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Forward wins 12 first-place prizes at 41st Annual AJPA Simon Rockower Awards

The Forward won 43 Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism — a new record

This post is a news release from the Forward’s communications department. Read past announcements here.

The Forward won 43 Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism at the 41st American Jewish Press Association’s annual ceremony for work published in 2021.

This is a new record for the Forward, following last year’s 34 wins.

The awards — 12 first places, 17 second places and 14 honorable mentions, with sweeps in several categories — were announced on June 27 during the AJPA annual conference in Atlanta after two years of virtual ceremonies because of the pandemic.

Sometimes referred to as the “Jewish Pulitzers,” the awards were created in 1979 by the Rockower family to honor Simon Rockower and his deep love for Jewish journalism.

In two of the contest’s new categories, Writing about Antisemitism and Writing About Climate Change/Environmentalism, the Forward took three awards: “Antisemitism rises among Hispanic Miami’s right wing” by Jordan Levin (second place), a pair of columns by our opinion editor, Laura E. Adkins (honorable mention): “How to lie with statistics, antisemitism edition,” and “Our hate crime reporting system is broken,” as well as “Climate change tops agenda in Hazon-Pearlstone merger” by Sharon Rosen Leib (honorable mention).

Here is a list of our first-place wins:

The Boris Smolar Award for Excellence in Enterprise or Investigative Reporting

Excellence in Deadline/Breaking News Reporting

Excellence in Personal Essay

Excellence in Feature Writing

Journalistic Excellence in Covering Zionism, Aliyah and Israel

Excellence in Writing About Women

Excellence in Interfaith Relations Reporting

Excellence in Writing About Sports

Excellence in Writing About Seniors

Excellence in Business Reporting — Trends

General Excellence — Best Freelancer

Award for Excellence in Arts — Review/Criticism (movie, theater, television, books, music, etc.)

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

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