The Times Of Israel Editor-In-Chief David Horovitz Delivers The Keynote Address:

“My Dramatic Visit To Syria: Surreal Or Harbinger Of Change?”

Award Winners: Zev Stub (The Times of Israel) and Tamar Ish Shalom (Jewish Crossroads–JPPI)

Lifetime Achievement Award: Oren Nahari (Kan Reshet Bet)

Special Citation for Fostering Israel-Diaspora Relations through the Arts:

Hanan Yovel

The B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem presented on June 18 its 34th annual award for Excellence in Diaspora Reportage to Zev Stub, Jewish world reporter for The Times of Israel, and to Tamar Ish Shalom for her “Jewish Crossroads” podcast.

At the event, a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Oren Nahari, anchor and editor of “Shabbat with Oren Nahari” on Kan Reshet Bet radio and foreign news editor from 1985 to 2016 at the Israel Broadcasting Authority. Nahari is a prominent Israeli journalist, foreign news commentator and author with over 35 years of experience in public broadcasting. He is widely recognized for his deep expertise in world politics, history and international relations.

A Special Citation for Fostering Israel-Diaspora Relations through the Arts in Memory of Naomi Shemer was also presented to well-known Israeli singer and composer Hanan Yovel. The citation, established in 2014, has been presented previously to singer and songwriter Nurit Hirsh (2014), David D’Or (2015), Idan Raichel (2016), David Broza (2017), Yehoram Gaon (2019), Shalva Band (2020), Danny Sanderson (2021), Shuli Natan (2022), Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (2023), Ilanit (2024) and Effi Netzer (2025).

David Horovitz, editor-in-chief of The Times of Israel, delivered the keynote address entitled “My Dramatic Visit to Syria: Surreal or Harbinger of Change?”

Zev Stub

Zev Stub, who received the award in the written media category, was recognized for a series of articles on Jewish communities in France and Canada, immigration to Israel, the Birthright program and on Israeli and Jewish academia. In his acceptance speech, Stub noted that since the Oct. 7,2023, Hamas terrorist attack, anti-Semitism has continued to metastasize throughout the world, noting that 2025 was the deadliest year for Jews in decades. “Although Jews in many countries no longer feel secure, I am heartened by Jews building Jewish life around the world and by Jews who declare they will not be silenced or intimidated. Israel remains (what is this word?) at the heart of our common Jewish story. The shared sense of peoplehood remains the source of hope for the future. And our people will continue to channel the wisdom of our ancient heritage to create a better world for tomorrow.”

Stub has been The Times of Israel’s diaspora reporter since November 2024. He has also written for The Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Tablet. Previously, he founded and ran Janglo.net, which was the largest online community for English speakers in Israel. Stub made Aliyah from Chicago and graduated in 2000 from Yeshiva University in New York with a degree in business.

 Tamar Ish Shalom

Tamar Ish Shalom received the award in the broadcast media category for her Jewish People Policy Institute podcast, “Jewish Crossroads”, which examines the effects of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre on U.S. Jewry and its attitudes toward Israel. The award was previously conferred on Ish Shalom in 2008, making her one of only two journalists to have received the award twice. Speaking from abroad in a recorded video message, Ish Shalom told the audience that she had learned from interviewing dozens of prominent Israelis and American Jews on “Jewish Crossroads” that opportunities for meaningful dialogue between the two communities— “uncomfortable conversations” that could lead to greater understanding—were lacking. “Only if we leave our comfort zone can we create true deep ties.” She warned against both the idealization and demonization of Israel by American Jews, arguing that the idealized image of Israel was inaccurate and too easy for Israel-bashers to puncture, leaving erstwhile supporters bewildered and devoid of the ability to effectively respond when confronted in high school or college with Israel’s failures and foibles. “We should not be afraid of open and frank conversations, and it is our responsibility as Israelis to develop new creative platforms for connection, mutual processing and intimate conversation between far-away brothers. I believe this is critical for our existence in Israel and for the future of American Jewry.”

Oren Nahari

Oren Nahari: “A lifetime achievement award is not something you wait for; it arrives and catches you by surprise, and I am very grateful to B’nai B’rith for this. A lifetime achievement award is also meant to invite introspection. When I entered the field of foreign news back in 1985, it consisted mainly of coups and earthquakes, even when we received the footage a few days late. My heart, and I dare say the hearts of many of my colleagues, was somewhat indifferent to this subject called ‘the Jewish people.’ It seemed like an outdated topic, a topic that didn’t belong to the Israel of today. But with time, I understood the depth, the importance and the interest within the Jewish people as a media story, and not just as history—The events unfolding, the religious struggles, certainly the internal conflicts, the relations between Israel and the Diaspora. The history that was erased in so many places and now must be written anew—letter by letter, word by word. I cover all the Jewish communities in the world, one by one. Talking about history, talking about the present, talking about the future. From the Bible to the ghetto logs, from the Mishnah to the letters of the first immigrants to the Land of Israel—there is a nation here that refused to let a single moment pass without documenting it, writing it down, and remembering it. This was the survival mechanism of the Jews, no less than faith. Every one of us is a link in this chain, whether we know it or not. The Jews encompass the entire world, and it is impossible to understand the modern world without understanding the Jews. Tell your children, tell your grandchildren, tell those who will come after you and will not have known you. Tell them what you saw, what you experienced, what you believed in. Tell it just as our forefathers told of the home they left and the home they built, what they cooked in each of them. Tell of the celebrations, the jokes, the arguments, tell also of the pain—all of these stories are our story.”

Hanan Yovel

Hanan Yovel opened his acceptance speech with a quote by John Lennon, when he received a medal from the Queen: “I don’t know why they gave me a medal, I just sang,” noting that the award came to him as a surprise. “The truth is, deep inside me, there is a profound understanding that music is a tool and a language for communication, for building bridges, for empathy and also for comfort in moments when it is needed. Therefore, after dozens of journeys around the world alongside countless ones here in Israel, I recognize the immense weight and palliative contribution of music and art.” He recounted vignettes from dozens of visits beginning in the 1980s to Jewish communities in North and South America, the Soviet Union, Ukraine, Moldova and Morocco, and paid tribute to the B’nai B’rith Lecture Bureau, which first introduced him to American audiences.

David Horovitz

David Horovitz opened his keynote address with observations about the current state of independent journalism, noting that it has been heavily impacted by free internet news sites, the advent of AI and efforts by governments to corral journalism and impinge on free press through legislation of oversight: “In non-democracies, independent journalism is crucial to exposing corruption and other evils in autocratic leadership, mobilizing the public, and potentially, helping to enable a shift to accountable, democratic leadership acting in the wider public interest. In democracies, independent journalism is crucial to holding elected officials to account, exposing corruption, keeping them on the straight and narrow. Which is why independent journalism so irritates elected leaders who have become corrupted or who have started to neglect the national interest and public good. And why it is so vitally important that independent journalism recovers from the current crisis.”

Regarding his groundbreaking 48-hour visit to Syria in September 2025, Horovitz observed that while Israel and Syria would not be making peace anytime soon “Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa—a veteran jihadist who until December 2024 had a $10 million U.S, bounty on his head for terrorism, before his rebel forces ousted Bashar al-Assad—was hosting our group, of mainly American Jews, in part to send a message to the U.S. that this is a tolerant, non-anti-Semitic, new and different Syrian leadership. It was clear in our diplomatic meetings that the leadership wants Syrian Jews to return if they wish, and to invest in Syria. Damascus wants to ‘build a bridge’ to Syrian Jews abroad, one senior official told us. It was also clear that interaction with Israel was and is not going to be plain sailing. The senior Foreign Ministry official castigated Netanyahu for, broadly speaking, failing to give the new leadership a chance. The Israeli government, for its part, has stressed its obligation to ensure that Israel’s northern border is not threatened by instability in southern Syria and a potential power vacuum that Iran and others would seek to exploit.”

History & Legacy

Since its establishment in 1992, the B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem Award for Journalism has recognized excellence in reporting on contemporary diaspora Jewish communities and on the state of Israel-diaspora relations in Israeli print, broadcast and online media. The award is widely recognized as the most prestigious prize in the Israeli media industry for diaspora reportage and was established to help strengthen the relationship between Israel and the diaspora. The award highlights the important contributions the media can make toward strengthening the relationship between Israel and world Jewry by encouraging quality reporting on diaspora communities and Israel-diaspora relations.

The distinguished members of the award jury include Dr. Yehudith Auerbach, former head of the Department of Journalism and Communication Studies at Bar-Ilan University; Yaron Deckel, regional director for Canada at The Jewish Agency for Israel and past award winner; Professor Uzi Rebhun, Shlomo Argov chair in Israel-Diaspora Relations, head of the Division of Jewish Demography & Statistics at The Avraham Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry and director of the Florence Melton Institute at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Professor Gabriela Shalev, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations; Dr. Ilan Shchori, research fellow at the University of Haifa and research associate at Ben-Gurion University, senior vice president of B’nai B’rith International; Journalist Yair Sheleg; and Asher Weill, publisher and editor of “Ariel: The Israel Review of Arts and Letters” (1981-2003).

The award is presented in memory of the late Wolf Matsdorf, editor of the B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem journal “Leadership Briefing” and a journalist in Israel and Australia, and his wife, Hilda, a pioneer in social work in both countries. The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented in memory of the late Luis and Trudi Schydlowsky, leaders of the Jewish community in Peru. The entire ceremony can be viewed: here

For further information, please contact:

Alan Schneider, director, B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem: 02-6251743; 052-5536441

Golan Yossifon, spokesperson, B’nai B’rith: +972525625135