NEW YORK, NY – Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, is proud to announce that Hadassah Magazine has won 13 Simon Rockower Awards, the annual prizes for excellence in Jewish journalism given out by the American Jewish Press Association (AJPA).
While the judges acknowledged the magazine’s “vividly descriptive” art reviews and insightful personal stories, they reserved most of the prizes for stories that focused on Israel in the wake of October 7 and the dramatic rise in antisemitism.
“We are so proud of the work done in 2024 by executive editor Lisa Hostein, her editorial team and the outstanding writers whose stories generated such a powerful response among readers and Rockower judges alike,” said Carol Ann Schwartz, Hadassah National President.
Said Hostein, “In one of the most heart-wrenching years in modern Jewish history, Hadassah Magazine focused heavily on the issues foremost on everyone’s mind, telling stories of those most deeply affected in post-October 7 Israel and by the surge in global antisemitism.”
Leora Eren Frucht earned first place in the category Excellence in Writing About the War in Israel: News and Feature Reporting for her story “Painful and Piercing Public Art as Therapy.” Hostein herself won second place in the same category for “Survivors Share Their Stories,” which also received an honorable mention in the category Excellence in Covering Zionism, Aliyah and Israel.
For “Ignored Until It Was Too Late,” about the tragic fate of Israel’s female observer soldiers on October 7, Maayan Hoffman won first place in the category Excellence in Writing About Women. Abby Horowitz garnered the top spot in the category Excellence in Personal Essays for both writing and illustrating “Welcome Home,” with the judges praising this unique personal essay about visiting Israel after October 7.
Two writers were recognized for stories about healthcare, a topic of particular interest to the magazine’s readers because of the Hadassah Medical Organization, Hadassah’s medical center in Jerusalem. For “A Medical Emergency,” Hilary Danailova won first place in the category Excellence in Writing About the War in Israel: Antisemitism, with the judges singling out reporting that “forcefully describes antisemitism within the medical community.”
In the category Excellence in Writing About Healthcare, Sandye Rudnitzky won second place for her autobiographical piece “One Beautiful Egg: The First Gestational Surrogacy,” about the first child born to a surrogate but conceived using the biological parents’ egg and sperm.
Hadassah Magazine also received awards for stories by these leading Jewish journalists: Abigail Pogrebin (“Let There Be Light,” which uses the Torah as a lens through which to view today’s tragedies); Sue Fishkoff (“Ramping Up – and Rethinking – Israel Education”); Uriel Heilman (“A Kibbutz in Exile”); and Robert Goldblum (“Remembrance of ‘Things’ Past,’” a review of an exhibit of the work of Israeli photographer and collage artist Ilit Azoulay).
For more information about Hadassah Magazine’s 13 Rockower Award-winning stories, please click here.