J. news staffers won recognition from their Bay Area peers Wednesday night at the San Francisco Press Club gala, taking home 13 journalism awards for writing and photography, more than double last year’s total.
News editor Gabe Stutman, staff writers Emma Goss and Maya Mirsky, photographer Aaron Levy-Wolins and former culture editor Andrew Esensten won five first-place awards, three second-place awards and five third-place awards.
Stutman, Goss and Mirsky took first place in the “breaking news” category for “‘I’m screaming for help’: Jewish students face violence at UC Berkeley Israel talk,” a joint-effort article about a shocking protest at Cal in February when activists broke into the building where Israeli speaker Ran Bar-Yoshafat was to appear.
Goss also won two first-place awards for feature writing, one about younger generations clicking with mahjong, and the other about Jewish students at Stanford hiding their identities in response to antisemitism and anti-Israel activity on campus.
Stutman won first place in the “commentary” category for his analysis of Gaza campus protests in the wake of Oct. 7 and the Israel-Hamas war. And Levy-Wolins received his first-place award in the “photography/news” category for an image of police and sheriff deputies trying to control a crowd of angry protesters outside the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Bay Area gala in San Carlos on Nov. 5, 2023.
Levy-Wolins took two second-place awards, one for his photo essay of queer and trans Jews at this year’s S.F. Pride, and the other for his news photo of a young protester raising a Palestinian flag during a high school student walkout in San Francisco on Oct. 18, 2023.
Esensten won second place for his sports feature on Jewish Sacramento Kings fans rallying as the team headed to playoffs.
J. also won five third-place awards. Levy-Wolins won for his news photo of an Israel supporter surrounded by protesters during a Berkeley City Council meeting in March, and for his feature photo of a woman cradling her infant during an emotional gathering at Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco the day after the Oct. 7 attacks.
Goss took third place for her news story on dozens of Jewish families leaving Oakland public schools in response to safety concerns.
Mirsky took home awards for her series on the Oakland Unified School District, including the Oakland teachers’ union statement on Gaza, the teachers union support for Palestine and pro-Palestinian activism in the classroom. She also won for her investigation into East Bay teacher Henry Bens, who was called out for antisemitic lessons, and the subsequent tepid response by Mt. Eden High School and the Hayward Unified School District.
“Our journalists work hard every day to tell the story of Northern California’s Jews with flair, nuance and a deep commitment to accuracy,” said J. editor-in-chief Chanan Tigay. “Their reward is in the impact these stories and photos make in the Bay Area and beyond, and this large haul of S.F. Press Club awards is a wonderful testament to their amazing work.”
“I’m incredibly proud of our team’s work, but I’m not surprised,” added J. CEO Jo Ellen Green Kaiser. “Our news staff is one of the best out there. Through a very difficult year, J.’s journalists stepped up, and all are extremely deserving of these awards.”
The San Francisco Press Club ceremony, held at the historic Julia Morgan Ballroom, recognized exceptional work published from Jan. 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, by news outlets in the Greater Bay Area. Goss, who is also a freelance reporter for NBC Bay Area, took second place in the “television news” category for her story on canceled SAT testing in Oakland. Other winners with ties to J. included three former staff writers — Mission Local managing editor Joe Eskenazi, Bloomberg News reporter Eliyahu Kamisher and Reuters correspondent Max Cherney — as well as J. board member and Bloomberg Businessweek investigative writer Peter Waldman. J. was honored alongside media outlets including the San Francisco Standard, San Francisco Examiner, the San Francisco Chronicle, El Tecolote, Berkeleyside and KQED.