Beit HaYotzer at Tel Aviv Port will host the ACUM Awards ceremony on Monday, October 19, 2026. ACUM marks 90 years since its founding in 2026, while the 70th awards ceremony will recognize winners in literature, poetry and concert music.
The list of winners includes veteran creators alongside recipients of encouragement awards for new works. The three main awards will go to Shulamit Lapid, Gideon Lewensohn and Nurit Zarchi.
Lifetime Achievement Awards and the Special Prize
Shulamit Lapid will receive the Dalia Ravikovitch Lifetime Achievement Award in Literature. Over the years she has written novels, children’s and young-adult books, plays, short stories and crime fiction. Her works include “Gei Oni,” “Havat HaAlamot” and the series about journalist Lizzie Badihi.
Gideon Lewensohn will receive the Paul Ben-Haim Lifetime Achievement Award in Concert Music. Lewensohn was among the founders of the composition program at Bar-Ilan University, and the prize recognizes his contribution as a composer and educator.
Nurit Zarchi will receive a special Board of Directors award for her contribution to Hebrew culture. Zarchi has published more than 160 books spanning poetry, prose, children’s literature and essays.
Fiction, Poetry and Children’s Literature
Shoham Meidan won an encouragement award for publication of a fiction book for “Dear Passengers.” The book follows passengers on a bus from Eilat to Jerusalem, building a mosaic of different characters and groups in society.
Sarit Sari will receive an encouragement award for publication of a children’s and young-adult book for “Polite Giraffe for Sale,” a rhyming story about Sylvia the giraffe and a boy named Omri.
Amos Noy won an encouragement award for publication of a poetry book for “Sorrow Falls on the World Like a Shadow.” Rinat Schneidower won the anonymous-submission fiction award for “Tzvia Warburg,” centered on a 78-year-old former actress reconsidering aging, loneliness and freedom. Udi Sharabani won the anonymous-submission poetry award for “Shoshana Shoshana Shoshana.”
Three Awards for Concert Music
Omri Avraham will receive the Menachem Avidom Award for Achievement of the Year for “Time Passes Time.” The work was written for ensemble and incorporates original sound-production techniques, including playing strings with grooved sticks.
Sarit Shley Zondiner won the Mark Kopytman Award for an anonymously submitted work for “Poems of Jerusalem.” She set poems by Yehuda Amichai for soloist, ensembles, choir, electric guitars, electronics and video.
Sara Shoham will receive the Haim Alexander Encouragement Award for publication of a work for “Toys.” The piece is based on poems by Abraham Sutzkever, written for choir and instrumental ensemble, and performed in three languages.
Judging Committees
The literature committee included Hanna Goldberg, Yehudit Katzir and Shai Schneider-Eilat. Concert music works were judged by Prof. Betty Olivero, maestro Doron Salomon and Dr. Yair Klartag.
