Professor’s biography named winner by the Jewish Book Council

NEW PALTZ — Gerald Sorin, professor of history at the State University of New York at New Paltz, has been awarded the 2002-03 National Jewish Book Award in the category of History for his novel, “Irving Howe: A Life of Passionate Dissent” (New York University Press, 2003).

Sorin’s book tracks Howe’s political career from his early days as an anti-Stalin activist in the 1930’s to his involvement in the political revolutions of the 1960’s and beyond. Howe was a Jewish intellectual who spent his entire adult life writing literary and political criticism.

“Howe rose from Jewish immigrant poverty in the 1930s…his journey to renown in the fields of literary criticism, radical politics, and Jewish culture involved many rich and intersecting paths,” Sorin explained.

Earlier this year, “Irving Howe: A Life of Passionate Dissent,” also won Sorin the American Jewish Historical Society’s Saul Viener Prize for the best book in the field of American Jewish Studies published during the two-year period 2001 and 2002. The prize committee found Sorin’s book “an insightful, well-researched and highly readable biography [and a] valuable scholarly contribution.” This was also the unanimous opinion of book reviewers for the New York Sunday Times Book Review, The Sunday Washington Post’s Book World, the Sunday Los Angeles Times Book Review, and The Times Literary Supplement. This was Professor Sorin’s seventh book.

The National Jewish Book Awards have been honoring notable works for more than 50 years, gaining status as a mark of excellence in both secular and religious communities. The awards heighten awareness of the best books on Jewish topics each year.

Sorin will be recognized at an awards ceremony Dec. 11, at the Center for Jewish History in New York.

For more information, contact the Jewish Book Council at (212) 786-5156 or by e-mail at jbc@jewishbooks.org.