Amanda Borschel-Dan (The Times of Israel), Allison Kaplan Sommer (Haaretz) Selected as Winners; Lifetime Achievement Award to Ya’akov Ahimeir (Israel Broadcasting Authority); Idan Raichel to receive special citation

Ron Dermer, ambassador of Israel to the United States, will address the B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage on July 7. Dermer has served in Washington, D.C. since October 2013, and from 2009-2013 he served as senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Winners of the award are Amanda Borschel-Dan, the Times of Israel’s Jewish World editor and Allison Kaplan Sommer, staff writer at Haaretz. Both journalists submitted an impressive array of articles on Diaspora communities and Israel-Diaspora relations published during 2015.
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Additionally, a Lifetime Achievement Award in memory of Luis and Trudi Schydlowsky will be awarded to senior Israel Broadcasting Authority journalist Ya’akov Ahimeir, editor and presenter of the Saturday night foreign news and culture magazine show “Ro’im Olam” (Seeing the World), on Channel 1 Television. Ahimeir also appears on the Voice of Israel’s daily radio news program “HaBoker HaZeh” (This Morning).

In the course of the event a special citation for fostering Israel-Diaspora relations through the arts will be conferred upon Idan Raichel. The special citation was established by the B’nai B’rith World Center in 2014. To date, citations were conferred upon Nurit Hirsh (2014) and David D’or (2015).

The event will take place on Thursday, July 7, at 6:30 p.m. Israel time (reception and light refreshments begin at 6:00 p.m.) at Gilbert de Botton Auditorium, Konrad Adenauer Conference Center, Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Yemin Moshe, Jerusalem.

Since its establishment in 1992, the B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism has recognized excellence in reporting on contemporary Diaspora-Jewish communities and on the State of Israel-Diaspora relations in Israeli print and electronic media. The award is widely recognized as a prestigious prize in the Israeli media industry and was established to help strengthen the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. It also highlights the important contributions the media can make toward strengthening the relationship between Israel and world Jewry—so essential for the resilience of both—by encouraging quality reporting on Diaspora communities and Israel-Diaspora relations. 

The distinguished members of the award jury are: Asher Weill, chair, publisher and editor of ARIEL- The Israel Review of Arts and Letters from 1981-2003; Yehudith Auerbach, professor in the School of Communication at Bar Ilan University; Gabriela Shalev, former Israel ambassador to the United Nations and professor at Ono Academic College; Bambi Sheleg, founder of Eretz Acheret, a staff member at Mandel School for Educational Leadership and a 2011 award winner; Shalom Kital, former general director for News Company, Channel 2; and Eytan Bentsur, former Ministry of Foreign Affairs director general.

The B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism is named for the late Wolf Matsdorf and his wife Hilda. Wolf was an editor of the B’nai B’rith World Center Journal “Leadership Briefing” and a journalist in Israel and Australia. Hilda was a pioneer in social work in both Australia and Israel.

The award is made possible through donations from Daniel Schydlowsky, a professor and a member of the B’nai B’rith World Center International Board of Governors (Lima, Peru and Washington D.C.), and the Matsdorf family. 

For further information:
Golan Yossifon, spokesperson 052–5625135, Alan Schneider, director, B’nai B’rith World Center, tel. 02-6251743, fax. 02-6258097; 052-5536-441; aschneider@bnaibrith.org