Center for Jewish Studies announces prize winners

The Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies has announced that two graduating seniors are the recipients of the 2002 Norman Podhoretz Prize in Jewish Studies and the Selma and Lewis Weinstein Prize in Jewish Studies.

Jonathan Gribetz of Pforzheimer House, the recipient of this year’s Norman Podhoretz Prize in Jewish Studies for his essay, “A Fresh Vision of Democracy: An Internal Critique of Cultural Pluralism and Zionism in the Thought of Horace M. Kallen.” A tribute to Norman Podhoretz, editor of Commentary magazine from 1960 to 1995, the prize “is given to the Harvard University student who submits the best essay, feature article, or short story on a Jewish theme.” The Ernest H. Weiner Fund at the American Jewish Committee sponsors the prize.

Michael Gerber, also of Pforzheimer House, won this year’s Selma and Lewis Weinstein Prize in Jewish Studies for his essay, “The Jewish Literary Tradition: The Conceptualization of Jewish History and of Judaism in Harry Austryn Wolfson’s Semitics 9 Lectures, 1926 – 1927.” The Weinstein Prize is given to the Harvard student who submits the best undergraduate essay in Jewish studies. The prize was established by Lewis H. Weinstein, A.B. ’27, LL.B. ’30.