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המועצה למען הספר היהודי באמריקה | |
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| Abbreviation | JBC |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1943 |
| Founder | Fanny Goldstein |
| Type | Not-for-profit 501(c)(3) |
| Legal status | Active |
| Headquarters | New York City |
Region | Worldwide |
| Services | Promoting the reading, writing, publishing, and distribution of English-languageJewish literature[1] |
Executive Director | Naomi Firestone-Teeter |
| Website | jewishbookcouncil |
TheJewish Book Council (Hebrew:המועצה למען הספר היהודי באמריקה), founded in 1943, is an American organization encouraging and contributing toJewish literature.[2] The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of quality English language books of Jewish content in North America".[3] The council sponsors theNational Jewish Book Awards, the JBC Network, JBC Book Clubs, the Visiting Scribe series, andJewish Book Month. It previously sponsored theSami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.[4] It publishes an annual literary journal calledPaper Brigade.[3]
The Jewish Book Council (JBC)'s origins date to 1925, whenFanny Goldstein, a librarian at the West End Branch of theBoston Public Library, set up an exhibit ofJudaic books as a focus of what she dubbed "Jewish Book Week".[5] In 1927, with the assistance of Rabbi S. Felix Mendelssohn of Chicago, Jewish communities around the United States adopted the event.[6] Jewish Book Week proved so successful that in 1940 the National Committee for Jewish Book Week was founded, with Goldstein as chairperson.[7] Dr. Mordecai Soltes succeeded her one year later. Representatives of major American Jewish organizations served on this committee, as did groups interested in promulgatingYiddish andHebrew literature.[8]
Jewish Book Week activities proliferated and were extended to one month in 1943.[6] At the same time, the National Committee for Jewish Book Week became the Jewish Book Council, reflecting its broader scope. In March 1944, theNational Jewish Welfare Board, which would ultimately become theJewish Community Centers Association (JCCA), entered into an agreement with the Book Council to become its official sponsor and coordinating organization, providing financial support and organizational assistance. This arrangement reflected the realization that local JCCs were the primary site of community book fairs. While under the auspices of the JCCA, the Jewish Book Council maintained an executive board, composed of representatives from major American Jewish organizations and leading figures in the literary world.[citation needed]
On January 1, 1994, the Jewish Book Council became an independent non-profit organization, splitting off from the JCCA. The Council's executive board voted to create an independent entity.[9]
Under executive director Carolyn Starman Hessel, who had been called the "JewishOprah", JBC's activities and influence grew.[10] On April 1, 2015, Naomi Firestone-Teeter, who had been with JBC since 2006, succeeded Hessel.[11][1]
In response to theBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement within the literary world during theGaza war, the JBC began an initiative to encourage Jewish community authors and readers to support Jewish books and authors.[12]
From 1942 through 1999, the council published an annual journal called theJewish Book Annual that reflected on "the year’s events, figures, works, and community interests impacting Jewish literature and literacy." In 1999, the journal became theJewish Book World, a quarterly magazine published until 2015.[13][14]
Jewish Book World was a quarterly magazine published by the JBC from 1982 to 2015. It was devoted to the promotion of books of Jewish interest.Jewish Book World reached over 5,000 readers with a specific interest in Jewish books, including library professionals, book festival coordinators, book group members, academicians, and lay leaders. The magazine was a tool to help them learn about new books of Jewish interest and make informed reading choices. Often called "thePublishers Weekly of Jewish literature",Jewish Book World brought the world of Jewish books to interested readers.Jewish Book World began as a twelve-page pamphlet that was circulated to Jewish Community Centers, featuring short blurbs on approximately 50 new books of Jewish interest. In 1994,Jewish Book World expanded from a pamphlet to a full-length magazine that was published three times a year.Jewish Book World appeared quarterly and included reviews of over 120 books per issue, updates on literary events and industry news, author profiles, and articles on the world of Jewish books.
JBC's annual literary magazinePaper Brigade is named in honor ofthe group of writers and intellectuals in the Vilna Ghetto who rescued thousands of Jewish books and documents from Nazi destruction.[15] Each issue provides a 200-page snapshot of the Jewish literary landscape in America and abroad, including essays, fiction, poetry, and visual arts.[9]
The National Jewish Book Awards is the longest-running North American awards program of its kind[16] in the field of Jewish literature and is recognized as the most prestigious. The awards, presented by category, are designed to give recognition to outstanding books, to stimulate writers to further literary creativity and to encourage the reading of worthwhile titles.
The National Jewish Book Awards program began in 1950 when the Jewish Book Council presented awards to authors of Jewish books at its annual meeting.[17] The first book awarded the prize wasPhilo: Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism, Christianity and Islam byHarry Austryn Wolfson.[18] Among the past notable literary winners areDeborah Lipstadt,Etgar Keret,Bari Weiss,[19]Sonia Levitin,[20]Howard Fast,[21]Chaim Grade,[22]Samuel Heilman,[23]John Hersey,[24]Bernard Malamud,[25]Cynthia Ozick,[26]Chaim Potok,Philip Roth,[27]Arthur A. Cohen,[28]I.B. Singer,[29]Michael Chabon,[30]Lauren Belfer,[31]Elie Wiesel,[32]Michael Oren,[33] andJonathan Safran Foer.[34]
In addition to the category awards, every year since 2002, one non-fiction book has been selected as the winner of the Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award. Winners have includedDaniel Gordis,Jeremy Eichler,Michael W. Twitty,Nomi M. Stolzenberg andDavid N. Myers,Dvora Hacohen, andJonathan Sacks.
