Ohio’s Best Journalism Contest, sponsored by the Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus Society of Professional Journalists chapters statewide, announced July 7 that Dayton Jewish Observer Editor and Publisher Marshall Weiss received its 2025 first-place award for Best Religion Reporting in its small newspaper category (circulation below 40,000), and named The Observer the Best Monthly in Ohio.

“Robust, substantial reportage across the stories submitted,” a judge noted of articles The Observer entered in the Best Religion Reporting category. “Strengths include deep, meaningful dives into historical and contemporary background to give needed context to current events and holding conspicuous space for a broad spectrum of views.”

Weiss has been editor of The Observer since he established it as a publication of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton in 1996. These are The Observer’s 14th and 15th first-place awards overall from Ohio’s Best Journalism Contest.

The judge of the Best Monthly category wrote of The Observer’s entries, “These issues of The Dayton Jewish Observer provided a model of how to cover a community in a supportive, informed manner without shying away from controversy or serving as the public relations arm of its major institutions…At the same time, the issues were rich in stories on Jewish food, religion, history and culture.”

In June, the American Jewish Press Association honored Weiss with its first-place Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in News Reporting in the category of magazines and monthly newspapers.