Journalist Lee Abramovich of Channel 2 News will receive the 2012 B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportaģe in Memory of Wolf and Hilda Matsdorf on June 24 in Jerusalem. Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat, former U.S. under secretary of state and deputy secretary of the Treasury will deliver the keynote address entitled “The Future of the Jews: How Global Forces are Impacting the Jewish People, Israel, and its Relationship with the United States.”

B’nai B’rith International President Allan J. Jacobs and Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin will attend the event, which will take place at Beit Avi Chai, 44 King George Street, Jerusalem at 7 p.m. (doors will open at 6:30 p.m.). B’nai B’rith World Center Chairman Dr. Haim V. Katz will chair the event.

Abramovich will receive the award for her report “American Jewry makes living kidney donations to Israeli patients” broadcast on the Channel 2 weekend news edition on July 9, 2011. The moving report reveals the little-known phenomenon of Orthodox American Jews who make live kidney donations to Israelis, their motivations and support structure.

For the first time in the award’s 20-year history Foreign Correspondent Citations will also be presented. AP correspondent Diaa Hadid will be awarded the citation in the general media category in memory of Luis and Trudi Schydlowsky for her June 18, 2011, article about the ruins of the Dar al-Bishi synagogue in Tripoli. Hadid visited Tripoli during the revolution in Libya, and the synagogue served as the article’s backdrop to the illustrious past of that country’s Jewish community.

Jana Beris (Jerozolimski), editor of the Uruguayan Jewish weekly newspaper Semanario Hebreo, will receive the citation in the Jewish media category for her interview with Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, published on March 24, 2011. The citation will also recognize her longtime commitment to Diaspora Jewish journalism. Semanario Hebreo was established in 1960 by Beris’ father, Joseph Jerozolimski. Since his death in 2004 Jana has edited the newspaper from Israel. It is distributed in Uruguay 50 weeks a year.

Since its establishment in 1992, the B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism has recognized excellence in reportaģe on contemporary Diaspora Jewish communities and on the state of Israel-Diaspora relations today in the Israeli print, electronic and online media. It is widely acknowledged by the media industry as the most prestigious prize of its kind in Israel.

Members of the distinguished award jury are: Prof. Yehudith Auerbach, head of the Communication and Journalism Studies Division, Bar Ilan University; David Horovitz, founding editor, The Times of Israel; Sara Frenkel, diaspora reporter, Broadcast Authority and Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2002; Shalom Kital, former general director, News Company, Channel 2; Bambi Sheleg, founder and editor-in-chief, “Eretz Acheret” and award winner for 2011 and Asher Weill, publisher and editor of “Ariel” The Israel Review of Arts and Letters (1981-2003).

The B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism is named for the late Wolf Matsdorf, former editor of the B’nai B’rith World Center publication “Leadership Briefing” and a journalist in Israel and Australia; as well as his wife the late Hilda Matsdorf, a pioneer in social work in both Australia and Israel. The award is made possible through donations from Prof. Daniel Schydlowsky, a member of the B’nai B’rith World Center International Board of Governors (Lima, Peru and Washington, D.C.), and the Matsdorf family.

The public and the media are invited to attend. Please RSVP to worldcenter@012.net.il.

For further information please contact: Golan Yossifun, spokesperson at 052-562-5135 or Alan Schneider, director of the B’nai B’rith World Center, at 02-6251743 or worldcenter@bnaibrith.org.