Genesis Prize

The Genesis Prize is an annual award founded in 2013 intended to honor Jewish people around the world whose work has improved life for Jews and humankind as a whole. Prize organizers hoped that the award would celebrate the diversity as well as the shared values and faith of Jewish people and help create bonds between Jews in their ancestral homeland of Israel and Jews living in many other parts of the world. The Genesis Prize Foundation has honored businesspeople, philanthropists, actors, musicians, and artists. In 2018, it awarded its inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award to American jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Foundation also awards grants to organizations committed to social causes such as gender equality and assisting displaced people.

Background

The Jewish people trace their roots to an ancestral homeland roughly corresponding to the modern-day nation of Israel and neighboring regions. Beginning in ancient times, conquering forces displaced many people from this region, forcing them to move to and settle in foreign lands. This displacement increased during the period of the Roman Empire, when Roman leaders defeated and dominated Jewish populations and national aspirations in the land of Israel.

After the destruction wrought by the Romans, a steadily increasing number of Jewish people left their original homeland in search of new lives in areas extending from the Mediterranean through many parts of Europe. This marked an early stage of a phenomenon known to scholars as the Jewish diaspora, a term that refers to the dispersion of Jews through new lands and has since been applied to other groups in a state of often-forced migration.

The legacy of diaspora, along with centuries of prejudice against the Jewish people that pushed millions from their homes, led to an ongoing and increasingly wide dispersion. Of the world's nearly 16 million Jews, most live in the United States and Israel. Other notable Jewish communities can be found in France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Argentina, and Russia. Before the persecution of Jews by the Nazi party during the 1930s and 1940s, Germany, Poland, and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe were large Jewish population hubs.

By the twenty-first century, centuries of diaspora had established Jewish communities in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. Many of these communities held on to their Jewish faiths and traditions, and maintained some communication with Israel. However, the geographic divide, often exceeding thousands of miles, has created a degree of detachment between the Jews of Israel and Jews of the diaspora. Many Jewish traditionalists have looked upon this situation with concern and called for ways to strengthen the bond between these physically separated people.

Overview

In 2013, the Genesis Prize Foundation, a group promoting a united worldwide Jewish community, founded the Genesis Prize. This annual prize awards $1 million to a laureate, a Jewish person who uses their talents to improve the world at large as well as the standing of the Jewish faith and culture. The Foundation intended this prize to help foster pride among, and strengthen the identity of, Jewish people both in Israel and abroad.

The Genesis Prize Foundation seeks candidates from a variety of professions whose work reflects the great diversity and geographic span of Judaism paired with its unification through shared values, history, and support for a Jewish state in Israel. Nominees must demonstrate significant success in their fields, as well as concern for the state of humanity, that has earned them respect and renown and would make them prime role models for Jews.

Prize organizers choose the laureate each year through a process of nomination by a panel of global leaders in business, education, science, and art, along with Jewish religious leaders and organizations. The Genesis Selection Committee narrows down the assembled nominees through careful evaluations and reports its recommendations to the Prize Committee. The Prize Committee then examines a short list of prestigious nominees and makes a final determination.

The winner is declared the annual laureate, presented with the prize money, and celebrated during a gala ceremony. The ceremony is generally accompanied by several days of speeches, workshops, classes, and discussions meant to address critical issues in modern Judaism, such as threats to Israel and anti-Semitism. Another pressing point of discussion that arose in the 2010s is Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), a policy among some Palestinians aimed at promoting economic restrictions on Israel.

Since its inception, the Genesis Prize has made a number of impacts on Jewish and Gentile communities. Some of these impacts occur through special grants made by the Genesis Prize Foundation and various philanthropic organizations in addition to the annual Genesis Prize laureate award. One of the main aims of these grants is to promote gender equality, mainly through women's empowerment. In 2018, the Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality grant program awarded thirty-seven Israeli organizations grants of $1 million each to help women in the workplace; promote equitable conditions in marriages and divorces; protect women of minority groups, including Arabs, Africans, Bedouin, and LGBTQIA+ women in Israel; and reduce violence against women.

In addition, Genesis Prize functions have addressed the concerns of the global refugee crisis. The Foundation awarded grants to organizations, including the International Rescue Committee, which helps to provide clean water and up-to-date information to refugees; Help Refugees, an organization improving refugee camps in Greece and France; and Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees, which sends medical equipment and other necessities to displaced people. The Foundation also funds a competition for young entrepreneurs whose work may help solve pressing modern problems.

The Genesis Prize remains the most visible sign of the Genesis Prize Foundation, and it has been awarded to some of the world's most notable Jewish people. Past laureates include businessperson and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg (2014), actor and producer Michael Douglas (2015), musician Itzhak Perlman (2016), artist Anish Kapoor (2017), and actor Natalie Portman (2018). However, due to political reasons, Portman did not attend the ceremony. She pledged to donate the prize money to charities that support women's equality, education, and health.

In 2019, American businessperson and sports team owner Robert Kraft won the Laureate Award despite some controversy. Kraft responded by announcing the establishment of a new foundation that would fight online anti-Semitism. Other winners include human rights advocate Natan Sharansky (2020), filmmaker and philanthropist Steven Spielberg (2021), Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla (2022), and singer, actor, and director Barbra Streisand (2024).

In 2018, the Genesis Prize Foundation debuted the Genesis Lifetime Achievement Award, which was inaugurally awarded to US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In 2021, the former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, Lord Jonathan Sacks, received the Genesis Lifetime Achievement Award after his death in honor of his commitment to teaching Jewish values and promoting inter-faith communication across cultures.

Bibliography

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“Ancient Jewish History: The Diaspora.” Jewish Virtual Library/American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-diaspora. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

“Award Ceremony 2019.” Genesis Prize Foundation, www.genesisprize.org/award-ceremony/2019. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

Dolsten, Josefin. “Genesis Prize Stands behind Robert Kraft despite Prostitution Charges.” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 28 Feb. 2019, www.jta.org/2019/02/28/united-states/genesis-prize-stands-behind-robert-kraft-despite-prostitution-charges. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

The Genesis Prize Foundation, 2024, www.genesisprize.org. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

Heller, Aron. “Patriots Owner Kraft Pledges $20 Million to Battle Anti-Semitism, BDS.” The Times of Israel, 21 June 2019, www.timesofisrael.com/patriots-owner-kraft-pledges-20-million-to-battle-anti-semitism-bds.Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

"Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Honored in London with Posthumous Genesis Lifetime Achievement Award by the President of Israel." The Genesis Prize Foundation, 22 Nov. 2021, www.genesisprize.org/press-center/2021-11-22-rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks-honored-in-london-with-posthumous-genesis-lifetime-achievement-award-by-the-president-of-israel. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

“Vital Statistics: Jewish Population of the World (1882–Present).” Jewish Virtual Library/American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-of-the-world. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

White, L. Michael. “The Jewish Diaspora.” PBS.org, Apr. 1998, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/diaspora.html. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.