Sami Rohr Prize

Grapevine, July 31, 2026: Common sense and compassion

Movers and shakers in Israeli society.

MK Mansour Abbas speaks during a 40 signatures debate at the Knesset.
The four finalists for the 2026 Sami Rohr Prize are, from left, Shaul Kelner, Amir Tibon, Jordan Salama and Laura Hobson Faure.

Sami Rohr Prize 2026 shortlist highlights family survival and Jewish history

 Oren Kessler

Oren Kessler awarded Sami Rohr Prize for 'Palestine 1936,' receives $100,000

 An architectural rendering of the new National Library of Israel building designed by the prestigious Swiss firm, Herzog & de Meuron. (© Herzog & de Meuron; Mann-Shinar Architects, Executive Architect)

In a first, Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature goes to Hebrew author and translator


Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish literature lauds nonfiction in virtual award ceremony

This year's winner was Menachem Kaiser for his book Plunder, which details the author's experience with his Holocaust-survivor grandfather's former battle to reclaim the family's apartment in Poland.

 Menachem Kaiser documents his journey in “Plunder."

Menachem Kaiser named winner of Sami Rohr literature prize for 2022

The Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature is given in association with the National Library of Israel.

 Menachem Kaiser documents his journey in “Plunder."

‘Kafka’s Trial’ wins prestigious Sami Rohr book prize

The Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature recognizes the unique role of contemporary writers in the examination and transmission of the Jewish experience.

Kafka's Last Trial by Benjamin Balint

Author of memoir recalling family’s Egyptian-Jewish past dies at 63

Lucette Matalon Lagnado, a Wall Street Journal reporter whose 2007 memoir of her Egyptian-Jewish family won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jew­ish Literature, was 63.

CAIRO IN the late 19th century