Marc Weitzmann Awarded Chaim Bermant Prize for Journalism

Tablet columnist Marc Weitzmann was awarded the Chaim Bermant Prize for Journalism at a ceremony today at Jewish Book Week in London. The £5,000 prize, named for the prolific British journalist and author who died in 1998, is awarded to writers whose work “furthers the understanding of contemporary life and Jewishness.” Weitzmann was cited for what the judges called his “unbelievably prescient” five-part series, “France’s Toxic Hate,” which appeared in Tablet last summer. In addition to Weitzmann, Tablet contributors Matti Friedman, Yair Rosenberg, and Batya Ungar-Sargon were also commended for outstanding work.

In accepting the award, Weitzmann, a Parisian and regular contributor to Le Monde, said that his series had been written “with a feeling of estrangement,” adding that, “for everyone in France, Jews are no longer French citizens—plain French—they are a ‘community,’ like the ‘Muslim Community.’” He stated that he is not writing about anti-Semitism, “I’m writing about France,” explaining that he sees a general reluctance to recognize anti-Semitism, and a dynamic that seeks to find a reason for the attacks on French Jewry that “puts the blame on each side.”

Weitzmann has contracted with publishers Houghton Mifflin to publish an expanded version of his Tablet series in hardcover in the coming year.

Related: France’s Toxic Hate