Three Jewish writers were chosen on Tuesday as finalists for the 2022 edition of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, in association with the National Library of Israel.
The finalists for the prize, given for the best nonfiction piece of Jewish literature, are Danny Adeno Adebe, Ayala Fader and Menachem Kaiser.
Danny Adeno Adebe's autobiography, From Africa to Zion: The Shepherd Boy Who Became Israel’s First Ethiopian-Born Journalist, was nominated for the prestigious Sami Rohr award. The autobiography tells the author's journey between Ethiopia and Jerusalem.
Fader's Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age is a revealing look into the lives of ultra-Orthodox Jews whose online presence pushed them to explore the world outside of their communities.
The third nominee, Kaiser's Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure, tells the story of a Holocaust survivor's battle to reclaim his childhood home in Poland in the face of Polish Law preventing restitution of Jewish property seized by the Nazis.
Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure is a New York Times Critics’ Best Nonfiction Book of 2021 and the winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Biography.
The winner will be announced in May during a virtual ceremony in which all three authors will be honored. The winner will also receive a $100,000 prize for "demonstrating the potential for continued contribution o the world of Jewish literature."