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The Forward’s Youth Writing Contest: We want to hear from you!

Outside, the sun is shining but the streets are eerily empty. You seem to have more free time than ever but there seems to be less and less to do with it. School’s in session, but when you see your fellow classmates, they’re just little squares on a screen. Passover is approaching, a time when we should be celebrating freedom — and yet, how free do any of us feel?

In these strange and unsettling times, we want to hear from you — our future leaders and thinkers. We want to know what you’re thinking and feeling. We want to know what it’s like to grow up in this new reality. That’s why we’re launching our first youth writing competition of the 21st Century.

Our theme is: “What It Means To Be Free.” In partnership with the Jewish Education Project, we are asking you to send us an essay, a story, or maybe even a poem about the meaning of freedom in 2020 America. Your work will be read by a panel of judges including Dahlia Lithwick, a senior writer at Slate.com; former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, Forward senior editor Adam Langer and representatives of the Jewish Education Project..

If we like your essay, we’ll publish it on our site. If we really like it, we’re awarding a cash prize of $180 to the top entry in each of three age categories.

If you’re ready to enter our contest, please send your name, your age, the name of the school you attend, a photo of yourself, and your entry (no more than 1,000 words) to [email protected]. For more information on our contest guidelines, click here.

We look forward to reading your work.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

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