MERCAZ USA / CANADA / WOMEN'S LEAGUE FOR CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM ESSAY CONTEST

AWARDS: FIVE SCHOLARSHIPS IN THE AMOUNTS OF: $1,000; $600; $400 & $250 (2 X)

ELIGIBILITY:
Applicants must be 14 - 19 years of age
Applicants must be members of a Conservative congregation.
Scholarship will apply to any Conservative Movement Sponsored Israel Program

ESSAY REQUIREMENTS

TOPIC: ISRAEL AND ISRAELIS AS REFLECTED IN MODERN ISRAELI LITERATURE

BACKGROUND: In 2006, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding in January 1906 of Bezalel, a school of "arts and crafts" in Jerusalem, intended to be the first modern academy of Jewish art. Many of Israel's great artists, including Reuven Rubin and Nachum Gutman, studied there, and today, Bezalel is Israel's leading academy of arts and design. Other special anniversaries in the creation of Israeli culture include the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Israeli Broadcasting Service/Kol Israel and the 40th anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to Israeli writer Shmuel Yosef (Shai) Agnon.

While American Jews are vocal in our support for Israel, few of us have much familiarity with the vibrant culture — literature, cinema, music, theater, poetry, painting, etc. — that is being produced there. Sadly, our general lack of fluency in Hebrew has hindered our ability to access this creativity. But, today, more and more Israeli art is reaching our shores. If the arts in general can be seen, at least from one perspective, as a window to the national soul, we should become acquainted, as lovers and supporters of Israel, with what these products of Israeli culture show us about Israel.

ASSIGNMENT: Read an Israeli novel or collection of short stories by a single author published in the past 20 years. After providing a brief summary of the work, describe what you learned about Israel and Israelis. Besides the Hebrew language and/or an Israeli location, what makes the novel or stories "Israeli"?

NOTE: You are free to select any modern Israeli author, but here are a few writers you might consider: Amos Oz, A. B. Yehoshua, David Grossman, Sami Michael, Orly Castel-Blum, Ronit Matalon, Etgar Keret, Savyon Librecht, Batya Gur, Shulamit Hareven, Aharon Megged, Dorit Rabinyan, Yaakov Shabbtai.

HELPFUL HINTS: As you read, look for a particular sensibility or a preoccupation with certain themes or character types that is, in your mind, "Israeli"? What does the novel's special treatment of such common fictional themes, such as family, landscape, society, love and death, tell you about Israeli life? Secondly, what role, if any, does Jewishness broadly defined play in the work that you have chosen, whether in terms of theme or style? What relation do these Jewish elements have to the ideas you have labeled "Israeli"? Do you think the work's main themes might be treated differently by a North American Jewish writer?

FORMAT: Up to 500 words — Typed and Double-spaced — Passport size photo
DEADLINE: Postmarked no later than October 13th, 2006, and MAILED TO:

MERCAZ USA / CANADA / Women's League for Conservative Judaism Essay Contest

MUST INCLUDE: Entry Form which must serve as Title Page. Click here for the pdf version of the entry form.

Entry Forms are also available from MERCAZ USA tel: 212-533-7800, ext. 2016 or e-mail: info@mercazusa.org OR from MERCAZ-CANADA tel: 416-667-1717 or e-mail: mercaz-masorti@intrr.net.

WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED DURING THE WOMEN'S LEAGUE CONVENTION, NOVEMBER 12-15, 2006, AND WILL BE PERSONALLY NOTIFIED THE FOLLOWING DAY.