Erika Dreifus

Received via AMJHISTORY:

Writing Contest for High School Students Celebrates Jewish-American Heritage Month

(New York, March 29, 2013)–To celebrate May’s Jewish-American Heritage Month, high school students are invited to compete in a writing contest to honor Jewish contributions to American culture. Entrants will prepare an essay on the topic: “Which Jewish-American Do You Most Admire?” The winner will receive a grand prize of $180 and the runner-up will receive $100. In addition, both winning essays will be published on www.freshinkforteens.com, printed in The Jewish Week, and archived on the Jewish-American Hall of Fame website www.amuseum.org/jahf. The winners’ schools will also be acknowledged, and both students will receive a Jewish-American Hall of Fame medal.

Entrants may select from the list of honorees and nominees in the Jewish-American Hall of Fame, (www.amuseum.org/jahf), or can choose another living or deceased Jewish-American . Essays not exceeding 500 words should be emailed by May 13, 2013 to Shira Vickar-Fox at freshinkforteens@jewishweek.org. Entries will be judged by The Jewish Week staff and the Jewish-American Hall of Fame director. Consideration will be given to originality, creativity and writing style.

Contest rules follow: All entries must indicate the name of the high school and the grade of the entrant. There is a limit one entry per student. Winners will be notified by email. Prizes will be sent by June 10th. Staff, board members and families of The Jewish Week Media Group are not eligible. All submissions become the property of Fresh Ink for Teens/Jewish Week Media Group.

Fresh Ink for Teens is a project of The Jewish Week, the country’s most widely circulated Jewish newspaper. The content of www.freshinkforteens.com is written for–and by–Jewish teens from around the world. FIT covers high school, politics, Israel, sports, culture, college preparation, Judaism, family matters and more through original articles and insightful essays. Creative writing and poetry are also welcome.

Originally published as a printed supplement to The New York Jewish Week, Fresh Ink began more than 15 years ago and has won awards from the American Jewish Press Association. The website is edited by Shira Vickar-Fox and hosted by The Jewish Week Media Group, New York, NY. Fresh Ink for Teens is made possible through the generosity of the Norman E. Alexander Family Foundation Fund. Mr. Alexander was a founder of The Jewish Week who had a special interest in educating and inspiring young people.

The Jewish-American Hall of Fame was founded by Mel Wacks in 1969 at the Magnes Museum, and became a division of the American Jewish Historical Society in 2001. Its award-winning website www.amuseum.org/jahf features a virtual tour through 500 years of Jewish-American history illustrated by medals commissioned for over 40 honorees such as Revolutionary War patriot Haym Salomon, Statue of Liberty poet Emma Lazarus, master magician Harry Houdini, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, baseball great Hank Greenberg, Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir, and Nobel Prize winner Albert Einstein.

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For any questions about this news item please contact Mel Wacks, Director of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame, at directorjahf@yahoo.com or 818-225-1348.