Minister of Education Naftali Bennet announced on Sunday this year's winners of the Education Minister's Prize for Jewish Culture in the field of literature: Haim Sabato and Sarah Friedland. The committee responsible for electing the winners wrote of Sabato: "His work [...] reveals the world of the Sephardic traditions of Torah - in which sharpness and simplicity are contained as one, a love of the land coupled with the difficulties of aliyah [immigration to Israel] and absorption, and the voice of a student of Torah - inside a tank on the battlefield." Regarding Friedland, the committee wrote: "The poetess Sarah Friedland ben Arzah gives the Hebrew reader an exciting mixture of deep Hasidic tradition, modern thought and poetic language that seeks to express her unique voice as a woman, a wife, a mother, an integral part of the chain of the generations." The Minister of Education's Prize for Jewish Culture is awarded every year in the fields of theater, film, music, dance, literature and poetry. The prizes are meant to acknowledge new creators in Jewish culture. In addition, a prize for lifetime achievement in the field of Jewish culture is awarded.
