Author Shulamit Lapid wins ACUM lifetime achievement award

Renowned author Shulamit Lapid has been awarded the prestigious Dahlia Ravikovitch Prize for Lifetime Achievement, headlining the newly announced 2025/26 ACUM Prize laureates.

The announcement arrives as ACUM, the Israeli association that protects copyright, celebrates its landmark 90th anniversary.

The winners will be officially honored at the 70th ACUM Awards Ceremony on Monday, October 19, at the Creative House at Tel Aviv Port.

Shulamit Lapid honored for impact on Hebrew literature

Lapid, a beloved household name across the country, the wife of the late politician Tommy, and the mother of opposition leader Yair, is the standout name on the roster.

Best known internationally for her foundational pioneering saga Valley of Strength (translated into English via The Toby Press), Lapid revolutionized Hebrew literature.

Her work has brought female historical narratives to the forefront of a historically male-dominated field, making her a household staple for anyone exploring Middle Eastern and Jewish literature.

The selection committee, comprising prominent cultural figures Hannah Goldberg, Yehudit Katzir, and Shai Schneider Eilat, lauded her as “one of the most prominent and significant voices in contemporary Hebrew literature,” noting her profound impact on charting Israeli identity.

Gideon Lewensohn, Nurit Zarchi also recognized

Joining Lapid in the lifetime achievement category is celebrated composer and author Gideon Lewensohn, who will receive the Paul Ben-Haim Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Concert Music.

Lewensohn is a foundational figure who helped launch the composition program at Bar-Ilan University.

The committee highlighted his “dramatic imagination, rare textual sensitivity,” and a distinct personal language that bridges compositional precision with cultural memory.

The ACUM Board of Directors also announced a special award for legendary poet and writer Nurit Zarchi.

As the author of over 160 books, Zarchi is an international heavyweight in children’s and fantasy literature, having been nominated for the global Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Her avant-garde poetry, academic essays, and boundary-pushing fiction have had a profound impact on generations of Hebrew readers, and they are frequently studied globally for their linguistic innovation.

ACUM recognizes Israeli composers

The Mark Kopytman Prize was awarded to composer Sarit Shley Zondiner for “Poems of Jerusalem.” This daring avant-garde piece adapts the universally translated verse of iconic poet Yehuda Amichai.

Designed for a global audience, it fuses traditional choral arrangements with electric guitars, digital electronics, and video art.

Similarly, the Menahem Avidom Award went to Omri Avraham for “Time Passes By,” an instrumental ensemble piece earning praise for expanding the boundaries of acoustic expression by manipulating tempo and ambient, newly discovered sounds.