On Aug. 29, The Ohio Society of Professional Journalists Awards competition announced that columns written for The Dayton Jewish Observer by Rabbi Bernard Barsky and Candace R. Kwiatek received first- and second-place awards in the category of Best Religion Reporting for publications with circulation below 100,000.

Barsky, Beth Abraham Synagogue’s rabbi, received the 2012 first-place award for his essay, As One Loves God (February 2011), which explores Jewish perspectives about mental illness. This marked the second first-place award Barsky has received from Ohio SPJ for his writing in The Observer.

Candace R. Kwiatek received Ohio SPJ’s 2012 second-place religion writing award for her 2011 series about children of the Bible. In September, Kwiatek also received the Religion Newswriters Association’s 2012 Gerald A. Renner Enterprise Third-Place Award for the series. Kwiatek is a past recipient of first-place awards from Ohio SPJ and the American Jewish Press Association for her Observer columns.