Imber wins prestigious book prize

Elizabeth Imber, associate professor of history and the Michael and Lisa Leffell Chair in Modern Jewish History, has been awarded the JCD-Herbert Katzki award from the Jewish Book Council for Uncertain Empire: Jews, Nationalism, and the Fate of British Imperialism. She will receive the award at the 75th National Jewish Book Awards on March 25 in New York City.

Tje JCD-Herbert Katzki Award recognizes outstanding English-language books of modern Jewish history that rely heavily on archival research. Established by the JDC (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee), this award honors works that exhibit in-depth, scholarly use of primary sources.

Imber’s scholarship examines the cultural and political dimensions and intersections of Jewish history and European imperial history in the 19th and 20th centuries. Uncertain Empire, her first book (Stanford University Press, 2025), explores the multifaceted nature of Jewish politics in the British Empire during the rise of anticolonial national and transnational political movements. 

The Jew­ish Book Coun­cil, found­ed in 1943, is the longest-run­ning orga­ni­za­tion devot­ed exclu­sive­ly to the sup­port and cel­e­bra­tion of Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture. It has presented its book awards since 1950.