About six months after canceling dozens of long-running cultural awards, Israel's Culture Ministry says it will resume the prizes in an expanded format. The move, reported Monday, June 22, 2026, includes restoring the traditional awards while adding new categories for artists from the periphery and for works dealing with Eastern heritage. Ministry sources say the budget has been increased, and the new prizes will be granted in addition to the existing ones.
The expanded 2026 package revives the full slate of awards that were cut this year, including the Levi Eshkol Prize for writers and poets, the Arik Einstein Prize for veteran artists, the Frank Peleg Lifetime Achievement Prize for a singer or conductor, the Prime Minister's Prize for composers, awards for emerging writers and poets, classical music prizes, and a jazz prize.
According to the ministry, the reform is meant to recognize creators from Israel's periphery, graduates of boarding schools and youth villages, new immigrants, Eastern music, and works connected to Jewish-Israeli heritage, tradition, and identity. New calls for applications are expected soon across multiple fields, including literature, music, jazz, dance, interdisciplinary art, visual arts, and cinema.
The cancellation of about 60 prizes, worth roughly 5 million shekels, had drawn strong anger from the cultural sector. Hundreds of writers, poets, and artists appealed to the ministry's legal adviser and questioned the legality of the move. Minister Miki Zohar said at the time the cuts were due to what he called a clear disregard for artists whose views reflect those held by most of the public, and he halted funding until a professional committee could distribute prizes to creators from all parts of society. Ministry officials now say the process will be rolled out in stages, with the allocation mechanism and judging method still under review. In literature, the Board of Trustees will continue selecting the judges who award the prizes.
