The winners of the 2004 National Jewish Book Awards were announced yesterday. Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, was awarded the prize for Jewish Book of the Year for his “American Judaism” (Yale University Press). “The wealth of detail in Mr. Sarna’s study,” wrote Adam Kirsch in the New York Sun’s review of the book, “and its skillful interweaving of demographic and anecdotal history make it valuable as a blueprint – a two-dimensional map to the three-dimensional structure of American Judaism.”

In the visual arts, the winner was Frederic Brenner for “Diaspora: Homelands in Exile” (HarperCollins). The Gerrard and Ella Berman Award for History went to Stephen Oney for “And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank” (Pantheon). In addition, Christopher R. Browning won in the Holocaust category for “The Origins of the Final Solution”(University of Nebraska Press).

Due to ongoing deliberation by the judges, many of whom are in Florida, where communication has been impeded by recent tropical storms, the winner of the fiction award had not yet been decided.

In the category of Scholarship, the award went to the editors of “The Jewish Study Bible” (Oxford University Press), Marc Brettler, and Adele Berlin. The winner of the Barbara Dobkin Award in Women’s Studies was Hannah Naveh for her book “Gender and Israeli Society: Women’s Times: New Studies from Israel”(Vallentine Mitchell). In the category of Modern Jewish Thought And Experience, Daniel C. Matt won for “The Zohar: Pritzker edition, Vol. 1” (Stanford University Press). The Education winner was Barry Holtz for “Textual Knowledge: Teaching the Bible in Theory and in Practice” (Jewish Theological Seminary).The winner of the Contemporary Jewish Life and Practices award was Sherri Mandell for “the Blessing of a Broken Heart”(Toby Press).

Finally, in the literary categories, the winner for Anthologies and Collections were Ruth Pearl and Judea Pearl, editors of “I am Jewish” (Jewish Lights). The award for Children and Young Adult Literature goes to Eric Kimmel for “Wonders and Miracles” (Scholastic). Lastly, the winner of the Louis Posner Memorial Award for an Illustrated Children’s Book is “Luba, the Angel of Bergen-Belsen” (Tricycle Press) by Luba Tryszynska-Frederick as told to Michelle R. McCann.

Administered by the Jewish Book Council, the literary arm of the American Jewish community, the National Jewish Book Award is the most prestigious and oldest of its kind. Its 54th annual awards ceremony, which will take place on Wednesday, December 1, at the Center for Jewish History at 15 West 16th Street at 7:30 p.m., is free and open to the public.