Short Story Contest

For readers who might not have seen this INN news item, you are all invited to send in entries. Who knows? Maybe one of your  fantasy scenarios might win.

(IsraelNN.com) If you are one of the many would-be writers who have unpublished short stories stashed away in their drawers, this may be your chance. In an effort to encourage creative Jewish writing, Jerusalem Israel Publications has announced a short-story writing contest which is offering attractive cash prizes sponsored by the Irving Moskowitz Foundation of Miami Beach, Florida.

The company’s director, Yisrael Goldberg, says that everyone talks about the need to inject true Torah values into the cultural arts in Israel, and he hopes that the contest will stimulate talented people to take their Jewish creativity out of the closet.

At the request of the Moskowitz family, the contest has a special category for young writers, to let their voices be heard. Participants are being asked to center their stories around one of three themes: the settlement of the Land of Israel acts of kindness or highway safety. 

Stories should be at least six pages in length, and the deadline for submission is Chanukah.

The contest accompanies the Jerusalem Israel Publications release of Tzvi Fishman’s new Hebrew book, “Creative Jewish Writing,” a how-to-manual that covers all aspects of creative writing from an unabashed Jewish perspective.

Book Jacket

Tzvi Fishman has published several popular Jewish novels, and taught screenwriting at New York University before immigrating to Israel. He was awarded the Israel Ministry of Education Prize for Jewish Creativity and Culture. According to Fishman, the world didn’t learn the art of drama and storytelling from the Greeks as textbooks maintain. “All of the ingredients for dramatic storytelling were already in the Bible long before the Greeks appeared on the map,” he claims.

Explaining the importance of the short-story contest, Yisrael Goldberg says: “Whenever there’s talk of a peace agreement, the Israeli media rushes to interview their pet leftist novelists, as if they are the paragons of social justice and morality. Why don’t they interview writers like Tzvi Fishman instead? Hasn’t he written enough novels and movies? To make our voice heard, we have to promote writers with a religious and Zionist worldview. I hope the contest will stimulate that.”

Regarding the contest sponsors Fishman said, “When I visited Dr. Moskowitz and his family in Florida,” he recalls, “I was blown away by their home library. Bookcase after bookcase testify to their passionate commitment to the Land of Israel, Zionism, Jewish History, and Torah, and to quality literature as well.”

Three case prizes will be awarded to each of two age categories: 1) up to age 25 and 2) 25 and older.

The prizes are: First prize - 3000 NIS, Second prize - 2000 NIS and Third prize - 1000 NIS.

Story submissions in English or Hebrew can be sent to itzik@pisrael.com. Include your name, e-mail address, and age.

Two Paths Diverged in a Snowy Wood

I vaguely recall a Robert Frost poem that we learned in elementary school, whose title was something like, “Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening.”  With Shabbat just two hours away, I don’t have time to look it up. The end was something like, “Two paths diverged in a snowy wood. I took the one less traveled by, and that made all the difference.”

What path are you on?

That could be the motto of our forefather, Avraham. He could have stayed in his father’s lucrative idol business and lived a comfortable life in Ur Kasdim, but he chose the path less traveled by, and that made all the difference, bringing about the foundation of the Jewish Nation in Eretz Yisrael.

Avraham could have pretended that the idols in his father’s store were real gods, but instead he smashed them to pieces, and that made all the difference, bringing the knowledge of one G-d into the world.

Avraham could have turned his back on Lot when his life was endangered, but he risked his own life to save him, and that made all the difference, teaching the Jewish People that we are responsible to come to the aid of our brethren, even when they aren’t Tzaddikim.     

Avraham could have refused to sacrifice his son, Yitzhak, but he immediately agreed to obey G-d’s command, and that made all the difference, giving strength to all of his offspring, in all of their generations, to sacrifice their lives for Hashem and the Torah.

Avraham didn’t choose the “good life” for himself, and that made all the difference.

Not to Mention Any Names

I went to high school at Phillips Andover Academy. At the time, it was probably the finest prep school in America.

Phillips Academy

Out of its 800 students, there were about 50 Jews. One of the things I remember is the shower room after sports. Back in those days, before it became a standard maternity-ward practice, gentiles weren’t circumcised. So I was the odd man out. Often, the heathens would point and stare and laugh at the circumcised Jew.

Ever since the time of Avraham, the brit milah has been a sign on our bodies, distinguishing us from the gentiles. We are not only physically different in this aspect, the brit milah calls upon us to be different in our spiritual and moral behavior as well. Safeguarding the brit not only means performing the brit milah on our sons, just like Avraham did, it means guarding the laws of sexual holiness as well. For instance, according to halachah, a Jew is to refrain from pre-marital sex, from masturbating, from watching Internet porn, from having sexual encounters with gentiles, from homosexuality, from adultery, from cunnilingus and the like.  A Jew is to keep the laws of family purity (taharat hamishpachah) and to conduct marital relations in a holy fashion, at the times and in the manner that Jewish law and our Sages prescribe.

Because G-d has chosen us to be His unique holy people on earth, the Jewish People have many other practices that are to distinguish us from the gentile peoples of the world. For instance, we are to wear a kippah or some other head covering; we put on tefillin, wear tzitzit, eat special kosher foods, observe the Shabbat and unique Jewish holidays. And, like our forefather Avraham, we are to distinguish ourselves by living in a special Holy Land, which is a commandment equal in weight to all of the rest.

So if you find yourself tucking in your tzitzit strings and taking off your kippah outside of the house because you are worried what the goyim will say; or if you go for a cheeseburger with the guys in the office because you don’t want to stick out; or if you bring home a Christmas tree so that your kids don’t feel different from everyone else; or if you live in a gentile country and try to be as patriotic an American or Australian as Cindy and Bill, or if you are married to a non-Jewish mate, than your something is the matter with your understanding of Torah, and your Jewishness clearly could use a serious rehab.   

Heathen or Australian Jew?

Not to mention any names, of course.