Jonathan S. Tobin

Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia and is a frequent commentator on domestic politics, Israel, and Jewish affairs. His syndicated weekly column, “View from America,” [A View From America, The Jerusalem Post [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212659731754&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull] ] appears in The Jerusalem Post. Tobin lectures widely across the United States on college campuses and to Jewish organizations and synagogues, and has appeared on CNN, BBC Radio, FOX News, and local network affiliates to discuss politics and Jewish issues.

Blogger Luke Ford has called Tobin “the most right-wing editor of a Jewish weekly in the US,” ["A Chat with Jewish Exponent Editor Jonathan Tobin," Jan. 7, 2003, lukeford.net [ http://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/jonathan_tobin.htm] ] but according to Tobin, “I lost my credentials as a real right-winger any number of times because I've taken stands on issues they disagree with. I've taken shots at the right consistently when I think they're wrong. More consistently than when my colleagues on the left take shots at the left."

In his 2001 book, “Pack of Thieves,” U.S. News & World Report correspondent Richard Chesnoff wrote that Tobin is “one of the most thoughtful figures in American Jewish letters.” In 2006, in the Israeli weekly Yated Ne’eman, columnist Jonathan Rosenblum referred to Tobin as “probably the best writer in the Anglo-Jewish Press.”

In 2003, Tobin told an interviewer that Jewish Journalism has improved in quality over last 20 years, but that there are constraints because many American Jewish newspapers are owned by Jewish federations, rather than being independent corporations. This problem, he said, is not different from the problems faced by other newspapers: “Nobody at the Philadelphia Inquirer reports aggressively on Knight-Ridder Corp.” He told an interviewer for the New York Times that “"My job as editor is to talk about things people are not willing to talk about." [An Editorial Provokes A Debate on Intermarriage; Jewish Weekly Touches a Nerve in Connecticut, By Jonathan Rabinowitz, July 13, 1995, New York Times, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE3DF1031F930A25754C0A963958260] ] In the same article, the Times wrote that “In his three-year tenure at The Ledger, an independently owned newspaper, Mr. Tobin, a Long Island native, has turned the once-stodgy weekly into a plucky newspaper with stories on abuses at a local Jewish nursing home and domestic violence among Jews.”

Tobin was profiled in the Philadelphia Business Journal on July 26, 2002 (“Faith in the press” ["Faith in the press," by Adam Stone, July 26, 2002, Philadelphia Business Journal [http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2002/07/29/smallb1.html] ) and in Press – the magazine of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association — in its November 2002 issue (“Exponential Editor”).

Awards

* 2007 Pennsylvania Society of Professional Journalists Spotlight Award for Commentary – 1st Place
* 2006 Pennsylvania Newspaper Association Keystone Award for Editorial Writing - 1st Place
* 2006 Pennsylvania Society of Professional Journalists Spotlight Award for Editorial Writing -1st Place
* 2006 American Jewish Press Association Louis Rapaport Award for Commentary - 1st Place
* 2005 Greater Philadelphia Society of Professional Journalists Award for Best Editorial Columnist - 1st Place
* 2005 Greater Philadelphia Society of Professional Journalists Chapter Award for Best Criticism - 1st Place
* 2005 American Jewish Press Association Award for Editorial Writing - 1st Place
* 2002 Philadelphia Press Association Media Award for Column Writing - 1st Place
* 2002 American Jewish Press Association Louis Rapaport Award for Commentary - 1st Place
* 2001 Pennsylvania Newspaper Association Keystone Award for Sports Column - 1st Place
* 2000 Pennsylvania Society of Professional Journalists Spotlight Award for Editorial Writing - 1st Place
* 2000 Philadelphia Press Association Media Award for Column Writing - 1st Place
* 1999 Pennsylvania Newspaper Association Keystone Award for Editorial Writing - 1st Place
* 1999 American Jewish Press Association Louis Rapaport Award for Commentary - 1st Place
* 1999 American Jewish Press Association Award for Arts Criticism - 1st Place
* 1997 Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Award for Editorial Writing - 1st Place
* 1997 Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Award Award for Opinion Column - 1st Place
* 1997 American Jewish Press Association Louis Rapaport Award for Commentary - 1st Place
* 1996 Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Award for Editorial Writing - 1st Place
* 1996 Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Award for Opinion Column - 1st Place

References