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Michael Twitty’s ‘Koshersoul,’ a memoir of food and identity, named Jewish book of the year
(JTA) — “Koshersoul,” chef Michael W. Twitty’s memoir about his career fusing Jewish and African-American culinary histories, was named the Jewish book of 2022 by the Jewish Book Council.
Subtitled “The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew,” Twitty’s book provides “deep dives into theology, identity, and, of course, food, allowing one to reexamine the way they think about the Jewish community and giving them permission and impetus to reflect on their heritage and religion in a new way,” the council said in naming “Koshersoul” the Everett Family Foundation Book of the Year.
The winners of the 72nd National Jewish Book Awards were announced Wednesday at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan as part of its inaugural Books That Changed My Life festival.
Dani Shapiro won her second National Jewish Book Award, and her first JJ Greenberg Memorial Award for Fiction, for her novel “Signal Fires.” Her first novel in 15 years traces the effects of a fatal car crash on a family over a 50-year time span.
Ashley Goldberg won the Goldberg Prize for Debut Fiction with his novel “Abomination,” about a scandal at a Jewish day school and the paths taken in its aftermath by two of its students, one secular and one religious. Miriam Ruth Black won The Miller Family Book Club Award for her novel “Shayna,” a novel of early 20th-century immigrants set in a shtetl and New York’s Lower East Side.
In other nonfiction categories, Michael Frank was the winner in both the new Holocaust Memoir category and the Sephardic Culture category for his book “One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World.” The book is based on his conversations with Levi, a Holocaust survivor who remembers the once-vibrant Sephardic Jewish community that had thrived on Rhodes, an island in the Aegean Sea.
“American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York,” by Nomi M. Stolzenberg and David N. Myers, won for best book in American Jewish studies.
Jonathan Freedland won the Biography Award and Holocaust Award for “The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World,” about Rudolf Vrba, whose eyewitness report of the death camp was largely ignored by the various allied government officials who read it. Kenneth B. Moss’ “An Unchosen People: Jewish Political Reckoning in Interwar Poland,” won the Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award in history.
Danya Ruttenberg’s “On Repentance and Repair,” a rabbi’s rumination on apologies and forgiveness in contemporary culture, won the Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice Award.
The council also honored Ellen Frankel, who served as the editor in chief and CEO of the Jewish Publication Society for 18 years, with its Mentorship Award in Honor of Carolyn Starman Hessel — given in honor of the council’s longtime director, who retired in 2014. Frankel, who herself stepped down in 2009, was cited for mentoring authors, staff and students at the Philadelphia-based publisher, as well as championing women scholars.
Other winners include:
The inaugural Hebrew Fiction in Translation Jane Weitzman Award: Mayan Eitan, “Love” (self-translated)
Children’s Picture Book Tracy and Larry Brown Family Award: Shoshana Nambi, “The Very Best Sukkah: A Story from Uganda,” illustrated by Moran Yogev
Young Adult Literature Award: Susan Wider, “It’s My Whole Life: Charlotte Salomon: An Artist in Hiding During World War II”
Middle Grade Literature Award: Stacy Nockowitz, “The Prince of Steel Pier”
Jane and Stuart Weitzman Family Award for Food Writing and Cookbooks: Benedetta Jasmine Guetta, “Cooking alla Giudia”
Berru Poetry Award in Memory of Ruth and Bernie Weinflash: Sean Singer, “Today in the Taxi”
The complete list of the 72nd National Jewish Book Award winners and finalists can be found here.
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‘Only the Guilty Seek Pardons’: Political Firestorm over Netanyahu’s Request
FILE PHOTO: Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid delivers a statement at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament,, in Jerusalem, February 13, 2023. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
i24 news – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu submitted a formal request for a presidential pardon to President Isaac Herzog on Sunday, igniting a political firestorm across Israel’s political landscape.
Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid called on President Herzog to reject the request outright.
“You cannot grant him a pardon without an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse, and his immediate departure from political life,” Lapid said.
Yair Golan, head of the Democrats party and a retired major general, condemned the move as an implicit admission of guilt.
“The only acceptable arrangement is for Netanyahu to take responsibility, admit guilt, leave politics, and release the nation from this crisis. Only then can unity be restored.”
National Unity Party chairman Benny Gantz accused Netanyahu of using the request to distract the public from the controversial draft-exemption bill.
“He’s acting like an arsonist who starts a fire and then demands protection money to put it out,” Gantz said. “Instead of inflaming tensions, put out the fire you started. Stop harming democracy, call elections, and only then pursue a plea deal or a pardon.”
MK Gilad Kariv also denounced the request.
“After eight years of claiming the cases were collapsing and that there was ‘nothing because there is nothing,’ he is now seeking a pardon,” Kariv wrote. “He refuses to take responsibility or admit guilt. The top national priority is ending Netanyahu’s rule, which has brought repeated disasters and deepened the decay of Israel’s political culture.”
Coalition members, however, lined up firmly behind Netanyahu.
Defense Minister Israel Katz voiced full support:
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said granting a pardon was essential for state security.
