This week, the Jewish Book Council announced the winners and finalists of the 2017 National Jewish Book Awards, now in its sixty-seventh year. The National Jewish Book Awards is the longest-running awards program of its kind and were established by the Jewish Book Council in 1950 in order to recognize outstanding works of Jewish literature.

Among the many winners and finalists—the full list can be found here—is a landmark volume from our partners, the Jewish Publication Society. Saving One’s Own: Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust is a finalist in the Holocaust category.

In this remarkable, historically significant book, Paldiel recounts in vivid detail the many ways in which, at great risk to their own lives, Jews rescued other Jews during the Holocaust. In so doing he puts to rest the widely held belief that all Jews in Nazi-dominated Europe wore blinders and allowed themselves to be led like “lambs to the slaughter.” Paldiel documents how brave Jewish men and women saved thousands of their fellow Jews through efforts unprecedented in Jewish history.

“The first of its kind . . . Saving One’s Own is very important because it illustrates the resilience of people in Nazi-occupied Europe and dispels the myth of Jewish passivity during the Holocaust,” said Samuel P. Oliner, author of The Altruistic Personality and The Nature of Good and Evil. “Thoroughly researched, exciting, and engaging.”

Mordecai Paldiel is a professor of history at Yeshiva University–Stern College and Touro College and is a consultant to the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. He is the former longtime director of the Righteous Among the Nations Department at Yad Vashem and was himself rescued from the Holocaust by a “Righteous Gentile.” Paldiel is the author of eight books.

The winners of the 2017 National Jewish Book Awards will be honored on March
6, 2018 at a gala awards dinner and ceremony to be held at the Prince George
Ballroom in Manhattan. Tickets can be purchased online.

Congratulations, Mordecai Paldiel!