Arts” . I am sure the award will attract attention and will arouse interest in an important tradition of Jewish art.”

The National Jewish Book Awards were established by the Jewish Book Council in 1950 in order to recognise outstanding works of Jewish literature. It is the longest-running awards program of its kind, now in its sixty-ninth year.

The winners of the 2019 National Jewish Book Awards will be honoured on March 17, 2020 at an awards dinner and cer­e­mo­ny to be held in Manhattan, New York.

A complete list of the 2019 National Jewish Book Award winners and finalists can be found here.

Learn more about the Bais Yaakov Project here.