Center for Jewish Studies names prize recipients:

Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies has announced the recipients of the 2003 Norman Podhoretz Prize in Jewish Studies and the Selma and Lewis Weinstein Prize in Jewish Studies.

Michael Mitnick, a freshman in Holworthy Hall, won this year’s Norman Podhoretz Prize in Jewish Studies for his musical short story “A Brief Civil Discussion.” The award, named after Norman Podhoretz, editor of Commentary magazine from 1960 to 1995, and sponsored by the Ernest H. Weiner Fund at the American Jewish Committee, is given to the Harvard student who submits the best essay, feature article, or short story on a Jewish theme.

Rachel Brodin, a graduating senior in Currier House, won first prize in the competition for this year’s Selma and Lewis Weinstein Prize in Jewish Studies for her essay titled “From Hope to Desperation: Jews in the British Zone of Germany, 1945-1950.”

Rachel Weinerman, a graduating senior in Dunster House, won second prize for her essay “Comparable Meanings: The Rabbinic Parable in the Writings of S.Y. Agnon, Dvora Baron, and Franz Kafka.” The Weinstein Prize, which is given to Harvard undergraduates who submit the best essays in Jewish studies, was established by Lewis H. Weinstein (A.B. 1927, LL.B. 1930).