Student Prizes in Jewish and Hebrew Studies
THE PHILIP ALEXANDER PRIZE FOR UNDERGRADUATE JEWISH STUDIES
This £100 prize is awarded annually to the student with 'the highest grade in a Jewish Studies-related module or dissertation' at the University of Manchester. It honours the Centre's first co-director Philip Alexander, FBA.
2022 winner: Leela Boyton-Salts, 'Purity and Whiteness: How do American Jews Disrupt the Concept of Whiteness in the 21st Century?' (supervised by Alex Samely)
2021 joint winners: Ellie Birket for a dissertation on 'Voices of the past: narrating Red Army rape in post-war Eastern Europe' (supervised by Ewa Ochman) and Philippa Dennis for a dissertation on 'Is consent implied in the biblical narration of the sexual encounters of Bathsheba, Tamar and Dinah?' (supervised by Alex Samely)
2020 winner: Sarah Adams, 'The Halakhic Question: Defining Jewish Identity in Reform Judaism in the UK' (supervised by Katja Stuerzenhofecker)
2019 winner: Abigail Elderfield, 'To what extent does the status of infertile Jewish women in Israeli society depend on the concept of motherhood?' (supervised by Katja Stuerzenhofecker).
2018 winner: Fergus Selsdon Games, 'Soviet Nationality Policy and the Movement for Soviet-Jewish Emigration' (supervised by Ewa Ochman).
2017 winner: Samantha Calvert, 'The Changing Discourse of Holocaust Representation' (supervised by Cathy Gelbin).
2016 winner: Chloe Fullerton, 'To what extent is colonialism, through the British Mandate legislation in Palestine, still existent?' (supervised by Moshe Behar).
2015 winner: Eloise Philp, in Screening the Holocaust (taught by Cathy Gelbin).
2014 winner: Joseph Bellman, in Fundamental Debates in the Study of Israel/Palestine (taught by Moshe Behar).
2013 joint winner: Daniel Walker, 'Henry VIII and the Rabbis: What Role Did Italian Rabbis Play in Henry VIII's Great Matter and What Does This Imply for Jewish-Christian Relationships in the Period?' (supervised by Renate Smithuis).
2013 joint winner: Leo Mercer, 'Is a Nonfoundationalist Jewish Philosophy Possible? The Reparative Theology of Tamar Ross and Peter Ochs as Case-Study' (supervised by Alex Samely).
THE BLES HEBREW PRIZES
The Bles Hebrew Prizes are awarded annually for 'the encouragement of Hebrew studies' at the University of Manchester. These prizes are usually awarded for performance in the Hebrew Language course units taught by Sophie Garside and Malka Hodgson.
2018 Hebrew level 3: A prize of £200 was awarded to Rhiannon Heaven.
2018 Hebrew level 1: A prize of £100 was awarded to Madeleine Hunt.
2017 Hebrew level 3: A prize of £100 was awarded to Lawrence Rabone.
2016 Hebrew level 3: A prize of £100 was awarded to Jake Herman.
2015 Hebrew level 1: A prize of £100 was awarded to Rhiannon Heaven.
2015 Hebrew level 2: A prize of £200 was awarded to Lawrence Rabone.
2015 Hebrew level 3: A prize of £300 was awarded to Miruna-stefana Belea.
2014 Hebrew level 3: A prize of £300 was awarded to Joseph Bellman.
2014 Hebrew level 1: Prizes of £100 each were awarded to Orsolya Plesz and Lawrence Rabone.
2013 Hebrew level 2: A prize of £200 was awarded to Miruna Belea.
2013 Hebrew level 3: Prizes of £200 each were awarded to Miriam Saffer and Imogen Pickup.
2012 Prizes of £100 each were awarded to Daniel Kyle (final year), Joseph Bellman (second year), and Belea Miruna-Stefana (first year).
2011 Prizes of £100 each were awarded to Natasha Bligh and Adam Rossano.
THE BERNARD JACKSON PRIZE FOR A MASTER'S DISSERTATION IN JEWISH STUDIES
This £100 prize is awarded annually to the student with 'the highest grade for a master's dissertation in Jewish Studies' at the University of Manchester. It honours the Centre's second co-director Bernard Jackson.
2022 winner: Kerry McCall (MA in History) for a thesis on 'Negotiating Antisemitism and Philosemitism in Victorian Britain: Case studies in wider literature and the press' (supervisor: Daniel Langton)
2021 winner: Emily Warner for a thesis on 'Levinas and the Feminine Other: What is the significance of the feminine within the face-to-face encounter?’ (Supervisor: Professor Alexander Samely).
2020 jointly awarded to William Kerrs-Farmer (History) for 'Rewriting the Past: Denazification and Ernst von Salomon' (supervisor: Christian Goeschel) and to Rachel Miller (R&T) for 'Witch, Please: A Feminist and Narratological Reading of 2 Kings 9:22' (supervisor: Todd Klutz).
2019 winner: Nathan Mee (MA in Religion and Theology), 'American Cyrus: The Genealogy of Christian Zionism, and its Influence on Britain and America’s [sic] Israel Policy' (supervisor: Daniel Langton).
