Moment’s print, website, digital outreach wins top awards

Moment Wins Top Jewish Media Awards

Moment Magazine has won 15 Simon Rockower Awards from the American Jewish Press Association, including First Place for General Excellence–Best Magazine for its Summer 2020 issue produced during the lockdown. Moment also won First Place for Outstanding Digital Outreach for its newsletters and social media, and for the second year in a row, First Place for General Excellence–Best Website. 

“To be recognized at the same time for our print publication, our website and our digital presence shows that Moment is providing content across platforms to reach our audience wherever they are,” said Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein. “And to have done it remotely shows just how well we’ve grown into this new multimedia age.”

The summer issue focused on time; the judges called it “a simply wonderful edition, the obvious winner…that resonated especially well as the country experienced the throes of the coronavirus.” 

Moment’s “Soundtrack of the Jewish People,” which the judges called “an extraordinary issue for the ages,” was awarded First Place for Excellence in Special Sections or Supplements and won for Excellence in a Multimedia Story. A partnership with the Milken Archive of Jewish Music, the judges praised it as “a permanent and historically important archival journalism effort” and “a must-visit site.”

Moment managing editor Ellen Wexler was awarded First Place for Excellence in Personality Profiles and First Place for Excellence in Writing About Women for her profile of Debra Katz, one of America’s top #MeToo lawyers.

Moment Institute senior fellow Nathan Guttman’s newsletter “Jewish Politics and Power” took First Place for Excellence in Writing About Politics/Government. The judges said Guttman “gives readers an excellent understanding of issues important to Jewish interests that are not readily available elsewhere.”

Lauding his outstanding reporting at this critical time, the judges awarded veteran reporter Larry Cohler-Esses First Place for Excellence in Writing About Black-Jewish Relations for his “Dispatch from Crown Heights: Two Universes, One Neighborhood.” 

Moment critic-at-large Carlin Romano won First Place for Excellence in Arts News and Features for “Italian Jews: Rome, the Renaissance and Beyond.” The judges said Romano did an “incredible job weaving the backstory of Italy and the Jews through history with the modern story.” Romano’s story also received First Place for Excellence in Writing About Jewish Heritage and Jewish Peoplehood in Europe. The judges called it “informative, educational, and at times riveting.”

Moment’s popular weekly “Beshert” column edited by Pam Janis won First Place for Excellence in Writing About Seniors. The judges praised the reader-submitted stories of love, marriage and affection among mature couples.

Other winners include Moment senior editor Dan Freedman for his profile of Eileen Filler-Corn, Virginia’s first female—and first Jewish—Speaker of the House of Delegates; “Archiving COVID-19 As it Happens” by Moment deputy editor Sarah Breger; and Moment associate editor Lilly Gelman’s Talk of the Table story, “Rice and Beans for Passover?”