Dayton Jewish Observer Editor and Publisher Marshall Weiss received two first-place awards from the American Jewish Press Association at its annual conference.

AJPA announced the winners of its 2013 Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism in  Seattle on June 26.

Weiss received the first-place award for Excellence in Photography in the category for all newspapers, for a cover photo of the morning prayer service at Beth Jacob Congregation to accompany the feature Keeping the faith…every day in the July 2012 issue.

He also won the first-place award in a new category, The Jacob Rader Marcus Award for Journalistic Excellence in American Jewish History, sponsored by the Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati.

Dr. Gary Zola, executive director of the archives, presented the awards to the winners. Weiss received the award in the category of newspapers with circulation of less than 15,000 for his series about Jewish connections to the Titanic in the April 2012 issue.

The series was picked up by several Jewish newspapers across North America and The Times of Israel website.

Judges for the annual Rockower competition are drawn from journalism departments at American colleges and universities, along with writers and editors in mainstream journalism.

At the conference, Weiss was also elected to a second one-year term as the association’s president.