MERCAZ Newsletter — Spring 2007

LEARNING ABOUT ISRAEL THROUGH ISRAELI LITERATURE

MERCAZ USA congratulates Sarah Mintz of Atlanta, GA, who was the first prizewinner in the biennial MERCAZ USA/MERCAZ Canada/Women's League Essay Contest for 2006.

Organized in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem and the 40th anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Israeli writer Shmuel Yosef (Shai) Agnon, the competition focused on Israel's cultural side. Contestants, aged 14-19, were asked to read an Israeli novel or collection of short stories published in the last twenty years and focus on the image of Israel and Israelis as reflected in the work.

Sarah, an 11th grade student whose family belongs to Temple Beth Shalom in Atlanta, wrote her essay on A. B. Yehoshua's "A Woman in Jerusalem". She is applying her $900 scholarship towards participation in the Ramah Israel Seminar.

Other prizewinners included Valerie Askinazi (Port Jefferson Station, NY) Gabriela Geselowitz (Cedarhurst, NY), Aryeh Pfeiffer Goodblatt (Portland, OR), Sara Miriam Liben (Natick, MA) and Julia Tonkin (Poughkeepsie, NY).