YU Announces $50,000 Book Prize Honoring Rabbi Sacks’ Legacy

Dr. Erica Brown, director of the newly established Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership, announced Yeshiva University’s Sacks Book Prize on Jan. 28. The prize, awarded annually, will be worth $50,000, and will be awarded to the book's author along with additional help from the center in distribution, marketing and promotion.

According to the prize’s website, the award will be presented for a nonfiction book that contributes to the canon of modern Jewish thought. The prize will help to raise awareness regarding important concerns of contemporary Jewish society and the intersection of faith and modernity, which were some of the main goals of Rabbi Sacks’ literature. The prize will be awarded to one author but two other finalists will be named in addition as honorable mentions.

The prize is funded by the Rhor family and will be distributed to an author who has published — or will publish — a book of Jewish thought within six months of submission. The quality and Jewish content will be reviewed by the judges as well. 

The winner and two finalists will be chosen by a closed committee of six judges who will be working with The Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust, an organization based in the United Kingdom dedicated to ensuring the perpetuation of Rabbi Sacks’ teachings. Lady Elaine Sacks will sit on the board as one of the judges. 

This prize has been established to bring forth and provide encouragement to Jewish book writers of the coming generations and contribute to the modern Jewish bookshelf. 

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom from 1991-2013. He was a visiting professor at YU in 2013. 

The Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership is a recently-established department in Yeshiva University dedicated in memory of Rabbi Sacks and his teachings of philosophy, theology and politics.

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Photo Caption: Rabbi Sacks and Sen. Lieberman at an event hosted by the Center for the Jewish Future in Mar. 2015

Photo Credit: Yeshiva University