Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby has won the first annual Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism, awarded to commemorate the work of a prolific New York Post columnist who died at 42 last year.
"Jacoby is willing to say things others are afraid to say," said New York Post publisher Martin Singerman.
"He's willing to take a stand on controversial issues."
The award gives $10,000 to the editorial or column writer who best reflects the spirit of Breindel's writings, which the award's founders describe as the "love of country and its democratic institutions, as well as the act of bearing witness to the evils of totalitarianism."
The award's vision is one Jacoby takes personally.
"My father is a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, the only member of his family to survive the death camps, so the act of 'bearing witness to the evils of totalitarianism' has always mattered deeply to me. It mattered deeply to Eric Breindel as well, and it is a great honor to be the first recipient of the award that bears his name."
Jacoby submitted five columns to the selection committee including one criticizing religious persecution in China and another in support of the US embargo of Cuba.
An excerpt from his April 2, 1998, column, read: "The embargo is regrettable and has its costs, but it is not what keeps Cubans on their knees. The dictator is. Instead of harping on the embargo, American leaders should be saying, loudly and insistently, what every Cuban yearns to hear: 'Castro must go.' "
Jacoby has been with the Globe since 1994. Before that he was the chief editorial writer with the Boston Herald for seven years.