Oren Nahari received the Center of B'nai B'rith award for excellence in covering the Jewish diaspora in Israeli media on Thursday night, winning its lifetime achievement prize. Nahari, 70, is one of Israel's leading foreign-affairs journalists. For years he edited foreign news and hosted programs on Channel 1 and Reshet Bet. He recently disclosed that he is living with a muscular degeneration illness, but he continues to host a weekly program and podcasts for the public broadcaster.
Nahari served for more than three decades as head of the foreign desk and foreign-news editor at the Israel Broadcasting Authority. Over the years, he became a familiar and respected voice in analyzing global developments and diaspora ties.
The same ceremony also honored other journalists for their work over the past year. Ze'ev Stub of The Times of Israel won in the print category for a series of reports on Jewish communities in France and Canada. Tamar Ish-Shalom received the broadcast category award for the podcast "Jewish Crossroads" produced by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI).
The B'nai B'rith World Center award, now in its 34th consecutive year, is considered Israel's leading prize for coverage of Jewish life in the diaspora. The center says the award is meant to underscore the role of the media in strengthening ties between Israel and the wider Jewish world. The judges included senior figures from academia and the media, among them Yaron Dekel and Prof. Gabriela Shalev, and they chose Nahari in recognition of his long, in-depth journalistic work.
