Today the Jewish Book Council announced that Gal Beckerman was awarded the 2012 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for his first book, When They Come for Us We’ll Be Gone (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), about the struggle to save Soviet Jews. The $100,000 prize, which has been given annually since 2007, is one of the largest literary prizes in the world and recognizes the role of emerging writers in examining the Jewish experience. Beckerman’s book also received the Jewish Book Council’s 2010 National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Book of the Year. Abigail Green’s biography, Moses Montefiore (Belknap Press/HUP), received the runner up prize of $25,000. Both she and Beckerman will be honored at a ceremony in Jerusalem in April.