The Freudenheim Translation Prize

The Freudenheim Translation Prize celebrates excellence in translated fiction and non-fiction, highlighting the power of Jewish literature to engage diverse audiences.

In Partnership with the TLS

Sponsored by Tom and Leslie Freudenheim, in honour of Adam Freudenheim.

The next Freudenheim Translation Prize will consider books published between July 2025 and March 2027

Submissions will open on 5 October 2026 and close in April 2027.

Please email [email protected] if you wish to be notified when submissions open.

Inaugural Prize Winner Announced

Peter Filkins was announced as the winner of the inaugural Freudenheim Translation Prize in an online event held on 12 February 2026. The judges praised Filkins’ translation of Elias Canetti’s The Book Against Death, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions, with chair of judges Boyd Tonkin commenting:

An intoxicating blend of memoir, vision and philosophy, The Book Against Death is a posthumous masterwork from one of the 20th century’s most powerful literary minds. Compiled over more than four decades, Elias Canetti’s lyrical, erudite and passionate reflections on the deepest questions of life and death find their home in English thanks to Peter Filkins’s masterly translation.

The judges also highly commended Tina Kover’s translation of The Postcard by Anne Berest and congratulated all the shortlisted authors whose work demonstrated the skill and insight of literary translators.

2026 Shortlist Announced

Six outstanding books of fiction and non-fiction have been selected as the shortlist for the inaugural Freudenheim Translation Prize. This international prize celebrates excellence in translating fiction and non-fiction into English, highlighting the power of Jewish literature to engage international and diverse audiences.

The shortlist titles are:

The Postcard by Anne Berest, translated by Tina Kover
How to Love Your Daughter by Hila Blum, translated by Daniella Zamir
The Book Against Death by Elias Canetti, translated by Peter Filkins
Sons and Daughters by Chaim Grade, translated by Rose Waldman
Living with Our Dead by Delphine Horvilleur, translated by Lisa Appignanesi
The Last Thing by Leopold Lahola, translated by Julia & Peter Sherwood

The judging panel is chaired by journalist, critic, and former Independent literary editor Boyd Tonkin, who is joined by journalist and broadcaster Hephzibah Anderson and author, broadcaster, and educator Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand.

Boyd Tonkin said of the shortlist:

“The shortlist for the inaugural Freudenheim Prize invites readers to enjoy both extraordinary literary rediscoveries and urgent contemporary voices. Novels, short stories, memoir and philosophy all feature in a selection of books that includes outstanding translations from Yiddish, Hebrew, Slovak, French and German. The shortlisted works span many aspects of Jewish experience past and present, the dramas and tragedies of the 20th century, and the deepest questions of life and death, faith and doubt. We warmly recommend all our chosen titles.”

Join us on 12 February for a free, online event to discover the winner and hear readings from the shortlisted authors.

2026 Award

Longlist Announced - 21 November 2025

The longlist for the inaugural Freudenheim Translation Prize has been announced, with our panel of judges selecting thirteen superb titles covering all facets of the Jewish experience.

The longlisted titles are:

The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad, translated by Jessica Cohen
Warsaw Testament by Rokhl Auerbach, translated by Samuel Kassow
The Third Reich of Dreams by Charlotte Beradt, translated by Damion Searls
The Postcard by Anne Berest, translated by Tina Kover
How to Love Your Daughter by Hila Blum, translated by Daniella Zamir
The Book Against Death by Elias Canetti, translated by Peter Filkins
Sons and Daughters by Chaim Grade, translated by Rose Waldman
Confidential by Mikołaj Grynberg, translated by Sean Gasper Bye
Living with Our Dead by Delphine Horvilleur, translated by Lisa Appignanesi
Red House Alley by Else Jerusalem, translated by Stephanie Gorrell Ortega
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin
The Last Thing by Leopold Lahola, translated by Julia & Peter Sherwood
Hadarav, His Inner Chambers by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, translated by Bezalel Naor

The Freudenheim Translation Prize is the most ambitious award in the Jewish Literary Foundation’s history. This international prize celebrates excellence in translating fiction and non-fiction into English, highlighting the power of Jewish literature to engage international and diverse audiences. The inaugural prize will consider books published in English between June 2023 and June 2025.

Open to translators worldwide, the prize recognises outstanding books that explore Jewish themes, history, identity or culture – or are of significant interest to Jewish and wider audiences. Sponsored by Tom and Leslie Freudenheim in honour of Adam Freudenheim, the prize offers a £3,000 award to the winning translator, introducing international Jewish writing to new readers.

As Boyd Tonkin writes:

“Translations have long afterlives across space and time. They can live on in the minds and mouths of people who – like the millions of English-speakers who unwittingly quote the naturalised Hebrew and Greek of the 1611 Bible every day – never give a thought to the art. Or craft. Or mystery. However we categorise what literary translators do, they deserve more than anonymity and invisibility. The Freudenheim Translation Prize will enrich the unfolding dialogue between peoples, cultures, ages and subjects that translation has always, crucially, helped to convene.”

Books published in English between June 2023 and June 2025, originally written in any language other than English, are eligible. Translators, publishers, or authors may submit.

Entries for the 2026 prize have now closed. For queries related to the prize, please contact [email protected]