By: Fern Sidman

In response to a wave of false narratives and poorly vetted reporting surrounding the Israel–Hamas conflict, award-nominated journalist Jacki Karsh and her husband Jeff have launched a new initiative poised to reshape the media landscape for coverage of Jewish life, antisemitism, and Israel. The Karsh Journalism Fellowship, developed in partnership with Jewish Federation Los Angeles, seeks to equip working journalists with the knowledge, context, and resources necessary to cover Jewish-related issues with depth, accuracy, and integrity.

As reported by eJewishPhilanthropy.com on Tuesday, the idea for the fellowship was born out of the media firestorm surrounding the October 17, 2023, explosion at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital. While early headlines—most prominently on the homepage of The New York Times—blamed Israel for bombing the facility and reported death tolls in the hundreds, subsequent investigations revealed that the blast was in fact caused by a misfired rocket launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, killing dozens rather than hundreds.

“The story was reported incorrectly, and then the correction was so muted,” Jacki Karsh told eJewishPhilanthropy.com. “It was not like, ‘Wow! We just completely messed up this story.’ It had already affected how everyone perceived the war.”

Karsh, a six-time Emmy-nominated multimedia journalist, said the incident served as a painful reminder of how misinformation can ripple outward from newsrooms to policymakers and the public. The fallout from the erroneous hospital coverage, Karsh argued, is emblematic of a larger, systemic failure in how major media outlets approach stories related to Israel, the Jewish people, and antisemitism.

“If there had been one person in that newsroom who had stood up and said, ‘We need to wait. We cannot rush into this — this will have an impact if we don’t verify,’” Karsh said. “Even just waiting a few hours until the smoke clears… but there was nobody that really stood up.”

The Karsh Journalism Fellowship is, in many ways, a direct response to that absence. According to the information provided in the eJewishPhilanthropy.com report, the fellowship is designed to train 10 early- to mid-career reporters annually to approach Jewish issues with a richer understanding of context, history, and cultural sensitivity. It represents a first-of-its-kind national initiative exclusively focused on improving journalism related to the Jewish community.

Enrollment for the inaugural cohort opened last month and will close on September 1, with the first program cycle launching in January 2026. Over the course of the year, fellows will attend three immersive weekend retreats in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. Each session will be fully funded and will offer curated programming led by subject matter experts, veteran journalists, and community leaders.

As the report at eJewishPhilanthropy.com highlighted, the fellowship curriculum will include sessions on topics such as “The Myth of Jewish Media Control,” “How to Cover Antisemitism,” “Middle East Misinformation,” and “Jews in the American Mosaic.” The goal is to develop not only subject literacy, but also a critical understanding of how unconscious bias and historical tropes can shape newsroom narratives.

Each participating journalist will receive a $4,000 stipend and produce a substantive reporting project under the guidance of a professional mentor. Fellows will continue working with their current editors while being encouraged to challenge assumptions and engage more responsibly with Jewish subjects.

Karsh noted the problem is not necessarily one of malice, but often of omission or lack of exposure. “Journalists often lack the background to report on these issues with the nuance they demand,” she told eJewishPhilanthropy.com. “This is a pivotal moment to invest in rigorous journalism on Jewish issues.”

Initially conceived as a local initiative, the fellowship was first pitched by Karsh to Jewish Federation Los Angeles in November 2023. But she quickly recognized the potential for national impact. “Jewish journalism about Jews affects the entire American Jewish population,” she said. “So why just isolate ourselves to Los Angeles?”

With the support of Rabbi Noah Farkas, CEO of Jewish Federation Los Angeles, Karsh brought on Rob Eshman—a veteran editor formerly with The Jewish Journal and The Forward—as director of the fellowship. As reported by eJewishPhilanthropy.com, Eshman’s editorial experience and long-standing engagement with Jewish journalism have been pivotal in designing a program capable of both mentoring and challenging the next generation of reporters.

“This fellowship is designed for working journalists who want a deeper understanding of complex, controversial issues,” Eshman said. “We are building a program that will help build careers.”

To ensure ideological diversity, the fellowship has recruited mentors and speakers from a broad spectrum of respected publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Spectator, and digital platform ATTN.

Karsh’s recent trip to Israel, undertaken as part of a federation mission with Los Angeles politicians—none of whom were Jewish—was another turning point in the development of the fellowship. As she told eJewishPhilanthropy.com, the journey offered her a rare chance to observe how first-time visitors perceived the Israeli landscape and its social, political, and geographic complexities.

“I’ve been to Israel a million and one times,” she said, “but this time was different. For me, it was really eye-opening to see Israel through somebody else’s eyes.” Many of the participants, Karsh observed, had never previously encountered the multifaceted reality of the region and asked sincere, if difficult, questions. “It was a hard trip,” she acknowledged. “There were tough conversations, but I think it was probably one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.”

That sense of urgency—to provide people, especially those in public-facing roles, with a more complete understanding of Israel and Jewish identity—deeply informed the structure of the fellowship.

According to the information contained in the report on the eJewishPhilanthropy.com website, the fellowship’s underlying mission is to correct a media environment in which Jewish voices are often absent from stories that profoundly affect them. Karsh pointed to the growing trend of journalistic activism as one of the root causes of skewed reporting.

“A lot of journalism today has been hijacked by activism,” she said. “What was once a straightforward news piece has turned into something else entirely.”

Karsh is quick to add that she does not believe only Jewish journalists can tell Jewish stories. Rather, she hopes the fellowship will instill a deeper awareness of the consequences of reporting and the responsibilities that come with it.

“We want journalists to understand the impact that their reporting has on Jewish issues and Israel,” she told eJewishPhilanthropy.com, “and how that, in turn, affects the global Jewish population — and to understand the power of the pen or broadcast.”

Jacki Karsh brings not only journalistic experience but also a deep personal commitment to civic and communal engagement. In addition to her reporting on homelessness and human-interest issues, she has served on the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and continues to be an active voice in the philanthropic world. Her husband, Jeff Karsh, is the founder and managing partner of Tryperion Holdings, a real estate investment firm with more than $2 billion in assets under management. The couple lives in Los Angeles with their three children.

As eJewishPhilanthropy.com reported, the Karshes see the fellowship not merely as a philanthropic gesture, but as a long-term investment in truth-telling and community resilience.

Karsh envisions scaling the program to include more journalists and cities. “We’re hoping they understand the power of even a five-word comment,” she said. “It can change everything.”

The Karsh Journalism Fellowship stands at the intersection of journalistic integrity and communal necessity. In a moment when stories about Jews, Israel, and antisemitism dominate global headlines—often framed by sources with little to no cultural context—this initiative seeks to restore balance, accuracy, and credibility to the profession.

The fellowship is quickly becoming one of the most talked-about interventions in the contemporary media space. If successful, it could serve as a model for addressing similar blind spots in other areas of reporting, from race and religion to international affairs and historical memory.

For Karsh, the measure of success is simple: “We want one fellow in every newsroom. Just one voice who says, ‘Wait. Let’s make sure we get this right.’ That alone could change the way the story is told.”