American Jewish Press Association

The American Jewish Press Association (AJPA) is an organization of Jewish newspapers, magazines, journalists, and affiliated organizations in North America. It was established in 1944 and is based in Phoenix, Arizona. Back then the Jewish Press was referred to as 'Anglo-Jewish press' and some publishers and editors were not comfortable with this tag. This organization was the brainchild of Gabriel Cohen, editor and publisher of the National Jewish Post & Opinion.^[1]

The American Jewish Press Association (AJPA) was founded on May 2, 1944, as the Anglo-Jewish Publishers Association. During its 2-day organizational meeting in Indianapolis, initiated by Gabriel Cohen of the Indianapolis Jewish Post, the AJPA also adopted resolutions condemning the White Paper of 1939 ban on Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine, the mistreatment of Jews in the Polish armed forces, and pledging its support to the American war effort.^[2] Before the AJPA, previous attempts to join Jewish journalists as a group had failed. The group's original membership included only English-language Jewish weekly newspapers.^[3]

In 1980, AJPA's membership included 75 English-language publications in the United States and Canada.^[4] As of 2024, AJPA had 120 member organizations.^[3]

AJPA established the Simon Rockower Memorial Writing Competition for member publications in 1980. The competition was funded by a grant from Rockower Brothers, Inc., in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of founder Simon Rockower. Norman Lamm of Yeshiva University was the competition's original president, with David Mirsky of Yeshiva University as the inaugural chair. The competition began in 1981 with six categories, including news writing, editorial writing, feature writing, cultural and arts writing, special series, page one make-up, and graphics.^[4]

The awards, considered the "Jewish Pulitzers,"^[5][6] are presented at a banquet in November each year.^[7][8][9]

The first competition had six categories.^[10] As of the 2016 awards there were 24 categories,^[11] and in 2017, 22.^[12] In 2024, there were 32 award categories, plus three additional wild card categories for reporting on the Israel-Hamas war.^[13]

Until 2020 the entries for most categories were divided by circulation.^[14] Since 2021 the divisions are Weekly and Biweekly Newspapers, Monthly Newspapers and Magazines and Web-based Outlets.^[15]

• American Jewish Press Association official site

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