The Berman Literature Prize was established in 2020 through a donation by Thomas and Catharina Berman. 

Thomas Berman was born in Stockholm in 1943 and grew up in Norrköping. Catharina Berman (born Wranne) was born in 1949 and grew up in Stockholm.
After graduating from the Stockholm School of Economics, Thomas Berman began his career in the Axel Johnson Group, where chance led him to work in metal trading. Together with his wife Catharina, he has devoted his life to the international metal trade, for the last 30 years working abroad. 
Thomas och Catharina Berman live in Switzerland, having previously spent many years in Belgium. They have two sons, Jacob and Philip. In 2019, the Berman family began discussions about a donation to a literature prize dedicated to the Jewish tradition. In the spring of 2020, the Berman Literature Prize was founded and the organization, consisting of a committee and a jury, was established. 

In 2016 Thomas and Catharina Berman donated a sculpture group by Maria Miesenberger to the city of Norrköping. This donation was created to give something back to Norrköping, which has meant so much to Thomas Berman and his family. 
His maternal grandfather Mauritz Stern came impoverished to Sweden at the start of the twentieth century, and together with his brother Karl he started Sterns Fashion House in Norrköping in 1913. Selling readymade clothes and fashion garments, the company grew to become one of Norrköping’s biggest employers. Nils Berman, father of Thomas, eventually came to work in the company. Thomas Berman’s grandfather Jacob Berman also came to Sweden around 1890, where he started a new life in Malmö. 
Nils Berman studied literature and art in Lund, under scholars such as John Landquist and Ragnar Josephson. As a very active writer and critic, Nils Berman published several books, some of them in the series Bokvännens Bibliotek (The Book Lover’s Library). During his lifetime he built up one of Sweden’s largest book collections.
Catharina comes from an entrepreneurial family in Stockholm with literary interests. Her grandfather, Erik Olof Wiklund, came from a poor background in Ådalen but gained the title of docent in Latin and Greek at Uppsala University and later became a member of parliament for the Social Democrats.
The Berman family histories led to the idea of a donation, with the purpose of giving something back to Jewish culture and literature. 
The result is the Berman Literature Prize.