Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan by Rafael Medoff was awarded First Place in the Personality Profiles category in the 2015 AJPA Rockower Awards. (Photo courtesy of Professor Meir Bar-Ilan, grandson of Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan.)
Jewish Action, the quarterly magazine of the Orthodox Union, was awarded First Place in the category, The David Frank Award for Excellence in Personality Profiles, in the Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism competition for work produced in 2014 by Jewish publications. The Awards, now in their 34th year, are presented by the American Jewish Press Association (AJPA), which includes the Orthodox Union in its membership. This is the fourth year in which Jewish Action has participated in the Rockower Awards competition, and it has been honored in each of the four.
The award was for the piece, Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan: Forgotten Pioneer of Jewish Activism, by Rafael Medoff from the Fall 2014 issue.
Mr. Medoff, founding director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in Washington , D.C., wrote, “In 1943, at a time when no organized Jewish lobby in Washington existed, Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan (Berlin), undertook an extraordinary one-man lobbying mission to Capitol Hill in an attempt to save European Jewry.” Rabbi Bar-Ilan was one of the founding fathers of the Religious Zionist movement.
Gerald M. Schreck, chairman of the Jewish Action Committee, said, “At a time when many popular secular magazines are losing readership, it’s gratifying to know that Jewish Action is gaining new friends and is being recognized by professionals as a first-class media product. I’m exceptionally proud of our talented editor, Nechama Carmel and her able assistant Rashel Zywica. Rounding out our team is an editorial board that mirrors our intelligent readership and consistently provides incisive input.”
Mayer Fertig, OU chief communications officer, declared, “It is a point of enormous pride for the Orthodox Union to be the publisher of Jewish Action. It is well-written and well-edited; with one of the largest circulations in Jewish media anywhere; able to simultaneously inform and entertain; to candidly cover our community’s most sensitive subjects; and to proudly wave the flag of the OU without being mistaken for a ‘house organ.’ It’s a remarkable publication.”
In addition to Mr. Schreck and Mr. Fertig, the Jewish Action Editorial Committee includes Rabbi David Bashevkin, Rabbi Binyamin Ehrenkranz, Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer, David Olivestone, Rabbi Gil Student and Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb.
For more information about Jewish Action, to advertise or to subscribe, go to https://www.ou.org/jewish_action/.