The Council of Jewish Federations has announced the recipients of the 1981 Smolar Awards for Excellence in North American Jewish Journalism. The recipients are:
Julie Liedman, a free-lance writer, for her article, “Abortion: A Painful Jewish Dilemma,” which appeared in the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent; Yossi Klein, for his editorial columns in the New Jewish Times, of which he was editor, and Merrie Eisenstadt, a staff reporter for the Baltimore Jewish Times, for her article on the trauma of infertility among Jewish couples. Edward Topol, a Soviet Jew whose account of the emigre experience was published in Present Tense, won the Smolar Award in the magazine category.
The Smolar Awards, named in honor of Boris Smolar, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, are conferred by the CJF to honor outstanding achievements by journalists whose work appears in newspapers and magazines devoted to coverage of Jewish communal affairs and issues. Entries are judged by the CJF Smolar Award Committee, chaired by Marvin Holland of Rhode Island. The 1981 awards will be officially presented at the 50th General Assembly of the CJF, Nov. 11-15, in St. Louis.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
