The B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem has announced the winners of the 2010 Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage in Memory of Wolf and Hilda Matsdorf. This year’s winners are Anshel Pfeffer (Ha’aretz) for the print media category and television producer/director Shaul Mayzlish for two films that aired on Israel TV Channel 1. The panel also conferred a Lifetime Achievement Award on Avraham Tirosh (Ma’ariv), a Certificate of Merit on Ilan Goren (Channel 10), and a Certificate of Excellence on Shlomi Goldberg (Israel TV Channel 1).
Established in 1992, the B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism recognizes excellence in reportage on contemporary Diaspora Jewish communities and on the state of Israel-Diaspora relations. The B’nai B’rith World Center Award is widely acknowledged in the media industry as the most prestigious prize of its kind in Israeli reportage. The award was established in the belief that media can strengthen Israel-Diaspora relations and to encourage a wider quality of reportage on the Jewish Diaspora in the Israeli media.
“The award is geared at strengthening Israel-Diaspora relations by recognizing those who excelled over the past year in reporting on Jewish communities around the world and their relationship with the State of Israel” B’nai B’rith World Center Chairman Dr. Haim V. Katz noted. “This is especially important in light of trends of disaffection and distancing that have been observed in some studies.”
Pfeffer, a Ha’aretz military correspondent, won the print media award for a series of eleven articles that appeared in the paper’s English edition. Pfeffer’s submissions spanned issues pertaining to Jewish organizations, the conversion crisis, immigration from Ethiopia, and the dearth of Diaspora reportage in the Israeli media.
Mayzlish, an independent film producer and director, won the broadcast media award for two films carried by Israel TV Channel 1—“Embrace Me,” which examines the life and times of Joe Amar, and “Rabbinate in Stormy Days,” which is about first Israeli Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog.
The distinguished award panel includes: Dan Pattir, political analyst and media advisor to prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin (chairman); Prof. Yehudith Auerbach, head of the Communication and Journalism Studies Division, Bar Ilan University; Sara Frenkel, Diaspora reporter, Israel Broadcast Authority and Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2002; Shlomo Nakdimon, journalist and columnist; and Asher Weill, publisher and editor of “Ariel” The Israel Review of Arts and Letters (1981-2003). Former Tel Aviv University President Professor Itamar Rabinovich serves as president of the award enterprise.
This year an essay competition in memory of Gutman Rabinovich was held for the first time, with awards presented to outstanding essays submitted by students registered at departments of communications at any Israeli institution of higher education. Winners of the contest are Liat Cohen (Bar Ilan University) and Renen Yezersky (Sapir College).
Tirosh, a journalist for Ma’ariv for 1967 to 2002, earned the Lifetime Achievement Award. After starting as a regional reporter, Tirosh later held numerous positions at the paper including reporter on immigration, absorption, and the Jewish world—a field he continued to cover both in Israel and abroad. Tirosh was also head of Ma’ariv’s news desk, a political and parliamentary reporter, managing editor, publicist, Op-ed contributor, and ombudsman. He remains a contributor to Ma’ariv and for 14 years lectured at the Journalism and Media Department, Bar Ilan University.
Ilan Goren, Channel 10 news correspondent in Europe, received a Certificate of Merit for his film “Lost in India,” which covers the return of the Tribe of Menashe to Judaism and its immigration to Israel. In his current position at Channel 10, Goren has presented feature reports, exclusive investigations, interviews, and live feeds from Germany, Sweden, Holland, Great Britain, Poland, and other countries.
Shlomi Goldberg, head of the Jewish Heritage and Culture Department at Israel TV Channel 1, received a Certificate of Excellence for two submissions: a segment of “The Jewish Home,” a weekly program of news and reports on Jewish themes in Israel and the Diaspora, and the film “Once Jews Lived Here,” which he produced with director Zvi Salfon on the grim history of Slovakian Jewry through the eyes of a child Holocaust survivor.
The awards are made possible through donations from Prof. Daniel Schydlowsky, a member of the B’nai B’rith World Center International Board of Governors, the Matsdorf family, and the Rabinovich family.
This year’s awards will be presented in cooperation with Beit Hatfutsot—The Museum of the Jewish People.