Washington Jewish Week had a strong showing at the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association’s annual editorial and design awards ceremony on May 9 in Annapolis, winning 12 awards.
The MDDC Press Association’s annual contest, which this year featured more than 1,620 entries in 86 categories, recognizes excellence in print and online journalism across the region. The organization represents more than 100 member news media organizations.
“Our staff works hard, and it showed with impressive results in receiving these awards,” said Mid-Atlantic Media CEO and Washington Jewish Week Publisher Craig Burke. “There is a lot of media competition in our region, and being recognized by the MDDC Press Association justifies the quality of the content that we produce for our readers. We have a lot of good writing and design talent, and they’re supported by good sales and administrative staff. It was a successful day for Mid-Atlantic Media.”
Frank Wagner, Washington Jewish Week’s art director, won first place in the page one design category for his “Oct. 7 — We Remember” cover, which marked the first anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Wagner also took home a first-place award in the sports design category for “Washington Commanders Managing Partner Josh Harris on Jewish Identity, Israel and Making Sports a ‘Shared Community Experience.’” In addition, Wagner won second place in the feature page design category for “A Resolute Voice for Israel in the US” and another second-place award in the news page design category for “‘He Was Just a Good Boy’: Silver Spring Native Remembers Her Son Who Was Killed in Gaza.”
Editor Aaron Troodler was awarded first place in the feature story: profile category for his in-depth profile of Washington Commanders Managing Partner Josh Harris, while Washington Jewish Week staff writers Zoe Bell and Braden Hamelin took first place in the religion reporting category with their Last Word profile series. Hamelin also won a first-place award in the medical/science reporting category for his story titled “Maryland Biotech Company Partners With Hadassah to Fight ‘Superbugs.’”
The dynamic duo of Bell and Hamelin also won second place in the sports feature story for “Four Local Teens Compete for Team Israel Women’s Softball.” Additionally, Bell won two second-place awards of her own: One was in the breaking news category for “Jewish Man Attacked in Northwest DC in Alleged Hate Crime” and the other was in the general news story category for “Jewish Soldier Laid to Rest 80 Years After His Death.”
Rabbi Michael Safra of Congregation B’nai Israel in Rockville won first place in the local column: critical thinking category for his Washington Jewish Week piece titled “Post-Oct. 7, Racial Justice and Communal Interfaith Work Remain Critical.”
In the arts/entertainment reporting category, longtime Washington Jewish Week freelance writer Lisa Traiger took home second place for “The People of the Comic Book.”
