Unitarian Universalists for Jewish Awareness (UUJA) is seeking entries for the seventh Denny & Jerry Davidoff Sermon Award. One prize of $500 will be awarded for a sermon preached in January 2020- April 2023.  

Entrants can be UU ministerial aspirants, candidates and ordained ministers, other UU religious professionals (Religious Education Professionals, Music Directors, etc) and lay members of congregations.  

Inspired by recent events in the US, this year’s UUJA annual sermon award theme is:

The Oldest Hate

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that in 2021 incidents of Anti-Semitic violence, harassment, and vandalism was at an all-time high, with 2,717 incidents reported.  This is an average increase of seven incidents per day and a 34 percent increase of incidents year over year since the ADL began tracking  these incidents in 1979.  What can UUism do as a movement to address this issue within and outside of our association?

The award is named in honor of the late Denny & Jerry Davidoff,  early members of this group, who were instrumental in helping lift up the often overlooked Jewish presence in our religious movement. UUJA offers resources to those interested in Jewish issues, celebrations and heritage, either personally or on behalf of congregations.

Sermons need to have been delivered between January 2020- April 2023

Entries should be submitted via e-mail in Word or RTF document formats.

Please send all submissions to UUJA board member Arthur Thexton at athexton@hotmail.com. 

The deadline for submissions is May 1, 2023

Winner will be announced concurrent with the 2023 UU General Assembly, Honorable Mentions will be awarded as appropriate at that time.