Four awards carrying cash prizes totalling $700 for 1954’s best works of Jewish interest in the fiction poetry and juvenile fields were made at the annual meeting of the J.W.B. Jewish Book Council of America, held today. The Council meeting was dedicated to the observance of the 750th anniversary of the death of Maimonides, author of the “Guide to the Perplexed” a philosophical defense of Judaism, and the “Mishneh Torah” which summarizes the entire spiritual and intellectual content of the Talmud into one organized whole.
The $250 Harry and Ethel Daroff Memorial Fiction Award went to Louis Zara, New York, for his novel “Blessed Is the Land” This award presented by Samuel H. Daroff, of Philadelphia, was given for the best work of fiction of Jewish interest written and published in the U.S. in 1954. The $250 Isaac Siegel Memorial Award for 1954’s best Jewish juvenile in English was given to Nora Benjamin Kubie of New York, for her “King Solomon’s Navy.” The Harry Kovner Memorial Awards of $100 each went to. Alter Esselin, for his book of Yiddish poetry “Lider Fun a Midbarnik” (“Poems of a Hermit”) and Gabriel Preil for his volume of Hebrew poetry “Ner Mul Ko Chavim” (“Candle Under the Stars.”)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
