New Mexico Jewish Journal celebrates our first birthday! And sweeps NM Press Women Communications Contest!
by Diane Joy Schmidt
March 28, 2025
With our Spring 2025 issue, the independent, state-wide New Mexico Jewish Journal marks its one-year anniversary. We have made remarkable strides. Since our first Spring Issue published online March 18th, 2024 we have been warmly embraced by the Jewish community and the larger community.
As one new subscriber wrote, “I’m really happy that New Mexico Jewish Journal exists. I’ve always felt completely alone as a Jewish person in Albuquerque and I’m excited to be part of a larger community.” When I wrote back to that subscriber, I learned she is a university professor who has lived here for more than twenty years.
We have just been chosen as one of 14 news organizations in New Mexico, along with two other states, California, and Illinois, to participate in the national Local Media Association 6-month training program in philanthropy, with the kick-off training in NYC. Read more about that here.
We’ve published over 100 articles - on a shoestring. If it’s any testament to our quality, the New Mexico Jewish Journal literally SWEPT the NM Press Women Excellence in Communications Contest this last Saturday, winning 8 1st place awards, with a total of 25 honors for 13 of our writers, including 1st Place for the New Mexico Jewish Journal for the most awards by a single organization.
Our writers all worked very hard to write these articles out of the joy of their hearts, and that is what has made the New Mexico Jewish Journal a success. We feel the awards from this first contest we entered, the NM Press Women, are certainly one meaningful way to show our community that we've built something new and vital. The judge's comments were the real rewards:
“Prophetically terrifying and a great history of the Evangelical takeover of the government leading us to a U.S. theocracy” commented one judge about Ron Duncan Hart’s series, awarded 1st place in Government/Politics for Jews and the Crisis of the Religious Right in America and an Honorable Mention in Religion for Jews and Christian Nationalism. “Bandera,” the cover art by Gloria Abella Ballen for Hart’s featured book, Evangelicals and Maga: The Politics of Grievance a Half Century in the Making, won a 2nd place in Graphics, as it "effectively uses the American flag as a visual metaphor, integrating its colors and shape to reflect the book’s political theme."
“An interesting website for the Jewish community with lots of information. Content is well-written and contains a wide variety of topics,” is the judge’s comment for a 1st place in Website Edited by Entrant/For-Profit for the New Mexico Jewish Journal for NMJJ’s editor Diane Joy Schmidt. Well, good for us!
The Fifth Question, a column about how to navigate the rocky shoals of Passover that seems like it might be even more relevant this year, got a 1st place for Schmidt, and the judge’s comment for Some personal thoughts on broader effects of the U.S. election, one of two other columns that placed, was especially rewarding: “Very well written, accurate, and prophetic!”
Master writer Norma Libman cached two very well-deserved 1st place awards in Reviews and in Travel for two unique feature stories, “Marco Polo Didn’t Have a Guide Book: Judith Fein Goes Deep in Exploring New Mexico” and “Looking for your ancestors? Let Judith Fein Show You How To Get the Real Story”.
Claudette Sutton swept all the possible awards available in Food; 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, for her Syrian family’s stories and recipes: Seeds of a Good Year: Black-Eyed Peas for Rosh Hashanah, Culinary Time Travel: Easy, Cheesy Sambusak and Heritage in a Bowl: My Heirloom Haroset, along with the review, Make Room for This One: The Eucalyptus Cookbook, evoking this pithy comment, “It prompts this goy girl to buy it.”
Lena Keslin won a 1st place in Writer/Photographer for Hidden in Plain Sight, The Old Jewish Cemetery on the Lido, one of the many islands of Venice, Italy, with the judge waxing, “I was transported to a place I have never been before and didn’t know existed,” and an HM for Hidden in Plain Sight: Amsterdam, noting “It is vitally important to document and share the knowledge of these places and histories.”
Rabbi Min Kantrowitz received an HM award in the category of Health for "Tahara: An Encounter" with the judge commenting “Lovely, Rabbi, just lovely!…I’m so glad you left your comfort zone and had that epiphany."
Michael Wald graced us with the amusing “Bagels in the Boondocks” awarded HM in Travel, “Interesting article in locating Jewish people and foods in Panama,” relating to his book Why Didn’t You Call: A Peace Corps Exposé.
Frank Morgan won a 3rd Place in Graphics with his sketch “Roaming Hidden Places” to accompany the short mystery story “Perfidious” set in 1920’s New Mexico, receiving a soulful judge’s comment, “Your line work shows great fluidity, capturing the horse’s movement and the rider’s posture.”
Martin Finston received a 2nd Place in Reviews for Susie Sandager, Author and Actress of Corrie Remembers with an appreciative note from the judge that we need more heroes like her, and “Well written…and wonderful.”
“What an important story” said the judge about Brian Serle’s personality profile, “Rabbi Neil Amswysh, Facing Challenges for Santa Fe’s Jewish Community” HM, with the note that if it were written in narrative rather than Q&A it would have been top contender for 1st place. We agree.
Neala McCarten gave us a fascinating look at "Exploring Jewish Rome" in Travel, HM, deemed “insightful and informative, well written and fascinating,”
Carl Montoya shared the informative “Basque Country - Spain Discovering a New Mexico Connection and a 500-Year-Old Agreement With the Jews”, in History, HM, with “research and meaningful experience.”
Thank you to our writers, and to our readers! We need you all! Spread the word - every reader counts. And, believe it or not, we can't really operate on thin air, as heady as it may be at times, we really need your paid subscriptions, contributions and donations to keep us going here.
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Community Supporters of the NM Jewish Journal include:
Jewish Community Foundation of New Mexico
Congregation Albert
Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque
The Institute for Tolerance Studies
Jewish Federation of El Paso and Las Cruces
Temple Beth Shalom
Congregation B'nai Israel
Shabbat with Friends: Recapturing Together the Joy of Shabbat
New Mexico Jewish Historical Society
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