Moment won big at the 45th Annual Simon Rockower Awards Banquet, held in New York City this week. The 2026 awards, known as the Jewish Pulitzers and hosted by the American Jewish Press Association’s annual conference, featured excellence in Jewish journalism across the United States and Canada. Moment won a total of 21 Rockowers, including ten First Place nods.
This year, Moment delivered relevant commentaries on American and Israeli politics, thoughtful and sophisticated arts criticism, striking graphic design and more.
Moment staff’s coverage of the Capital Jewish Museum shooting demonstrated strong, impactful news reporting with an eyewitness interview and video. “Bimonthly Moment jumped on the museum shooting as if it were daily media,” judges commented. “Comprehensive coverage, video and a follow-up interview with a witness. I’ve been a daily journalist and couldn’t have done better.” The package won First Place for Excellence in News Reporting.
Longtime Moment contributor Letty Cottin Pogrebin’s three stories on American politics, society and religion won First Place for the Louis Rapoport Award for Excellence in Commentary. “It’s not always easy to meld the universal with the personal, but Letty Cottin Pogrebin does so seamlessly and masterfully,” judges wrote. “Whether contemplating her own belief in God or urging others to express anger at the direction of American society by making their voices heard, she draws on her own life and career as a journalist and social justice advocate. This gives her pieces moving depth and humanity.”
Multimedia journalism was also on the list, and Moment won two First Place awards: The Marc Klein Award for Excellence for Best Use of Interactive Media for a short film by Sarah Breger and Eli Katzoff on life in the West Bank since the war. “This was not retrospective reporting. This had immediacy,” judges said; and the Award for Excellence in Short-Form Video for an Instagram reel on jazz in Nazi Germany produced by Andrew Michaels. “Creative and engaging reminder of fascism’s cultural reach.”
Menachem Rosensaft’s personal essay about his father, Josef Rosensaft, a Holocaust survivor who acted as a leader in the Displaced Persons (DP) camp of Bergen-Belsen in Germany after the end of World War II, won two awards: the Award for Excellence in Personal Essay and the Award for Excellence in Writing about Jewish Heritage and Jewish Peoplehood in Europe. “His father seems to have been a passionate, remarkable man with a fire to fight for what was right in a situation—in a world—that was oh so wrong,” judges wrote about the piece. “This story was mesmerizing.”
And Josie Glausiusz’s feature on clowns in Israeli hospitals, which was awarded First Place for Excellence in Writing about Health Care, offers a unique, touching perspective on health reporting, a commentary on the power of laughter in healing patients from trauma. “The contrast between profound loss and unexpected laughter is handled with great sensitivity, making the therapeutic impact feel both credible and deeply human.”
Moment’s 2025 November/December Issue cover story, “The New Christian Right, Antisemitism & U.S. Democracy” by Tom Gjelten won First Place for Excellence in Long-Form Writing. Judges said the story was “in-depth and sober coverage of an important issue that is negatively impacting the Jewish community. This entry was a runaway winner of this category.”
See Moment‘s award-winning stories below:
First Place Awards
- The Louis Rapoport Award for Excellence in Commentary: “What did you just say to me?,” “Tranquility will have to wait,” “The God I believe in now” by Letty Cottin Pogrebin
- Award for Excellence in Personal Essay: “Josef Rosensaft and the displaced persons camp of Bergen-Belsen: Remembering my Father” by Menachem Rosensaft
- Award for Excellence in News Reporting: “A statement about the May 21, 2025, Washington, DC, shooting from Moment Magazine editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein,” “Interview: Eyewitness JoJo Drake Kalin on shooting at Capital Jewish Museum,” “Video: Eyewitness aftermath: Capital Jewish Museum shooting leaves two dead,” “A strike at the political heart of Jewish America” by Moment Staff
- Award for Excellence in Writing about Social Justice and Humanitarian Work: “Learning to ‘dance again’” by Eetta Prince-Gibson
- Award for Excellence in Arts — Review/Criticism: “The secret life of an art deco diva” by Diane M. Bolz
- Award for Excellence in Writing about Health Care: “Do clowns have the power to heal?” by Josie Glausiusz
- Award for Excellence in Interfaith Relations Reporting: “Reimagining home: Syrian Jews, memory and a future of peace” by Kalid Loul
- The Marc Klein Award for Excellence for Best Use of Interactive Media: “A protective presence: 24 hours in the West Bank” by Sarah Breger and Eli Katzoff
- Award for Excellence in Short-Form Video: “Nazi Germany’s war on jazz” by Andrew Michaels
- Wild Card Category — Award for Excellence in Long-Form Writing: “The new Christian right, antisemitism & U.S. democracy” by Tom Gjelten
Second Place Awards
- Award for Excellence in Single Commentary: “Freedom for all? Trump says forget it” by Sarah Posner
- Award for Excellence in News Reporting: “Gaza protest movement has a message for Hamas” by Waseen Abu Mahadi and Jacob Wirtschafter
- Award for Excellence in Writing about Social Justice and Humanitarian Work: “How Ukrainian Jewry has responded to war” by Paul Goldberg
- Award for Excellence in Feature Writing: “When the Black press stood by the Jews against the Nazis” by Dan Freedman
- Award for Excellence in Arts News and Features — Reporting: “The musical—Yes, Musical! —about the Rabin assassination” by Ron Kampeas
- Award for Excellence in Writing about Women: “What I found in Joan Rivers’ filing cabinet full of jokes” by Melissa Pheterson
- Award for Excellence in Writing about Jewish Heritage and Jewish Peoplehood in Europe: “Josef Rosensaft and the displaced persons camp of Bergen-Belsen: Remembering my father” by Menachem Rosensaft
- Award for Excellence in North American Jewish History: “When the Black press stood by the Jews against the Nazis” by Dan Freedman
- Award for Outstanding Accomplishments — Graphic Artist: “What does it mean to be pro-Israel in 2025,” “Moments that have shaped American Judaism,” “The dangerous antisemitism lurking in the Christian nationalist movement, and the American government,” “Modi is running on ‘Moshiach Energy’” by Erica Cash
Honorable Mentions
- Award for Excellence in Arts — Review/Criticism: “Sylvia Plath’s private Jewish problem” by Carl Rollyson
- Award for Excellence in Writing about Jewish Heritage and Jewish Peoplehood in Europe: “Hitler’s enablers included conservative German Jews” by Dan Freedman