Standard staffers and alums win awards

Showing their awards are, from left, Josh Lipowsky, Lois Goldrich, Miriam Rinn, Warren Boroson, and Jerry Szubin.

New Brunswick – The Jewish Standard cleaned up at the 2008 Excellence in Journalism Awards ceremony, winning eight awards in six categories. The awards, sponsored by the New Jersey chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, were handed out at a luncheon at Rutgers University on Sunday, June 28.

Said Standard Editor Rebecca Boroson, “I’m very proud of all the winners — and proud of everyone else on this consistently wonderful staff.”

Two Standard staffers won two awards each: Josh Lipowsky, assistant editor, won a first prize in deadline reporting for “Community musters a minyan so survivor can have Jewish funeral,” about efforts by Chabad of Teaneck to hold a Jewish funeral for a Holocaust survivor who had only one living Jewish relative. Lipowsky won a third in the same category for “Families of terror victims welcome new law,” about a law permitting American families of terror victims to sue foreign sponsors of terrorism.

Contributing editor Warren Boroson won a first in feature writing for his article “Desperate Journey,” about Jewish children fleeing Poland during World War II, and a third place for sports reporting for “The Home Team,” about “our love affair with Jewish athletes.”

Miriam Rinn, a contributing editor, took first place in review writing for her review of “The Counterfeiters,” “Survive or resist?”

Jerry Szubin, the newspaper’s graphic designer, won a second place for feature page design for illustrating the article “What To Do About Gaza.”

Lois Goldrich, associate editor, won a second in feature writing for “Identical Strangers to Speak in Tenafly,” about identical twins who had been separated at birth.

The Standard took first place for the redesign of its Website, jstandard.com, by Mark VonRosenstiel. Deborah Herman administers the site day to day.

A biweekly Jewish newspaper, The Jewish State, received one award, a first place for editorial writing by Seth Mandel.

This was the first time the awards ceremony was held on a Sunday, not on a Saturday, to accommodate the Jewish publications. This was also the first time the journalism society provided optional kosher meals.

Among other weeklies, another big winner, besides the Jewish Standard, was the Montclair Times, which carried off nine awards. Big winners among the dailies were the Herald-News and the Philadelphia Inquirer, each of which won 12 awards.

The Record of Hackensack, also a daily, won three awards.

Lipowsky also won a first-place Simon Rockower award from the American Jewish Press Association last week for his article “Sderot: City in crisis.” These awards are given only to Jewish publications.

Two former Standard managing editors won Rockowers as well. Joanne Palmer won first place in the personal essay category for “When it doesn’t work,” in “CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism,” a piece that was reprinted in the Standard, and Jacob Berkman won second place for comprehensive reporting for JTA for “Bernard Madoff’s effect on the Jewish community.” His pieces appeared in the Standard.

James Janoff, the Standard’s publisher, said, “I am always proud of our newspaper, but it is especially gratifying that the staff has been recognized for excellence by professional journalism organizations.”