The Bela Kornitzer Award was established in 1992 by Alicia and George Karpati to honor Bela Kornitzer, Mrs. Karpati’s brother, and to recognize his achievements as a journalist and author in Hungary and the United States.

Drew University faculty and alumni/ae have the opportunity to receive $2,000 prizes in acknowledgment of exceptional nonfiction books published in the years prior to the Award.

The award was originally established solely for Faculty. In 2003, the endowment was increased to provide for separate Faculty and Alumni awards.

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From The Bela Kornitzer Papers: "Bela Kornitzer was a Hungarian-born journalist who documented the lives of prominent American men during the middle of the twentieth-century. After fleeing both the Nazis and the Communists in Hungary, Kornitzer left his established career as a journalist and came to America in 1947. [Throughout his life], Kornitzer struggled to gain recognition as an influential journalist and [wrote about] his interest in the success stories of his fellow Americans."

Bela Kornitzer’s papers, books, and other archival materials are housed among the Drew University Library’s Special Collections. These papers include correspondence, manuscripts, audio and transcribed interviews, newspapers, magazines and photographs that document both the affairs of Kornitzer and his subjects.