Blankfeld Award 2014: The Winner is . . .

Elijah Granet

HonestReporting is proud to announce that Elijah Granet, 19, from San Diego, California, and currently studying in New York City, is the winner of the third Blankfeld Award for Media Critique.

It was a unanimous decision to give this year’s award to Elijah Granet, currently majoring in Political Science and Talmud at Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. Elijah has been a regular contributor to the Times of Israel blog section and wrote several opinion pieces for the Daily Californian having spent the first year of college at the University of California, Berkeley.

Elijah has been a dedicated Israel activist from high school where he founded an AIPAC club to his time at UC Berkeley where he was on the executive board of the Tikvah: Students for Israel group. Elijah was also a recipient of the Goor Prize in Jewish Studies.

On receiving his certificate and the first installment of his award, Elijah commented:

I am deeply honored to have received this award.  As someone who has both aspirations to be a journalist and a strong connection to Israel, I consider the treatment of Israel in the media to be a crucial issue. I am looking forward to working with HonestReporting to help ensure objective coverage of Israel.

HonestReporting received entries from aspiring student writers from around the globe, including the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and the UK. HonestReporting staff members and HR Board member Max Blankfeld, the sponsor of the $2000 award, were joined by the Jerusalem Post’s Political Editor Gil Hoffman on the judging panel.

Dedicated to the memory of Eli Blankfeld, a journalist who documented Jewish life in Germany after World War II and during the period surrounding the creation of the State of Israel, after having lost his parents and sisters during the Holocaust, the Blankfeld Award for Media Critique recognizes aspiring journalists who demonstrate a commitment to the values of objective and honest reporting, specifically in the field of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

As the recipient of the Blankfeld Award, Elijah has committed to producing at least four pieces of writing during the year 2015 for publication on the HonestReporting website.

HonestReporting’s Managing Editor, Simon Plosker said:

We were extremely impressed with the quality of the applicants’ submissions and the commitment shown in their writing. While it was a shame that we could not reward many more of the students for their efforts, Elijah’s writing stood out for its creativity and unconventionality and we are confident that he is definitely one to watch both now and in the future.