I am delighted to share the news that The Eleventh Plague: Jews and Pandemics from the Bible to COVID-19 has been awarded the 2024 National Jewish Book Award for Modern Jewish Thought and Experience.
The award ceremony will take place in New York City tomorrow evening. I am humbled by this award, and hope that it will allow new readers to learn of the fascinating - and until now the untold story - of the Jewish encounter with pandemics.
“...pandemics have interfered with the intellectual life of Jews for many centuries. However, their response was never to end their educational pursuits or to close the House of Study, the Bet Midrash, although they may have had to temporarily move it into the family home or a vacant field. Instead, their reaction was to use whatever was at hand in the struggle to continue Jewish life and Jewish study. Often they used a pandemic to push them to greater intellectual or religious productivity.”
