Matti Friedman's first book, The Aleppo Codex, won the Sami Rohr Prize, the American Library Association's Sophie Brody Medal, and the Canadian Jewish Book Award. It was selected as one of Booklist's top ten religion and spirituality titles in 2013 and received second place for the Religion Newswriters Association's 2013 nonfiction religion book of the year. The book was published in Israel, Australia, Holland, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, and South Korea. Friedman has worked as a correspondent in the Jerusalem bureau of the Associated Press news agency, where he specialized in religion and archaeology, and reported from Lebanon to Morocco, Cairo, Moscow, and Washington, D.C., as well as Israel, the Palestinian territories, and the Caucasus. In addition to the AP, his work has appeared in the Atlantic and the New York Times, among other publications. Friedman grew up in Toronto, moved to Israel as a teenager, and served three years in the Israeli military. Today he lives in Jerusalem, Israel with his wife and three children. He lectures frequently in Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States.