Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Announces Finalists for 2026 Nonfiction

The Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, in association with the National Library of Israel, is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2026 prize in nonfiction:

• Laura Hobson Faure for “Who Will Rescue Us?: The Story of the Jewish Children who Fled to France and America During the Holocaust” (Yale University Press);
• Shaul Kelner for “A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews” (NYU Press);
• Jordan Salama for “Stranger in the Desert: A Family Story” (Catapult);
• Amir Tibon for “The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel’s Borderlands” (Little, Brown and Company).

“These four books move between the personal and the historical, offering powerful ways of understanding the Jewish experience today,” said Debra Goldberg, Director of the Sami Rohr Prize. “Together, they reflect the depth and range of contemporary Jewish nonfiction.”

The authors will be honored at an awards ceremony celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. A short video introducing the finalists and their work is available here.

About the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature

As the premier award of its kind, the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature recognizes the unique role of contemporary writers in the examination and transmission of the Jewish experience. The $100,000 prize is granted annually, for non-fiction and fiction in alternating years, to an emerging writer who demonstrates the potential for continued contribution to the world of Jewish literature. Inaugurated in 2006, the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature honors the legacy of Sami Rohr who enjoyed a lifelong love of Jewish learning and literature. www.samirohrprize.org