Australian Jewish Writer Awards winners announced

The winners of the 2026 Shalom Collective Australian Jewish Writer Awards were announced on August 3 at the opening night of the Festival of the Spoken Word, presented by Sydney Jewish Writers Festival.

Now in its third year, the awards recognise the best Australian writing on Jewish subjects published in 2025, with prizes distributed across five categories spanning non-fiction, fiction, poetry, playwriting and young writers.

John M. Efron took out the Leslie and Sophie Caplan Award for Jewish Non-Fiction for All Consuming: Germans, Jews, and the Meaning of Meat, published by Stanford University Press.

The book traces the intertwined histories of German Jews and Germany through the lens of meat over nearly 1000 years. Judges praised the work for integrating a wide variety of sources, highlighting deep themes in Jewish history with contemporary resonance, and remaining accessible despite its scholarly rigour.

Katia Ariel’s Ferryman: The life and deathwork of Ephraim Finch was highly commended in the category. Also shortlisted were Ittay Flescher for The holy and the broken: A cry for Israeli-Palestinian peace from a land that must be shared and Lee Kofman and Tamar Paluch for their edited collection Ruptured: Jewish Women in Australia Reflect on Life Post-October 7.