“Tehran Children: A Holocaust Refugee Odyssey,” the latest book by City College of New York English Professor Mikhal Dekel, is a finalist for the 2020 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature in the non-fiction category. The winner will be announced in early May.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the Sami Rohr Prize is the largest book prize in the Jewish literary world.
“Tehran Children” (W. W. Norton & Company; October 1, 2019), is the outcome of Dekel’s decade-long research into the little documented escape of Polish Jews from Nazi extermination as refugees in the East and then to Israel via Iran.
The daughter of one of those young Holocaust survivors, Dekel’s narrative is a gripping blend of memoir, history and travelogue. Her other books include “The Universal Jew: Masculinity, Modernity, and the Zionist Movement,” and “Oedipus in Kishinev.” Dekel also teaches at the Graduate Center, CUNY.
The $100,000 Sami Rohr prize was inaugurated in 2007 by the Rohr family as a way to recognize the unique role of contemporary writers in the transmission and examination of the Jewish experience, reports the Jerusalem Post. It is presented to a writer who demonstrates potential for continued contribution to the world of Jewish literature.
The prize is given in memory of Sami Rohr who was raised in Berlin and fled Germany with his parents shortly after Kristallnacht. Taking refuge in Belgium, France and Switzerland, he later moved to Colombia and subsequently to Florida. His children established the prize to salute two of Rohr’s driving values - the importance of encouraging talent and his love of Jewish literature.
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