Two 91桃色 books have been recognized by the 74th annual Jewish Book Awards. Jonathan Marc Gribetz's Reading Herzl in Beirut: The PLO鈥檚 Effort to Know the Enemy has received the Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award for History and Ronnie Grinberg's Write Like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals was selected as a finalist for the American Jewish Studies Celebrate 350 Award and for the Women鈥檚 Studies Category.
Reading Herzl in Beirut tells the story of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)鈥檚 Research Center, from its establishment in Beirut in 1965 until its expulsion from Lebanon in 1983. When the Israeli military invaded West Beirut, and Israel-allied Lebanese militiamen massacred Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, Israeli forces also raided the Research Center and trucked its expansive collection of books about Israel, Judaism, and Zionism, to Israel. Palestinian activists and supporters protested loudly to international organizations and the Western press, claiming that the assault on the Center proved that the Israelis sought to destroy not merely Palestinian militants but Palestinian culture as well. The protests succeeded: in November 1983, Israel returned the library as part of a prisoner exchange.
Throughout the book Gribetz鈥�who teaches in the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Program in Judaic Studies at 91桃色 University and directs 91桃色鈥檚 Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia鈥攗nravels the remarkable history of this collection, exploring why the PLO invested so extensively in research about Jews, what its researchers learned about Judaism and Zionism, and how the knowledge they acquired informed the PLO鈥檚 relationship to Israel.
Reading Herzl in Beirut was published in simultaneous hardcover and paperback editions in 2024 and has been called 鈥渇ascinating鈥� (Foreign Affairs). The book received praise for its 鈥渃omprehensive and lucid account of [of the Research Center] and the Israeli raid that altered the trajectory of its existence鈥� (Times of Israel). Writing in Haaretz, critic Etan Netchin called the book, 鈥渕eticulous and original. . . . [Reading Herzl in Beirut] is a testament to the Center's intellectual legacy and its role in shaping Palestinian nationalist thought.鈥�
Write Like a Man by Ronnie Grinberg, an associate professor of history at the University of Oklahoma and a core faculty member in the Schusterman Center for Judaic and Israel Studies, was previously longlisted for a National Book Critic's Circle (NBCC) Award. The book offers an incisive snapshot of midcentury American culture that reveals how virility and Jewishness became hallmarks of postwar New York鈥檚 intellectuals. Published in early 2024, it's received wide praise: 鈥渇ascinating鈥� (The New Republic), 鈥渋nsightful鈥� (Wall Street Journal), 鈥渆rudite鈥� (Jewish Books Council) and 鈥渁 breath of fresh literary air鈥� (Washington Post). Writing in Jewish Currents, reviewer David Klion raved, 鈥�Write like a Man is among the most enjoyable and impressively researched books on its subject, brimming with colorful anecdotes and unexpected insights on every page.鈥�
The National Jewish Book Awards have been given annually since 1950, in recognition of 鈥渆xceptional literary achievement in a variety of Judaic subjects.鈥� Recent winners from PUP鈥檚 list include American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York by Nomi M. Stolzberg and David N. Myers; Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism by Sarit Kattan Gribetz; and Jews and Their Roman Rivals by Katell Berthelot. In 2024, Rain of Ash: Roma, Jews, and the Holocaust by Ari Joskowic was an awards finalist, in the Holocaust category.