‘Like Dreamers’ wins RUSA’s Sophie Brody Medal winner for achievement in Jewish literature

The winner of the 2014 Sophie Brody Medal is “Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation” by Yossi Klein Halevi, published by HarperCollins.

The Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) awards the Sophie Brody Medal to the author of the most distinguished contribution to Jewish literature for adults published in the United States in the preceding year. The award is a tribute to Sophie Brody established by her husband, Arthur, founder of the Brodart Foundation.

Using interviews with seven surviving members of the 55th Paratroopers Reserve Brigade, the author traces the history of Israel and the diverse political and religious ideologies that shape the nation.

The committee also selected two honor books: “My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel” by Ari Shavit, an intensely personal narrative history of the state of Israel published by Spiegel & Grau; and “The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye” by Jeremy Dauber, a biography of one of the giants of Yiddish literature, published by Schocken.