Staff members of the Jewish Exponent have been named winners in the annual Keystone Press Awards contest run by the Pennsylvania News Media Association.
Continuing the excellence expected by the Greater Philadelphia Jewish community’s paper of record, staff members of the Jewish Exponent have been named winners in the annual Keystone Press Awards contest run by the Pennsylvania News Media Association. With their honors, staff writers Rachel Kurland and Jon Marks, who joined the Exponent team less than a year ago, join a long line of journalists who won awards for their work at the paper.
Kurland’s portrayal of former Nuremberg Trials translator George Sakheim, “For Nuremberg Trials Translator, Awaiting a Bittersweet Reunion,” took home first place in the Personality Profile category for weekly publications with circulation of at least 10,000. Marks won second place in Investigative Reporting for “Questions Arise About Accuracy of Wegmans’ Kosher Sections.”
Sakheim, a Gwynedd, Pa. resident, talked of his experiences immediately after World War II — including the time he saw the bodies of slaughtered Jews at a concentration camp the Germans had just evacuated. That helped him make the decision to remain in Germany and become a translator for the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal rather than returning home. The 92-year-old Sakheim was preparing to return to Nuremberg to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the trials.
The Wegmans investigation, spurred by a complaint from a customer, dealt with a local supermarket claiming to offer prepared kosher items to its customers, even though it had not been certified.
Both Kurland, who had just graduated magna cum laude from the University of Florida, and Marks joined the Exponent staff in July 2015.
Kurland, originally from Florida, has worked for The Florida Times-Union among other North Florida publications. She led the university’s biannual Orange and Blue magazine as the senior editor in 2014.
Marks had previously worked for the Norristown Times Herald, Trenton Times and Metro Philadelphia, in addition to freelancing for several local and national publications and websites. He’s won awards from the Pro Basketball Writers Association and North Jersey Press Club.
The Keystone Press Awards will be presented May 21 in Harrisburg.
