In September, The Ohio Society of Professional Journalists announced that Marshall Weiss, editor and publisher of The Dayton Jewish Observer, is the recipient of its 2013 first-place award for Best Religion Reporting in the category of newspapers with circulation below 75,000.

Weiss won the award for his July 2012 piece Keeping the faith…every day. This is his second first-place award from the Ohio SPJ competition and The Observer’s sixth Ohio SPJ first-place award overall. He also received Ohio SPJ’s 2013 second-place award for Best Human Interest Reporting, in the same circulation category, for his December 2012 piece Sderot in 15 seconds.

The annual Ohio SPJ competition is a collaborative project of the Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland SPJ chapters and honors print, broadcast, online, trade, and college journalists statewide for their best work during the previous year.

The Observer is published by the Jewish Federation; its chair is Joan Knoll.