Debut novelist wins 2025 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish literature

Ukrainian-American author Sasha Vasilyuk has been named the 2025 winner of the prestigious Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for her debut novel Your Presence Is Mandatory.

The $100,000 award, one of the most significant literary honours in the Jewish world, is presented in partnership with the National Library of Israel.

Published by Bloomsbury, Vasilyuk’s novel draws on her own family history to explore the interwoven themes of war, silence, and moral complexity within Jewish life in the Soviet Union and modern Ukraine. “I wrote this novel to honor voices nearly lost to silence and am immensely grateful and humbled that the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature is paying tribute to this complicated history and the people who lived it,” said Vasilyuk.

The annual prize recognises emerging writers whose work explores the rich tapestry of Jewish experience. In a statement, George Rohr, whose family established the prize in honour of Sami Rohr, emphasised its timely resonance: “As Jewish communities worldwide face renewed threats and dangerous distortions, it is especially meaningful to recognize writers who confront these challenges with honesty, depth and imagination.”

Debra Goldberg, Director of the Sami Rohr Prize, praised the winning novel’s narrative reach: “Sasha Vasilyuk’s remarkable achievement lies in her ability to weave the personal and historical into a narrative that speaks across generations. The diverse voices of this year’s winner and finalists celebrate the vibrant future of Jewish literature.”

This year’s finalists include:

• Toby Lloyd, Fervor (Avid Reader Press): A haunting, genre-defying portrayal of a British Jewish family navigating faith, mysticism, and generational fracture.

• Benjamin Resnick, Next Stop (Avid Reader Press): A speculative novel imagining a post-Israel world shaken by loss and a crisis of Jewish identity.

• Janice Weizman, Our Little Histories (Toby Press): A sweeping, reverse-chronological exploration of one Jewish family’s journey from 19th-century Belarus to the modern day.

Vasilyuk and the finalists will be honoured in July at a ceremony held at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem.