Winner: Yuna Leibzon (Channel 12 News)

Certificate of Merit: Roi Kais (Kan 11), Avital Indig (Makor Rishon)

The B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem has announced the recipients of its Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage for 2025.

Award winner Yuna Leibzon, a news correspondent for Channel 12 News, was chosen for her series of articles on the Jewish community in the United States. Leibzon was appointed as a U.S.  correspondent for Channel 12 News in 2019 and has been covering U.S. Jewry, anti-Semitism and—since Oct. 7th—the surge in anti-Semitism in the United States, along with the Jewish community’s campaign for the hostages and its fight against hate.

A Certificate of Merit will be awarded to Roi Kais of Kan 11 and Avital Indig of Makor Rishon. Kais was chosen for his series of articles on Jewish communities in Arab countries, while Indig will be honored for her series focused on the Jewish community in New York, published in Makor Rishon and in the English edition of Israel Hayom.

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, 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, Bar Ilan University; Yaron Deckel, a previous Diaspora Reportage Award winner and regional director for the Canadian Jewish Agency for Israel; Professor Uzi Rebhun, Shlomo Argov chair in Israel-Diaspora Relations and head of the Division of Jewish Demography & Statistics, The A. Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry director, Florence Melton Institute, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Professor Gabriela Shalev, former Israel ambassador to the United Nations; 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 World Center’s journal “Leadership Briefing” and a journalist in Israel and Australia, and his wife Hilda, a pioneer in social work in both countries and in memory of Luis and Trudi Schydlowsky. An award ceremony will be held later this summer.

For further information, please contact:

Golan Yossifon, Spokesperson, B’nai B’rith – +972525625135

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