CFA: Saul Viener Book Prize

The Saul Viener Prize ($1,000) is awarded biannually, with the current competition covering books published in 2021 and 2022. Only books that focus on the history of the Jews in the Americas are considered. Interdisciplinary works that draw on methods from fields outside of history, including literature, sociology, political science, and other fields, will only be considered if they largely engage with historical questions about the nature of the past and its meaning. In order to be considered, books have to be an original work in English and not anthologies nor other edited works. The deadline for submissions is  March 15, 2023. Author, title, publisher and publication date of books that fit these criteria should be sent to info@ajhs.org at which time we will provide mailing addresses for prize committee members to receive copies of the book. 

The 2021 Saul Viener Book Prize was awarded to The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex: The History of a Multibillion-Dollar Institution, by Lila Corwin Berman; the 2019 Saul Viener Book Prize was awarded to A Rosenberg By Any Other Name: A History of Jewish Name Changing in America, by Kirsten Fermaglich.

Honorable Mentions from 2019 and 2021 were awarded to: The Jews’ Indian: Colonialism, Pluralism & Belonging in America, by David Koffman; Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice, by Rachel Gross; Making Judaism Safe for America: World War I and the Origins of Religious Pluralism, by Jessica Cooperman; and Cotton Capitalists: American Jewish Entrepreneurship in The Reconstructionist Era, by Michael Cohen.