The 2024 award went to10/7: 100 Human Stories by Lee Yaron.[35] The awards have a significant impact onAmerican Jewish cultural life.[citation needed]
Jewish Book Month is an annual event sponsored by the JBC in the month before theChanukah gift-giving season (roughly during the month of November). Book fairs are held in most major cities with Jewish communities, albeit not in New York, and feature lectures by visiting authors.[36]
Jewish communities sponsor the fairs to promote Jewish culture. For the industry, they are a major marketing tool. According toPublishers Weekly book fairs generate over $3 million in annual revenue.[37] For many years the JBC held its annual meeting simultaneously withBook Expo America, enabling Jewish book fair planners to look over the forthcoming books and meet the authors.[38] In 2004, this system was replaced by an annual meeting of theJewish Book Network coordinated by the JBC.[39]
The beginnings of Jewish Book Month can be traced toFanny Goldstein, a librarian at theBoston Public Library West End Branch.[40] In 1925 she curated an exhibit of Jewish books to encourage book giving during the Jewish holiday ofChanukah.[41] She repeated the exhibit in 1926 and this inspired a call by Rabbi S. Felix Mendelssohn of Chicago, Illinois, for the observance of a Jewish book week.[42] The observance of Jewish Book Week was coordinated in Boston by the Boston Jewish Book Week Committee, founded in 1930 and headed by Fanny Goldstein. The National Committee for Jewish Book Week was then organized in 1940. In 1943 the JBC took over the duties of the national committee, and Jewish Book Week was extended to become Jewish Book Month.[43]
The Council was run byCarolyn Starman Hessel who is credited with growing Jewish Book Month and the associated book tours into one of the most important marketing events in American publishing, and a cultural center of American Jewish life, from 1994 to 2015. Hessel is credited with a knack for picking hot new novelists; she is said to have launched the careers ofNathan Englander,Myla Goldberg,Nicole Krauss andJonathan Safran Foer by selecting them and sending them on tours of the Jewish book fairs.[39][44] In 2015 Hessel was named as one ofThe Forward 50.[45] Naomi Firestone-Teeter became the executive director of JBC in 2015.[46]
The annual meeting is, effectively, an annual author's audition.The New York Times calls it, "a bizarre rite of passage: the Jewish book tour casting call."[39]Jeffrey Goldberg characterized the audition as an experience "somewhere betweenJDate and a camel auction."[39] Authors of books that range from serious works of religious history to comic novels stand and speak for precisely two minutes to an audience of over one hundred organizers of Jewish book fairs and lecture series. Getting signed to a tour of these venues is said to have the power not merely to launch a Jewish-themed book, but to lift titles from Jewish to general success.[39]
The JBC Network is a membership organization of over 120 participating sites,JCCs,synagogues,Hillels,Jewish Federations and other related organizations that host Jewish book programs. Through the Network, the Jewish Book Council is able to provide extensive resources to the program coordinators, including introduction to authors interested in touring Jewish book festivals, advice from experts on topics that affect a book program, and a chance to learn from the experiences of others in the field.[47][9]
Jewish books are an essential part of Jewish culture. Programming for Jewish book events is a vital component. In recent years, the Jewish book festivals have grown into a $3 million industry. The Jewish Book Network goes a long way towards assisting in the preparation of successful events and connecting authors of Jewish interest books with the coordinators of these programs.[citation needed]
The Jewish Book Council formed the JBC Network in 1999 to serve as a central address for book programming. It functions on a year-round basis, although the primary focus remains on the FallJewish Book Month season. The Jewish Book Council assists with program suggestions and coordinates the speaking tours of more than 260 authors who travel country-wide during the Fall season and throughout the year. The Jewish Book Council annually prepares a book providing information about the authors on tour.[citation needed]
Each year the Jewish Book Council sponsors a conference for all JBC Network members and their lay leaders in conjunction with the annualBookExpo America. This conference begins the new season of book festival planning. In addition to workshops and networking among the Network members, the annual conference includes a program called Meet the Author. Through this event, authors are invited to speak to the members of the JBC Network in the hopes of touring and visiting with the Jewish book programs that are represented.[10] Among the authors who were sponsored in the past areWarren Bass,Rich Cohen,Nathan Englander,Samuel G. Freedman,Jonathan Safran Foer,Myla Goldberg,Ari L. Goldman, RabbiIrving Greenberg,Dara Horn,David Horowitz, Dr.Eric Kandel,Nicole Krauss, RabbiHarold Kushner,Aaron Lansky,Daniel Libeskind,Tova Mirvis, Dr.Deborah Dash Moore,Judea Pearl,Naomi Ragen, Nessa Rapoport,Shulamit Reinharz,Steven V. Roberts, Jonathan Rosen, AmbassadorDennis Ross, and Dr. Jonathan Sarna.
From 2006 to 2020, JBC administered theSami Rohr Prize, and annual $100,000 prize awarded to the finest works of Jewish interest. Established in 2006 bySami Rohr's descendants on his 80th birthday,[48] it is one of therichest literary prizes in the world. It alternates between fiction and non-fiction.[9] The award was given in association with the Jewish Book Council until 2020[4] and is now administered by theNational Library of Israel.[49]
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