For the seventh year in a row, JNS.org earned Rockower Awards from the American Jewish Press Association, which the AJPA handed out at its 44th annual journalism contest and conference held from June 22-24 in Pittsburgh, Pa. One panel during the proceedings included survivors of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of the city on Oct. 27, 2018, the most deadly antisemitic attack in U.S. history.
The awards recognize work published in 2024.
JNS won 10 awards in categories that ran the gamut—from opinion and politics to seniors and obits.
Senior contributing writer Ruthie Blum won first place in the category of the Louis Rapaport Award for Excellence in Commentary for “Heroes in flip-flops,” “Tel Aviv tales of terror and toenails” and “Poetic justice for the Satan of Oct. 7.”
Columnist Ben Cohen got an honorable mention in the category of Excellence in Single Commentary for “What would Matt Baldacci do? The collaborator mentality returns.”
News and features writer Amelie Botbol earned second place for Excellence in Writing About the War in Israel: Personality Profile for her story, “A Canadian mother mourns her son, murdered on Oct. 7.”
News writer Izzy Salant received an honorable mention in the category of Excellence in Writing About Sports for his story, “They survived Oct. 7 … now they’re playing basketball in Los Angeles.”
News and features writer Etgar Lefkovits received an honorable mention for Excellence in Writing About the War in Israel: Personality Profile for his story, “Be’eri farmer who lost his wife, son and leg on Oct. 7 returns to his fields.”
Freelance photographer Rina Castelnuovo received an honorable mention in the category of Excellence in Photography for images that accompanied news and features writer Etgar Lefkovits’s story, “Ex-commando turned Chassid bridges secular-religious divide.”
Freelancer writer Karmel Melamed received an honorable mention in the category of Excellence in Writing about Politics/Government for his story, “Iranian-American voters remain divided on Harris and Trump, community leaders say.”
U.S. news editor Menachem Wecker won first place in the category of Excellence in News Obituaries for “Mark Podwal, doctor and artist whose witty drawings bear weight of Jewish history, dies at 79.” He also received an honorable mention in the category of Excellence in Writing About Jewish Thought and Life for “‘Strange turn of events made me do it,’ rabbis say of penning Oct. 7 prayers for Tisha B’Av.” He also won an Award of Excellence from the Religion Communicators Council for the JNS story “With 275 years of ghosts, Charleston’s Jewish leaders bullish on its future.”
U.S. managing editor Carin M. Smilk received an honorable mention in the category of Excellence in Writing About Seniors for her story, “These women bare all for a good cause.” She also won first place in the annual journalism competition sponsored by the Pennsylvania Press Club, an affiliate of the National Federation of Press Women, in the online news category for “Fast but painful year, says Israel supporter at Oct. 7 memorial in Philadelphia.”
Aaron Bandler, who recently joined JNS as its national correspondent, won a Rockower Award for Excellence in Personality Profiles for his piece titled “Xaviaer DuRousseau: The black Christian Zionist, former BLM activist fighting for Israel and the Jews” while working for the Jewish Journal of Greater LA. He earned second place in the LA Press Club Southern California Journalism Awards for print journalist of the year, second place for investigative reporting and third place in the A-Mark Prize for Reporting on Misinformation and Disinformation for a series on Wikipedia.
JNS news writer Izzy Salant won second place in sports reporting in the same Los Angeles competition, also for his story, “They survived Oct. 7 … now they’re playing basketball in Los Angeles.”
Since 2019, JNS has won 52 Rockower Awards.