Dorothy Rosenberg Prize Recipients
The Dorothy Rosenberg Prize for the history of the Jewish diaspora recognizes the most distinguished work of scholarship on the history of the Jewish diaspora published in English during the previous calendar year. Eligibility will otherwise be defined quite broadly, to include books on any period and from any disciplinary field that incorporates a historical perspective. In making its selection, the prize committee will pay particular attention to depth of research, methodological innovation, conceptual originality and literary excellence.
2023
Emily Michelson, Catholic Spectacle and Rome’s Jews: Early Modern Conversion and Resistance (Princeton Univ. Press)
2022
Michah Gottlieb, The Jewish Reformation: Bible Translation and Middle-Class German Judaism as Spiritual Enterprise (Oxford Univ. Press)
2021
Devi Mays, Forging Ties, Forging Passports: Migration and the Modern Sephardi Diaspora (Stanford Univ. Press)
2020
Tamar Herzig, A Convert’s Tale: Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy (Harvard Univ. Press)
2019
James Loeffler, Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century (Yale Univ. Press)
2018
Andrew Sloin, The Jewish Revolution in Belorussia: Economy, Race, and Bolshevik Power (Indiana Univ. Press)
2017
Roger Horowitz, Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food (Columbia Univ. Press)
2016
Paul Lerner, The Consuming Temple: Jews, Department Stores, and the Consumer Revolution in Germany, 1880-1940 (Cornell Univ. Press)
2015
Libby Garland, After They Closed the Gates: Jewish Illegal Immigration to the United States, 1921-65 (Univ. of Chicago Press)
2023 Rosenberg Prize
Emily Michelson, University of St. Andrews
Catholic Spectacle and Rome’s Jews: Early Modern Conversion and Resistance (Princeton Univ. Press)
In this wonderfully written book, Emily Michelson explores the role of Rome’s Jews in early modern Catholic conversionary sermons. Michelson highlights the everyday social impact on Catholic theology, as the Jewish community served as the object and audience—alongside many Christians—for these spectacles. Based on hundreds of untapped sermons, this captivating study teaches us that Jewish-Christian relations, not simply doctrine, helped shape early modern Catholic evangelization in an era that saw the global expansion of Catholicism.