The American Jewish Press Association (AJPA) is an organization of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

newspapers, magazines, journalists, and affiliated organizations in

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. Founded in 1944 by Gabriel Cohen as the Anglo-Jewish Publishers Association, AJPA awards the Rockower Awards, considered the "Jewish Pulitzers."

History

The American Jewish Press Association (AJPA) was founded on May 2, 1944, as the Anglo-Jewish Publishers Association. During its 2-day organizational meeting in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, initiated by Gabriel Cohen of the ''Indianapolis Jewish Post'', the AJPA also adopted resolutions condemning the

White Paper of 1939 The White Paper of 1939Occasionally also known as the MacDonald White Paper (e.g. Caplan, 2015, p.117) after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary, who presided over its creation. was a policy paper issued by the British governmen ...

ban on Jewish immigration to

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

, the mistreatment of Jews in the

Polish armed forces The Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland (, ; abbreviated SZ RP), also called the Polish Armed Forces and popularly called in Poland (, roughly "the Polish Military"—abbreviated ''WP''), are the national Military, armed forces of the Poland, ...

, and pledging its support to the American war effort. Before the AJPA, previous attempts to join Jewish journalists as a group had failed. The group's original membership included only English-language Jewish weekly newspapers. In 1980, AJPA's membership included 75 English-language publications in the United States and Canada. As of 2024, AJPA had 120 member organizations.

Rockower Awards

AJPA established the Simon Rockower Memorial Writing Competition for member publications in 1980. The competition was funded by a grant from Rockower Brothers, Inc., in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of founder Simon Rockower.

Norman Lamm Norman Lamm (December 19, 1927 – May 31, 2020) was an American Modern Orthodox rabbi, scholar, academic administrator, author, and Jewish community leader. He was the Chancellor of Yeshiva University until he announced his retirement on July ...

Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a Private university, private Modern Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City.

was the competition's original president, with David Mirsky of Yeshiva University as the inaugural chair. The competition began in 1981 with six categories, including news writing, editorial writing, feature writing, cultural and arts writing, special series, page one make-up, and graphics. The awards, considered the "Jewish Pulitzers," are presented at a banquet in November each year.

List of categories

The first competition had six categories, growing to 22 by 2017. In 2024, there were 32 award categories, with three additional wild card categories for reporting on the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

. Until 2020 the entries for most categories were divided by circulation. Since 2021 the divisions are ''Weekly and Biweekly Newspapers'', ''Monthly Newspapers and Magazines'' and ''Web-based Outlets''.

References

External links

American Jewish Press Association official site
Jewish mass media Jewish printing and publishing Jews and Judaism in Phoenix, Arizona Organizations based in Phoenix, Arizona {{reli-media-stub Jewish-American press American journalism awards 1944 establishments in the United States Jewish organizations established in 1944 Journalism-related professional associations American journalism organizations