“The judicial system, and especially a corrupt State Attorney’s Office that fabricated cases, must be reformed. A pardon and reform go hand in hand.”
Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar added:
“The time has come to free Israel from the saga of Netanyahu’s trial, which is tearing the nation apart.”
Coalition Chairman Ofir Katz praised Netanyahu’s decision as “an enormous act of leadership,” claiming the trial is collapsing and was politically motivated from the start.
“For the sake of national healing, he has chosen this path,” Katz said.
Economy Minister Nir Barkat likewise urged President Herzog to end the trial.
“After a difficult war, Israel must embark on a path of unity. This is the moment to pardon the Prime Minister.”
At the same time, Likud MK Tali Gottlieb criticized Netanyahu from the right—lamenting that he requested a pardon at all.
“Why cast yourself in a negative light when you did nothing wrong?” she said. “Your trial has exposed unprecedented persecution. It is shameful to submit this request.”
The Movement for Quality Government demanded that President Herzog refuse the request immediately.
“A pardon in the middle of a legal proceeding is a mortal blow to the rule of law and equality before the law,” the organization warned. “Granting clemency to a sitting prime minister accused of serious fraud and breach of trust sends a message that some citizens are above the law.”
Pro-democracy protest leaders, Shikma Bressler, Moshe Radman, Yaya Fink, and Ami Dror issued a harsh statement:
“The thief’s hat is on fire. The defendant is begging for a pardon. History will judge Herzog for this moment. Anything less than rejecting the request will make the President complicit in Israel’s destruction.”
The protest movements announced an emergency demonstration Sunday evening outside the President’s Residence in Tel Aviv.
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Pope Leo: Palestinian State ‘Only’ Solution to Israeli Conflict
Pope Leo XIV is welcomed by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and officials upon arrival at Rafic Hariri International Airport, during his first apostolic journey, in Beirut, Lebanon, November 30, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Yassin
Pope Leo said on Sunday that the only solution in the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people must include a Palestinian state, reaffirming the Vatican’s position.
“We all know that at this time Israel still does not accept that solution, but we see it as the only solution,” Leo, the first US pope, told journalists on a flight from Turkey to Lebanon during his first in-flight press conference.
“We are also friends with Israel and we are seeking to be a mediating voice between the two parties that might help them close in on a solution with justice for everyone,” added the pope, speaking in Italian.
Israel‘s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed opposition to a Palestinian state after even its biggest ally the US indicated support for Palestinian independence.
Leo spoke in a brief eight-minute press conference focused on his visit to Turkey, which he visited from Thursday to Sunday on his first overseas trip since election in May as leader of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church.
The pope said he and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan discussed both the Israel-Palestinian and Ukraine-Russia conflicts. Turkey has an important role to play helping end both wars, Leo said.
During his visit to Turkey, the pope warned that humanity’s future was at risk because of the world’s unusual number of bloody conflicts and condemned violence in the name of religion.
CRITICAL OF ISRAELI MILITARY IN GAZA
Leo, who usually prefers using careful, diplomatic language, ramped up criticism earlier this year of Israel‘s military campaign in Gaza.
Turkey is predominantly Muslim but is also home to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s 260 million Orthodox Christians.
Leo praised Turkey as an example of religious co-existence.
“People of different religions are able to live in peace,” said the pope. “That is one example of what I think we all would be looking for throughout the world.”
Leo is visiting Lebanon until Tuesday, when he returns to Rome.
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Cairo Begins Training Program for Future Gaza Police Force
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty attends a joint press conference with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in Cairo, Egypt March 1, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
i24 News – Cairo has launched a major initiative to train Palestinian police officers who are expected to join a future security force in Gaza once the ongoing conflict concludes.
The program was first announced last summer by Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty during a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.
The training began with an initial cohort of more than 500 officers in March, and resumed in September with new groups. The program aims to prepare a total of 5,000 police officers, all from Gaza, with funding provided by the Palestinian Authority.
“We aspire to a definitive end to the fighting and hope to serve our homeland and fellow citizens,” said a 26-year-old trainee, expressing satisfaction with the program. He added that the goal is to establish a security force “autonomous, loyal only to Palestine, and free from external influence.”
An anonymous Palestinian lieutenant, who left Gaza with his family in 2024, described the program as offering “high-level operational training, with modern equipment for border control.” The curriculum also covers the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas offensive and its implications for the Palestinian cause.
The training emphasizes the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and reinforces the aim of building an independent Palestinian state.
A senior Palestinian Authority official confirmed that President Mahmoud Abbas instructed Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Reeh to coordinate with Egypt in establishing these security units for Gaza.
As part of broader reconciliation efforts, Palestinian factions—including Hamas and Fatah, agreed in late 2024 under Egyptian mediation to create a 10,000-strong police force. Half of the officers will be trained by Egypt, and the other half drawn from Gaza’s police ranks, which have been under Hamas control since 2007.
The force is planned to operate under a technocratic committee approved by all Palestinian movements, tasked with administering Gaza post-conflict. A Hamas official told AFP that the organization supports the security and governance arrangements agreed upon during the talks.