The Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) encourages the publication of outstanding works of Judaica reference and bibliography through its annual awards. We are pleased to announce the 2025 awards (for works published in 2024):
Reference: Premodern Jewish Books, Their Makers and Readers in an Era of Media Change. Edited by Katrin Kogman-Appel and Ilona Steimann. Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium, 2024. Bibliography: Books like Sapphires: From the Library of Congress Judaica Collection. By Ann Brener. Brandeis University Press, Waltham, Massachusetts, 2024. Premodern Jewish Books: Their Makers and Readers in an Era of Media Change is a scholarly rich, wide-ranged history of Jewish books, from the handwritten to the printed, from the late Medieval to the early modern. Well researched and highly instructive, the volume covers diverse geographic spheres as it explores the contributions of writers and printers, as well as the place of readers in the production and dissemination of books. Printed on heavy glossy paper, it is full of beautiful facsimiles and will serve both scholars and interested readers. The compilation is well indexed and provides ample references. It is very impressive indeed. The committee would also like to highlight and give honorable mention to Exile and the Jews: Literature, History and Identity by Nancy E. Berg and Marc Saperstein. The volume is a remarkable anthology of Jewish expressions and responses about their diasporic reality (Galut, exile in Hebrew) that explores how the sense of “exile” shaped many facets of Jewish consciousness and identity for many centuries. By presenting this rich and diverse treasure of literary resources the compilation offers original and at times unexpected Jewish assessments of the setbacks and merits of exile. Our Bibliography Award winner, Books Like Sapphires: From the Library of Congress Judaica Collection, presents a magnificent selection of pages from Jewish books, from the 15th century to the late modern era. With detailed descriptions of the items and beautiful color images, the volume illuminates Jewish life and culture as they are depicted in a large variety of Bible and prayer books, rabbinical exegeses, secular literature and poetry, art and illustrations, and even children's books. This is a remarkable compilation both in content and form. The committee would also like to highlight and give honorable mention to The Early Modern Yiddish Bible: From the Mirkevet ha-Mishneh to Blitz and Witzenhausen by Morris M. Faierstein. This is an impressive book on an important development in Jewish literary and religious life, the printing of the Bible in Yiddish, in the early modern era. The study explores more than the translation into the Jewish Ashkenazi vernacular. It explores the intellectual atmosphere and commentaries that accompanied the publications. Faierstein's extensive research points to an impressive array of choices of styles and content, as well as influences by the Christian Protestant translations of the era. We would like to acknowledge the scholarly merits of this impressive study. The winners of the awards will be celebrated at the AJL Digital Conference in June 2025. For his commitment and continuing support of the Reference and Bibliography Awards, AJL would like to recognize and thank Mr. Eric Chaim Kline of Santa Monica. AJL would also like to thank all the members of the Reference and Bibliography Awards committee for their diligent work: Rachel Ariel, Sharon Benamou, Daniel Kestenbaum, Konstanze Kunst, and Diane Mizrachi.
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