ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF

Gil Troy, historian, author, and Senior Fellow in Zionist Thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), has won the top prize in the 2025 Simon Rocker Awards, referred to by some as the “Jewish Pulitzers” presented by the American Jewish Press Association.

Troy, a contributing columnist at the Jerusalem Post, won first place in the  “Excellence in Writing about Jewish Thought and Life” category for weekly and bi-weekly newspapers. Notably, he won for his December 12, 2024 essay in the Jewish Journal entitled, “Wicked Son to the Rescue.”

This win for Troy followed his 2017 Louis Rapoport Award for Excellence in Commentary win for “Excellence in Single Commentary.”

This year’s big win for Troy tackled the subject of hostility towards Jews at a growing rate in the publishing world, describing what he referred to as the “the silent boycott” — a quiet but insidious marginalization of Jewish voices in mainstream literary circles. The judges praised the piece as “a very thorough story that covers a complex issue with multiple aspects, all of them dealt with in this fine piece.”

His story put a spotlight on the emergence of publishing house Wicked Son in 2020 by founders Adam Bellow and David Bernstein. His essay acted as an unapologetic response to a trend. “If Adam Bellow and David Bernstein hadn’t had the wisdom to found Wicked Son in 2020,” Troy wrote, “we would be begging them today to launch a bold, open-minded imprint, willing to publish books about Jews and Israel… without the suffocating political correctness of today’s Academic Intifadaists.”

PALESTINIANS THROW tear gas canisters at the IDF in Ramallah, during the early days of the Second Intifada, in October 2000. After the Second Intifada killed the peace camps on both sides, the Zionist dream became a nightmare, says the writer.
PALESTINIANS THROW tear gas canisters at the IDF in Ramallah, during the early days of the Second Intifada, in October 2000. After the Second Intifada killed the peace camps on both sides, the Zionist dream became a nightmare, says the writer. (credit: NATI SHOHAT/FLASH90)

Troy's recent notable publications

Troy has recently published two notable works: "To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream," which advocates for a "Fearless Zionism" based on hope, liberalism, and Americanism, and "The Essential Guide to October 7 and Its Aftermath: Facts, Figures, and History," a comprehensive guide that provides insight into recent events.

The latter publication, released by JPPI, is available in multiple languages, including English, French, and Hebrew, and has been updated to reflect the ongoing situation.