Journalists Awarded for Honest Reporting on Israel
The Algemeiner, founded by Gershon Jacobson in 1972 and currently headed by Dovid Efune, honored two well-known journalists at its third annual Summer Benefit last week in New York City.
New York Observer Editor-in-Chief Ken Kurson received the paper’s Journalist of the Year award, and Forbes magazine investigative star Richard Behar was presented the Story of the Year award for his July 2013 cover feature “Peace Through Profits.”
Close to 300 people attended the event, which was held at The Carriage House in Midtown East.
The event was chaired by philanthropist Ari Ackerman, and was emceed by actress and comedian Courtney Davis. Prominent guests included New York Observer CEO Joseph Meyer, philanthropists Charles and Seryl Kushner, Forbes Editor Randall Lane, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Israel’s Consul General in New York Ido Aharoni.
In presenting Behar’s award, Aharoni said of the journalist, “He looked at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict not necessarily as a problem, but rather as an opportunity and he told a story that was not told about the amazing partnership, economic cooperation for the benefit of the collective, of the entire Israeli-Arab, Palestinian community.”
In accepting his award, Behar described The Algemeiner as providing “a Jewish take on global matters for a global audience.”
“It’s on my must read list every day,” he added.
Behar said, “I don’t like what I see from my colleagues in major American and Western media, their coverage of Israel. They need to approach it courageously and honestly, and with very few exceptions they’re not doing the job, so I’m trying to do my part. And that’s a challenge for all of us.”
Mukasey described Kurson as a “great American,” adding that “not very many people could be described as both a great American and a Mensch.”
In accepting his award, Kurson said, “There’s an old Chabad saying that when a Jew walks down the street and steps on a stone, the stone should know it’s been stepped on by a Jew… and to me… if I’m living my life the right way and doing my job the right way, then who I am should come out in everything that I do.”
Praising the award recipients, Algemeiner Editor-in-Chief Dovid Efune said, “In his book Fear No Evil, Natan Sharansky, creates two groups of people – ‘realists’ and ‘idealists.’ The realists always go with the path that they feel is necessary at the time, the idealists do what they believe is right whether popular or not, Richard and Ken you both fit firmly in the second group.”
Photos by Sarah Rogers
