This timely history of religion in public schools examines a flashpoint that sparked a citywide boycott, a legal battle, and an antisemitic backlash.
AUSTIN, TX, UNITED STATES, February 24, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Reader Views announces “The Great Christmas Boycott of 1906: Antisemitism and the Battle Over Christianity in the Public Schools” by Scott D. Seligman as one of the overall grand prize winners in non-fiction. Seligman’s book takes home the silver award, an award honored with a cash prize and special marketing promotions.
Set in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century, Seligman’s book traces the events that followed a December 1905 school assembly in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in which religious readings and the principal’s remarks to students ignited public outrage and demands for clear boundaries in taxpayer-funded classrooms. As the dispute escalated, Jewish parents organized a widespread boycott of the 1906 school Christmas pageants, pushing the Board of Education to restrict sectarian content. The resulting backlash, intensified by media coverage and antisemitic rhetoric, exposed how quickly debates over school traditions can become battles over identity, power, and belonging, a tension that continues in modern conflicts over religious expression in public schools.
Reader Views reviewer Joan Kirschner wrote, “The writing is scholarly, clear, and compelling. At a time of heavily reported incidents of increasing antisemitism, and deep schisms in our political landscape that concern the religious practice of many groups, Seligman’s well-documented book is highly pertinent.”
“This is a real honor,” Seligman said, “because I know from experience that Reader Views has many high-quality books from which to choose every year. I’m flattered and very grateful to be recognized.”
The Great Christmas Boycott of 1906 (ISBN: 978-1640126541 | Potomac Books, University of Nebraska Press | November 2025) is available at Amazon and online bookstores everywhere.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Scott D. Seligman is a national award-winning author of narrative non-fiction with a special interest in the history and biography of hyphenated Americans. He holds an undergraduate degree in American history from Princeton University and a master’s degree from Harvard University.
Fluent in Mandarin, he lived in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China for eight years and reads and writes Chinese. He has worked as a legislative assistant to a member of the U.S. Congress, lobbied the Chinese government on behalf of American business, managed a multinational public relations agency in Beijing, served as spokesperson and communications director of a Fortune 50 company and taught English in Taiwan and Chinese in Washington, DC.
He is the author of twelve books, including “The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots that Shook New York City,” which won gold medals in the 2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards and the 2020-21 Reader Views Literary Awards; “The Third Degree: The Triple Murder that Shook Washington and Changed American Criminal Justice,” which won a gold medal in the 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards and “The First Chinese American: The Remarkable Life of Wong Chin Foo.” He is also co-author of the best-selling “Cultural Revolution Cookbook” and “Now You’re Talking Mandarin Chinese.”
He has published articles in Smithsonian magazine, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Seattle Times, The Hill, the Asian Wall Street Journal, the China Business Review, Tablet Magazine, The Forward, New York Jewish Week, China Heritage Quarterly, The Cleaver Quarterly, Bucknell Magazine, Howard Magazine, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center blog, the New York History blog, the Granite Studio blog and Traces, the Journal of the Indiana Historical Society. He has also created several websites on historical and genealogical topics. He lives in Washington, DC. Learn more about Scott Seligman and his work at https://www.seligmanonline.com/
ABOUT THE AWARDS PROGRAM
Founded in 2005, the Reader Views Literary Awards honor excellence in independent publishing. Our program recognizes authors who self-publish or publish through small presses, hybrids, or university presses. Today, the awards operate in two seasonal tracks for Fiction and Non-Fiction, spotlighting impactful indie books across all genres and topics, and celebrating both new and established voices within the literary community. Top honors include cash prizes totaling $3,000. Learn more at http://www.readerviews.com/.
Sheri Hoyte
Reader Views
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