By Oliver Bradley
Since the advent of social media, being able to rely on clean and accurate sources of news has proven to be a challenging undertaking for media outlets and news-consumers alike.
Toby Axelrod – winner of multiple journalism awards and German correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) wire service. – is more than a vibrant writer and storyteller. Her commitment to honest reporting stems from her tireless determination as a resolute fact-finder and fair listener, averse to third-party-hearsay. She was announced as one of the top-placed prize-recipients of the 2023 Annual Simon Rockower Award at the recent annual meeting of the American Jewish Press Association (AJPA), in New Orleans – winning first-place in the award-category “Excellence in Writing about Jewish Heritage and Jewish Peoplehood in Europe”, in the division “Web-based Outlets; Digital Only, Website Only and Wire Services.”
She received this year’s award for her unabated, in-depth coverage of an abuse-of-power case involving one of Germany’s leading liberal rabbis. Her series of articles on the subject has not only garnered her praise from all spectrums of Jewish life for her fair, unbiased reporting, she also received particular kudos from the jury who, in their award statement wrote, “while some editors and reporters may say that we should not be reporting on “embarrassments” that put the Jewish community in a bad light (either here in the United States or abroad), there is tremendous value in shining a light on injustice and wrongdoing.”
Tobi Axelrod’s articles have appeared or have been reprinted in media around the world, including the Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung, The London Jewish Chronicle and the The New York Times.