NM Jewish Journal Wins Two Rockower Awards for 2026, including a First Place

For the second year in a row, the New Mexico Jewish Journal, founded in 2024, has won two Rockower Awards, for articles published in 2025, presented by the American Jewish Press Association at their 46th Annual Conference in New York City on Thursday, June 4th at the Center for Jewish History. The coveted Excellence in Jewish Journalism Rockower Awards are presented to major Jewish media across North America — and to NMJJ. NMJJ has .5% of the circulation and revenue of the publications it competes with. Over 1000 entries were submitted in 40 categories.

Bobbie Greene Kilberg won first place for The Inside Story of the Return of Blue Lake to Taos Pueblo in Award for Excellence in Writing about Politics/Government. The judge wrote an unusually lengthy comment: An excellent piece by a White House fellow and then-recent Yale Law School graduate on Richard Nixon's steadfast commitment to advancing legal justice for Native Americans and returning Blue Lake to Taos Pueblo on Dec. 15, 1970. Nixon called his signing of the Return of Blue Lake Act as the start of "a new road which leads us to justice in the treatment of those who were the first Americans." After the signing ceremony, organized by author Bobbie Greene Kilberg, "Nixon turned and stared directly at me, put his hand on my shoulder and said: Young lady, that ceremony was one of the highlights of my presidency. It was exceptionally meaningful, and I only wish it could have continued even longer. I am very proud of what we did today.''

Ron Duncan Hart, Santa Fe-based Institute for Tolerance Studies director and a founding member of our editorial committee, asked Bobbie to share this story for NMJJ, and shaped the final edited draft for our readers.

We are punching above our weight. We compete in the most competitive division, both by circulation and revenue: Division C. Web-based Outlets; Digital Only, Website Only and Wire Services. Second place in the web division for Politics/Government was taken by 70 Faces Media CEO/Executive Editor Ami Eden for his piece published by the Jewish Telegraph Agency. 70 Faces Media is the largest Jewish digital publisher in North America with 6 properties. JTA alone reaches up to a million readers with its stories. In the print division, J. The Jewish News of Northern California took first and second place.

Ellen Marks won an Honorable Mention in the category of Antisemitism for "We Cannot Be Defined by the Hatred of Others," Antisemitism in New Mexico Now. Judge's Comment: The heartfelt coupled with the informational approach is well done. Ellen is a contributing writer for the NMJJ and its Spectrum series, and a veteran reporter of the Albuquerque Journal.

Once again, we have placed amongst the august: In the category of Writing about Antisemitism, The Forward took 1st place and Chabad.org took second in the web division, both with revenues over $10 million and reaching 2 to 4.5 million readers respectively. In the weekly print division, first place went to The Jewish Exponent, and in monthly magazines, to The Shalom Hartman Institute.

In 2025 New Mexico Jewish Journal won two awards for articles published in 2024 - our first year. In Writing about Antisemitism,  Ron Duncan Hart, Director of the Institute for Tolerance Studies in Santa Fe, was awarded for his essay "Jews and Christian Nationalism." Nicole Osbourne won a 2nd place for "The life of a Jewish student on campus: Persisting despite the fear" in Category 40C, Writing about the War in Israel: Schools and Universities, a "wild-cat" category that appeared only that year. Once again, these were awarded alongside The Forward, Hartman Institute and Canadian Jewish News.

In 2024, Diane Joy Schmidt, Founding Publisher and Editor of the NM Jewish Journal, won for Coyote Tosses the Stars and Why AI Can't Help Us in the Single Commentary category 2c., one of the most competitive for number of entries, as published in 2023, and chosen by Times of Israel editors as a featured essay, on her Times of Israel blog. Rockower Judge’s Comment: "While written from a Jewish perspective, this is really an essay about the fragility of spirituality and hope, and it could not be timelier."  That year The Forward took first in web, Moment Magazine in print monthly, and The Jewish Independent, Vancouver for weeklies. 2023 was the year after the NM Jewish Link folded. Schmidt has won a total of eight Rockowers, seven for the Link, where she served as senior correspondent for a decade.

The complete list of Rockower winners with links to all their articles can be read here. The best of Jewish journalism over the last two decades is archived at the site. Politics/Government is category 25, and Antisemitism is category 27.

Major awards by NMJJ writers were also won this year in secular journalism competitions: The regional Society of Professional Journalists Top of the Rockies awards, with nine awards including four first-place, and the state-wide New Mexico Press Women, with ten first places and 40 total. Apparently we know what we are doing.

Community Supporters of the NM Jewish Journal include:
Jewish Community Foundation of New Mexico
Congregation Albert
Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque
The Institute for Tolerance Studies
Jewish Federation of El Paso and Las Cruces
Temple Beth Shalom
Congregation B'nai Israel
Shabbat with Friends: Recapturing Together the Joy of Shabbat
New Mexico Jewish Historical Society

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