Five Jews were among the winners of the National Humanities Medal.
They were among nine Americans and a preservation group who were honored with the award this year by President Bush. The White House named the awardees on Wednesday. The Jewish winners are Stephen Balch of Princeton, N.J., the president of the National Association of Scholars, and a prominent critic of perceived liberal bias on American campuses; Roger Hertog of New York,a philanthropist and one of the principal backers of the New York Sun; Cynthia Ozick of New Rochelle, N.Y., a novelist whose literary preoccupation has been Jewish history; Ruth Wisse of Cambridge, Mass., considered the pre-eminent Yiddishist of modern times; and Richard Pipes of Cambridge, Mass., a Russian history scholar noted for his anti-Soviet activism. Pipes is also the father of Daniel Pipes, a noted conservative writer on Middle East issues.
Also named was the Monuments Men Foundation, which preserves and restores arts and monuments damaged during World War II. It is a lead group in recovering Jewish-owned art stolen by the Nazis. The White House also named the National Medal of Arts recipients. They include Roy Neuberger of New York City, an arts patron who was born Jewish but now renounces any religion. His son, however, is a practicing Jew.
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