2018 winner: Sherry Ashworth (MA in Religions & Theology), '"So little like the people in Daniel Deronda": How reading George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda and Amy Levy’s Reuben Sachs together helps us understand both novels and the times in which they were written' (supervised by Daniel Langton).
2017 winner: Emma Berg Saavedra (MA in English Studies), 'The Price of Yiddishkait in Postwar America: Bernard Malamud's The Magic Barrel and Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus' (supervised by Fred Schurink).
2016 winner: Miruna-Stefana Belea (MA in Biblical Studies), 'Magic and Religion: Parabiblical elements on four amulets from Moses Gaster collection' (supervised by Renate Smithuis).
2015 winner: Caroline Kaye (MA Religions & Theology), 'The Wicker Man: A Trace of the Holocaust? An Analysis of The Wicker Man (1973) as a Post-War Phenomenon' (supervised by Alex Samely).
2014 winner: Emmanuele Massimi (MA Biblical Studies), 'From Personal Recollection to Cultural Memory: Clues from a Comparison of the Damascus Document/Rule of the Community/Luke Acts' (supervised by George Brooke).
2013 winner: Tereza Ward (MA Jewish Studies), 'Erasure of Memory - Children who survived the Holocaust, and their struggle for survival' (supervised by Bill Williams). This dissertation also won the 2013 Hassé Memorial Prize (see below).
THE BAJS STUDENT ESSAY PRIZES
The British & Irish Association for Jewish Studies awards the annual national BAJS Student Essay Prize in both undergraduate and postgraduate categories (£200 each). The following are winners from the University of Manchester.
2022 Undergraduate: Andras Schweiczer for a dissertation entitled 'Red, White, and Green: Three Aspects of the Debates on Zionism between 1897 and 1917' (supervisor: Alex Samely).
2021 Honourable mention: Ellie Birkett for the essay ‘Voices of the Past: Narrating Red Army Rape in Post-War Eastern Europe’ (supervised by Ewa Ochman).
2019 First place postgraduate: Hollie Eaton, for an essay entitled 'Blackguards in Bonnets: Women’s Suffrage, Religion and Interfaith Relations, 1910-1914' (supervised by Daniel Langton).
2018 First place undergraduate: Fergus Selsdon Games, 'Soviet Nationality Policy and the Movement for Soviet-Jewish Emigration' (supervised by Ewa Ochman).
2016 First place postgraduate: Miruna Belea, 'The Magical Use of Religious Texts: A Cognitive Approach to Religious and Cultural Textual Elements on an Amulet from Gaster's Collection at the John Rylands Library' (supervised by Todd Klutz).
2013 Joint first place undergraduate: Leo Mercer, 'Is a Nonfoundationalist Jewish Philosophy Possible? The Thought of Tamar Ross and Peter Ochs as a Case Study' (supervised by Alex Samely).
2013 Joint first place undergraduate: Rhian Evans, 'The Early Transmission and Interpretation of Malachi' (supervised by George Brooke).
2009 First place undergraduate: Hannah Atkinson, 'A Comparison of the Views and Assumptions of the Holocaust Theologies of Eliezer Berkovits and Paul van Buren' (supervised by Daniel Langton).
2008 Joint first place postgraduate: Simon Mayers, 'An Examination of the Judaism-Jewishness Dialectic within Jewish Studies' (supervised by Philip Alexander).
2004 Second place undergraduate: Fiona Eatwell 'Popular Conceptions of the Jew in the Medieval Period' (supervised by Daniel Langton).
OTHER PRIZES
2021 award for the Leonard Hassé Memorial Prize (£250) for highest grade for an MA dissertation in Religions & Theology, University of Manchester: Emily Warner for a thesis on 'Levinas and the Feminine Other: What is the significance of the feminine within the face-to-face encounter?’ (Supervisor: Professor Alexander Samely).
2018 award for the Brandon Memorial Prize for Comparative Religious Studies for the highest grade for an MA dissertation on Comparative Religion (£100): Lawrence Rabone, 'What does Moses Wall’s English translation of Menasseh Ben Israel’s The Hope of Israel (1650) illustrate about the existence and nature of philo-Semitism?' (supervised by Daniel Langton).
2017 award for the Leonard Hassé Memorial Prize (£250) for highest grade for an MA dissertation in Religions & Theology, University of Manchester: Rob Kanter, 'How did Anglo Jewry respond to Enoch Powell’s "Rivers of Blood" speech (1968-1979)?’ (supervised by Daniel Langton).
2014 Joint first prize (£500) for the BRISMES Graduate Article Competition: Roman Vater, 'Beyond bi-nationalism: The Young Hebrews versus the "Palestinian issue"'.
2013 Joint award for the Leonard Hassé Memorial Prize (£250) for highest grade for an MA dissertation in Religions & Theology, University of Manchester: Tereza Ward, 'Erasure of Memory - Children who survived the Holocaust, and their struggle for survival' (supervised by Bill Williams). This dissertation also won the 2013 Bernard Jackson Prize (see above).
