People's Choice
Today's Jewish
book award winners
reflect more and
more the tastes of
the general reading
public.
Sue Fishkoff
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
T
he people have spoken, and they
spake Foer.
Everything is Illuminated,
Jonathan Safran Foer's tragi-comic tale of
a young American Jew's journey through
Ukraine in search of his grandfather's roots,
is the first winner of JBooks.com's People's
Choice Award for the decade's best work of
Jewish fiction.
The award, and a $5,000 check, will be
presented Nov. 15 at the Koret International
Jewish Book Awards ceremony in San
Francisco to author Foer, who was in
Southfield in September to speak to more
than 700 people at this year's season-open-
ing meeting of the Greater Detroit Chapter of
Hadassah.
That doesn't mean Foer's novel really is
the decade's best book, not by the usual stan-
dards. It just means that the more than 1,500
readers who cast their votes in the six-week,
online contest liked it better than the other
five contenders, a list judges whittled down
from 115 readers' suggestions.
The credence one gives to such an award
depends on whether one prefers a laurel
wreath bestowed by the crowd or the crit-
ics. Online voting tends to draw a younger
Crowd, and is subject to ballot-box stuffing,
organizers admit, although they say they
weeded out suspicious patterns.
Certainly the contest, which ran Sept. 6 to
Oct. 16, got lots of folks involved in choosing
their favorite Jewish book, and that's what
groups are honoring emerging Jewish writ-
ers during the same ceremony.
The Koret ceremony has been moved
from April to November, to coincide with
the year's biggest book-buying season.
the organizers wanted.
Categories have been tweaked to attract
"The idea is to give readers access to the
entries that readers and book groups are
awards," to reward "what people are reading
more likely to purchase.
and enjoying and talking about': says project
"Fiction," the mainstay of most book
manager Jane Hadley.
clubs, remains untouched, but gone are
The People's Choice Award is part of cur-
the categories of "History" and "Biography,
rent efforts to make Jewish books more
Autobiography and Literary Studies': which,
accessible — or, rather, to reward those •
say Koret organizers, tended to reward books
books that are more accessible, a conscious
too scholarly or esoteric to appeal to lay
goal of the newly restyled Koret Awards. The
readers. They were replaced by "Jewish Life
Koret Awards are being run this year for the
and Living': a more wide-ranging category
first time by Jewish Family and Life in coop-
that drew 127 entries this year, more than
eration with the National Foundation for
any other.
Jewish Culture.
The winners, and many of the finalists,
The Korets, sponsored by
were not always the obvious
the Koret Family Foundation
choices.
since 1998, have been "criti-
In the "Jewish Life and Living"
cized as too heavy and high-
category, Rochel Berman's
brow': says newly appointed
Dignity Beyond Death, a
Jewish Family and Life CEO
gentle, somewhat obscure book
Amir Cohen. "We've brought it
about Jewish burial societies,
down a notch. It's still presti-
beat out Deborah Lipstadt's bet-
gious, but it speaks to a larger
ter-known History on Trial, the
piece of the Jewish book-
chronicle of her well-publicized
reading public"
legal battle against Holocaust
Jewish Family and Life
denier David Irving.
Jonathan Safran Foer
founder Yossi Abramowitz,
And while Israeli author David
chair of the awards steering
Grossman is well known to
committee, says the new Koret
American Jewish readers, both
Awards are actively trying to
for his prize-win
s ning books and
Tire JfWiShPfelftildti011 for bid]
influence Jewish book buying.
his leftist politics, Her Body
"Our goal is not only to
Knows, which took this year's
honor excellence, but to
fiction award, is "sexy very racy':
help book clubs in their
says Abramowitz, "an interesting
buying decisions and influ-
choice
ence Jewish culture; says
Is this wrong? That depends
Abramowitz, speaking from
on how one understands the role
his new home in Israel.
of book awards. Are they meant
Noting that most Jewish
to reward the most rarefied
book clubs are "still over-
tastes, or those of most people?
whelmingly women, highly
Should they honor literary or
educated, meeting informally"
academic excellence, or books
he says the changes were
that readers will want to devour?
"very much made with these
The market for Jewish books
book clubs and these women
is hot, and book clubs are fast
in mind"
proliferating. If awards want to
The changes were also
be relevant, organizers say, they
made with younger readers
need to be part of the popular
in mind. Along with the five
dialogue, even as they encourage
Koret Awards, three other
excellence.
Dignity Beyond Death
And The
Winners Are ...
KAFKA
BRONTLLAND
fi at! ”(ht, stories
The 2006 Koret
International Book Awards
go to:
• Jewish Life and Living: Dignity
Beyond Death, Roche! Berman.
• Jewish Thought: Betraying
Spinoza, Rebecca Goldstein.
• Fiction: Her Body Knows, David
Grossman.
• BabagaNewz Children's Literature:
Before You Were Born, Howard
Schwartz, illustrated by Kristina
Swarner.
• JBooks.Com People's Choice Award
for the decade's best work of Jewish
fiction: Everything is Illuminated,
Jonathan Safran Foer.
• Reform Judaism Prize for Jewish
Fiction: Kafka in Bronteland, Tamar
Yellin.
• National Foundation for Jewish
Culture's Samuel Goldberg and Sons
Foundation Prize for emerging writer
of Jewish fiction: The Discontinuity
of Small Things, Kevin Haworth.
• Anne and Richard Cowan Writer's
Award of the Jewish Community
Endowment Rind: Julie Orringer.
— Sue Fishkoff, JTA
Florida
Stone
Crab
Claws
Now
In
Season!
Flown in Jet Fresh every Thursday from the docks of sunny Florida.
Median, Large & Jumbo Dinners * Served with mustard sauce and sweet potato fries.
621 S. Opdyke Rd.
Auburn Hills, MI 48326
248-332-7744
50
November 9 • 2006
"These claws are fantastic. Its like being at Joe's
Stone Crab of Miami Beach, but alot closer to
home. I can't wait to go back and have them again"
Sandy Norman - Bloomfield Hills
Serving Stone Crabs
For I B ryears.
CIZA4R0(13;