New Mexico Jewish Journal wins two national journalism Rockower Awards from the American Jewish Press Association, the "Jewish Pulitzers."
by Diane Joy Schmidt
With almost 1200 entries, the New Mexico Jewish Journal walked away with two Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism, the "Jewish Pulitzers," at Monday night's American Jewish Press Association banquet in Pittsburgh. And two more national awards, from the National Federation of Press Women, were just announced. These articles were published in NMJJ's first short nine months; we launched in March of 2024, during the divisive Israel-Hamas war, and solely with the community's support. We have now won 34 awards and counting from local, regional, and national press associations, giving the NMJJ recognition across the country. We are proud this baby is standing up and talking, and we could not have done it without you, our New Mexico village: our editorial committee, writers, subscribers, individual contributors and donors, Community Supporter advertisers, grantors, our non-profit fiscal sponsor, and all our readers, now growing exponentially, who contributed, supported and helped make the NMJJ our first – and only – independent, online, state-wide Jewish publication!
In Category 27C, Award for Excellence in Writing about Antisemitism, Web-based Outlets, Ron Duncan Hart, Director of the Institute for Tolerance Studies in Santa Fe, was awarded for his essay "Jews and Christian Nationalism," that details his new book Evangelicals and MAGA: The politics of grievance a half century in the making. While some readers objected violently to our publishing this story in June, 2024, one going so far as to physically assault the publisher and send threatening emails to both publisher and author, and a talk Hart was to give about it in Albuquerque was summarily canceled by an organization, clearly recent events have borne out the importance of the subject and the influence of evangelicals in the White House.
This is the third award Hart's essay has won, the others were from the Society of Professional Journalists and NM Press Women, and the striking graphic art photo "Bandera" by Gloria Abella Ballen was similarly awarded. Hart's Rockower award was received in very good company with two other online publications: The Forward and The Shalom Hartman Institute, in Category 27C, Antisemitism.
Our youngest contributor, Nicole Osbourne, won a 2nd place for "The life of a Jewish student on campus: Persisting despite the fear" in Category 40C, Award for Excellence in Writing about the War in Israel: Schools and Universities, Web-based Outlets. The essay, a heartfelt first-person account of what it has been like to be the object of antisemitism on the UNM campus, is a profile in courage itself.
The Rockower judge commented about Osbourne's piece: Written simply and clearly, this powerful story packs a punch with its quiet, telling details that lay out a personal and heartbreaking story of a major issue of our times.
The other two publications recognized in this category were seasoned journalists at The Forward (1st place) and the Canadian Jewish News (HM). Osbourne, a University of New Mexico rising junior and Hillel member, is now also the NMJJ's first summer intern, one of only 11 interns to be selected by the NM Local News Fellows and Interns program that are placed in newsrooms around the state.
All of the 44th Annual Rockower award-winning articles, published across the USA and Canada, can be read at www.ajpa.org, under the tab: Rockower Awards.
JULY Update: Two more national awards, from the National Federation of Press Women were just announced for "The Fifth Question" by Diane Joy Schmidt and for "Hidden in Plain Sight, The Old Jewish Cemetery on the Lido, one of the many islands of Venice, Italy" by Lena Keslin, which was also just republished by the journal of the international Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies, HaLapid.
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Where the North Ends, A Novel by Hugo Moreno
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