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

At their national conference on April 20, 2024, the Religion News Association (RNA) announced the winners for the 2024 Excellence in Religion Reporting Awards.

The Forward was recognized for five awards, the most of any publication.

The Forward staff won first place for the Religion Story of the Year with a Special report: What’s it really like to be Jewish on campus right now? On the same November weekend a month into the Israel-Hamas war, 11 Forward journalists visited college campuses across the country, documenting the growing unease of Jewish students—an early indication of the widespread unrest that would develop in the subsequent six months.

Editor-in-Chief Jodi Rudoren won three of the Forward’s awards, recognized for Excellence in Religion Reporting (first place), the Supple Award for Feature Writing (second place), and Multimedia Commentary or Blog (third place). 

Among Jodi’s winning stories were two she reported during 10 days in Israel, including a profile of a couple who survived the Kfar Aza kibbutz attack, ‘People thought we were dead’: They spent 27 hours under fire from Hamas — then Netanyahu used their home for an Elon Musk photo op; and her interview with Israeli hostage family advocate, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, ‘Everybody needs to be uncomfortable’: Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s tireless campaign to bring her son home. 

Three entries from Jodi’s weekly “Looking Forward” column were honored, including Everything I thought I knew about Israel and Gaza was wrong; What Israel should actually be doing inside Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital; and her personal reflection on the loss of her father, The holy and the broken—getting up after shiva for my dad.

Jodi also won for her reporting from Tbilisi in the former Soviet republic of Georgia with ‘Make for me a sanctuary’: Amid Orthodox ire, Tbilisi women read Torah for the first time, about the first women to read Torah in Georgia’s 2,600 years of Jewish history. 

Forward Enterprise Reporter Arno Rosenfeld also was recognized for Excellence in Religion Reporting. Arno has led the Forward’s coverage of the Jewish American response to antisemitism and writes the weekly “Antisemitism Notebook” newsletter. His winning stories included an exclusive, first-ever interview with the founders of the controversial campus group in The secret history and uncertain future of Students for Justice in Palestine. 

Arno’s other winning stories included Did everyone miss an antisemitic campus murder? about the killing of a University of Arizona professor, and They survived a ‘pogrom.’ Now Palestinians in Hawara fear life will only get worse exploring the aftermath of Israeli settler violence in a West Bank village.

Since 1949, the Religion News Association has been the premier professional association for people who report on religion in the news media. Their mission is to equip journalists throughout the world with the tools and resources they need to cover religion with balance, accuracy and insight.

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Don't just read the Forward - invest in it. Make a matched gift today.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$120 $180 $360 OTHER AMOUNT