Assistant Professor Simcha Gross Wins Jewish Book Council Award
Simcha Gross, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, has received the Scholarship Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award from the Jewish Book Council for Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity.
Published by Cambridge University Press in April 2024, the book builds on recent scholarship. It “advances a radically different understanding of Babylonian Jewish history and Sasanian rule” and “portrays a more immanent model of Sasanian rule, within and against which Jews invariably positioned and defined themselves.”
The National Jewish Book Awards began in 1950, the longest-running and most prestigious awards program of its kind. The aim is to “recognize authors and encourage reading of outstanding English-language books of Jewish interest.” Previous notable winners include Philip Roth, Elie Wiesel, and Jonathan Safran Foer. This year, authors were honored in 26 categories ranging from scholarship to visual arts.
