AJHS Academic Awards
The American Jewish Historical Society encourages interested students and scholars to apply for the following prizes and fellowships. Please note that the AJHS Academic Council is responsible for all selections.
Saul Viener Book Prize
The Saul Viener Book Prize ($1000) is awarded biennially by the American Jewish Historical Society’s Academic Council to honor outstanding books on the history of Jews in the Americas. The current application cycle covers books published in 2023 and 2024. Only original historical monographs written in English are eligible; anthologies and other edited works will not be considered. Interdisciplinary works drawing on methods from fields outside of history, including literature, sociology, and political science, will only be considered if they largely engage with historical questions.
The deadline for submissions is March 30, 2025. Author, title, publisher and publication date of books that fit these criteria should be sent to info@ajhs.org, at which time we will provide mailing addresses for prize committee members to receive copies of the book.
The Viener Prize recipient for 2021/22 was Nathaniel Deutsch and Michael Casper’s A Fortress in Brooklyn: Race, Real Estate, and the Making of Hasidic Williamsburg.
This year, the committee has selected two additional books as worthy of honorable mention:
- American Shtetl, The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York, by David Myers and Nomi Stolzenberg
- Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family, by Laura Arnold Leibman
Karla Goldman (chair), Bruce Haynes, Rebecca Kobrin, James Loeffler, Saul Veiner Book Prize Committee 2023
Wasserman Essay Prize
The Wasserman Essay Prize is awarded yearly for the best article published in a one of the four annual issues of our journal, American Jewish History (published quarterly).
The 2023 Wasserman Prize will be announced soon.
The 2022 Wasserman Prize winner was Britt P. Tevis for her 2021 article, “Trends in the Study of Antisemitism in United States History.”
Lee Max Friedman Award Medal
The Lee Max Friedman Award Medal was established in memory of a past AJHS president. A committee appointed by the AJHS’s Executive Committee solicits nominations to recognize an individual, group, or institution that has a longstanding record of excellence in service to the field of American Jewish history. This service may include scholarly publications and contributions, public engagement, and support for scholars and scholarship in the field. It is awarded on a biennial basis.
The Lee Max Friedman Award is presented biannually at the AJHS Biennial Scholars Conference. The next award will be presented in 2026.
