{"id":88452,"date":"2025-06-24T02:33:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T07:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=88452"},"modified":"2025-06-24T10:04:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T15:04:20","slug":"ccjn-wins-two-simon-rockower-awards-for-excellence-in-jewish-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/ccjn-wins-two-simon-rockower-awards-for-excellence-in-jewish-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"CCJN wins two Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Crescent City Jewish News (CCJN) took home two Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism on Monday night, June 23,&nbsp; at the American Jewish Press Association&#8217;s 2025 conference banquet.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_88454\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Rockower_winners25.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-88454\" class=\"wp-image-88454 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Rockower_winners25-300x158.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"158\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Rockower_winners25-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Rockower_winners25-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Rockower_winners25-768x404.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Rockower_winners25.jpg 1200w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/158;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-88454\" class=\"wp-image-88454 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Rockower_winners25-300x158.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"158\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Rockower_winners25-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Rockower_winners25-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Rockower_winners25-768x404.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Rockower_winners25.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-88454\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CCJN editor Alan Smason (kneeling in center) holds his two Simon Rockower Awards along with other winners for their work in 2024. (Photo by Mor Greenberg)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The banquet held at the John Heinz History Center \u2013 a part of the Smithsonian Institution in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania \u2013 was the culmination of the AJPA&#8217;s annual conference hosted by the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. The 44th annual Rockower Awards are considered &#8220;the Jewish Pulitzer Prizes&#8221; and honored member publications and freelancers for their work in the 2024 calendar year.<\/p>\n<p>CCJN editor Alan Smason received a Second Place finish in the Louis Rapoport Award for Excellence in Commentary in Division C for Web-based Outlets; Digital Only, Website Only and Wire Services for three of his commentaries &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/op-ed-living-in-interesting-times\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Living in Interesting Times<\/a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/op-ed-the-war-that-keeps-on-waging\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The War That Keeps on Waging<\/a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/op-ed-from-metas-rules-to-our-lips\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">From Meta&#8217;s Rules to Our Lips<\/a>.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/op-ed-living-in-interesting-times\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Living in Interesting Times<\/a>&#8221; was a cautionary tale that followed in the wake of the assassination attempt on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/op-ed-the-war-that-keeps-on-waging\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The War That Keeps on Waging<\/a>&#8221; commented on the anniversary of the continuing war between Israel and Hamas in advance of the High Holidays. &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/op-ed-from-metas-rules-to-our-lips\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">From Meta&#8217;s Rules to Our Lips<\/a>&#8221; was a response to Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram having made a ruling that permitted use of the provocative phrase &#8220;From the river to the sea&#8221; on their platforms.<\/p>\n<p>Smason also received an Honorable Mention for Excellence in Feature Writing in Division C for Web-based Outlets; Digital Only, Website Only and Wire Services for his article &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/curacao-or-bust-an-israeli-destination-bat-mitzvah-goes-caribbean\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Curacao or Bust: An Israeli Destination Bat Mitzvah Goes Caribbean<\/a>.&#8221; The story was first run in the CCJN, but carried as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jns.org\/curacao-or-bust-a-destination-bat-mitzvah-scheduled-for-israel-goes-caribbean\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a worldwide feature on the JNS&nbsp; (Jewish News Syndicate) wire service<\/a>. It featured the story and exclusive photos of a bat mitzvah originally planned to occur in Israel, but was rescheduled on the Caribbean island of Curacao in the oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere due to the Hamas-Israel war. The First and Second Place finishes were both won by 70 Faces Media, the parent organization for wire service JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_79367\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/P1030346-scaled.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-79367\" class=\"wp-image-79367 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/P1030346-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/P1030346-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/P1030346-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/P1030346-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/P1030346-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/P1030346-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/200;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-79367\" class=\"wp-image-79367 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/P1030346-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/P1030346-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/P1030346-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/P1030346-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/P1030346-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/P1030346-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-79367\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The interior of the oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere, Curacao&#8217;s Congregation Mikv\u00e9 Israel-Emanuel, with its floors covered in sand. (Photo by Alan Smason)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>An Honorable Mention is given by the 31 independent judges for the contest when they determine there are not enough entries to award a Third Place finish by the contest rules, but believe an article deserves special merit. Smason received two Honorable Mentions last year at the conference held in Nashville, TN. and was the recipient of his first Rockower Award at the 2022 Rockower Awards ceremony held at the National World War II Museum. The CCJN and Southern Jewish Life magazine were co-hosts that year.<\/p>\n<p>The two and a half day conference was held in the city where the worst antisemitic attack in the United States occurred on October 27, 2018 at the Tree of Life Synaogue, resulting in the death of 11 Jews shot down as they assembled for worship services.<\/p>\n<p>Survivors of the shooting and their relatives who organized a speakers group known as REACH (Remember, Educate and Combat Hate) in the wake of the attack appeared at the opening session of the conference on Sunday afternoon, June 22.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Other sessions held throughout Monday during the day dealt with issues confronting the 81-year-old bastion of Jewish journalism including a record spike in antisemitism and several noteworthy attacks on Jews on college campuses and elsewhere. Speakers from Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Zionist Organization of America&#8217;s legal division spoke at different sessions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"CCJN%20wins%20two%20Simon%20Rockower%20Awards%20for%20Excellence%20in%20Jewish%20Journalism\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":88454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,24],"tags":[13587,40,8781,8790,8795,8788,13797],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88452"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88475,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88452\/revisions\/88475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}