David Twersky. Photo: Provided photo.

An editor who last spring conducted the first-ever interview a senior Hamas leader gave a Jewish publication was announced as the winner of an annual award named after a distinguished Jewish journalist.

Larry Cohler-Esses, assistant managing editor at The Forward, won the 2013 David Twersky Journalism Award for his interview in Cairo with Mousa Abu Marzook—Hamas’s second-ranking official—in April 2012.

“This interview is a monumental achievement for The Forward and it is no surprise the judges found it worthy of this year’s award,” Michael Twersky, David’s son, said in a statement.

The award—whose inaugural winner last year was New Jersey Jewish News (NJJN) Editor in Chief Andrew Silow-Carroll—was established to recognize the work of journalists at the NJJN and The Forward, the newspapers where Twersky worked for a combined two decades. Twersky’s time at The Forward “was a scoop-filled period when he established the newspaper as a serious voice for the Jewish community in Washington,” and at NJJN he “transformed a community paper into a strong, state-wide publication through a series of mergers with neighboring Jewish community newspapers,” according to a press release.

Announced on Twersky’s birthday, Feb. 19, the honor comes with a medal and a $1,000 prize.

“The mission of the judges was to find that one piece that David would have considered most remarkable,” award founder Amir Cohen, who was Twersky’s colleague at both NJJN and The Forward, said in a statement.