The Dayton Jewish Observer won one first-place and two second-place awards from Ohio’s Best Journalism Contest, sponsored by the Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus Society of Professional Journalists, which announced its 2020 honorees today.

Marshall Weiss, editor and publisher of The Dayton Jewish Observer, took first place in Best Religion Reporting for publications with circulation below 60,000 for his news coverage of last year’s Klan rally in Dayton.

“An interesting look at how the city handled a potential powder keg of competing political demonstrations, and the impact on a Jewish business owner,” the competition noted in the judges’ comments about the piece.

This is the fifth first-place award Weiss has received from Ohio’s Best Journalism Contest, the 10th overall for The Dayton Jewish Observer.

Weiss also received this year’s second-place award for Best Religion Reporting in the same circulation category, for  Jewish families dismayed prep school won’t denounce student display as antisemitic.

Dayton Jewish Observer columnist Masha Kisel received the second-place award for Best Columnist in the same circulation category, for her column, A Bisel Kisel, in which the Jewish émigré from the former Soviet Union has shared how she navigates Judaism with her young family in Oakwood today. This is the first Ohio’s Best Journalism Contest win for Kisel, who began writing her column for The Observer in 2019.

Established in 1996, The Dayton Jewish Observer is published by The Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton.