Registration is now open for the 2022 Jewish Scholastic Journalism Conference, a half-day gathering for students and advisers live via Zoom on Tuesday, March 15, 2022. 

Registration is free for JSPA members and member schools, and in light of Covid, membership this year will also be free of charge. Click here for membership requirements and to join JSPA.  The deadline to register is Thursday, March 3.

Running from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Pacific time (12:30 to 3:30 Eastern), the 2022 conference will offer two interactive workshop blocks where students can choose among topics in Jewish journalism ethics, news coverage, and layout and page design. An introductory half-hour will allow for student introductions and networking, along with a brief overview of journalism’s goals, challenges and potential in a Jewish context.

An introductory half-hour will allow for student introductions and networking, along with a brief overview of journalism’s goals, challenges and promise in a Jewish context.  The final half-hour (after workshops) will feature presentation of the 2022 Jewish Scholastic Journalism Awards — results from this year’s contest for work published by high school students during 2021.

This year’s workshop presenters will include…

     9:30 – 10 a.m.  Welcome, including student introductions and networking; Journalism in Jewish Text

     10 – 10:50 a.m.  Interactive Workshop Block A: 5 choices, limited enrollment

     11 – 11:50 a.m.  Interactive Workshop Block B: 5 choices, limited enrollment

     12 – 12:30 p.m.  Awards presentation and closing

All schools sending students to the conference must have an adviser or other faculty member joining as well.

New this year, workshop spaces will be reserved in advance. Advisers will register their students by name, and later this month each student will receive detailed workshop descriptions along with a form where they will rank their choices (first, second, third, etc.) for each of the two workshop periods.

Workshops are led by distinguished rabbis, journalists, teachers and others. Information on previous years’ conferences, including lists of speakers, can be found  here.

JSPA is a national journalism education organization that teaches students top-level skills while looking at journalism through a Jewish lens.  Its goals are to improve student media at Jewish high schools, enhance journalism education in those schools, and teach students and advisers how they can add Jewish content and sensibility to their publications, and also to convey a Jewish outlook on journalism to students in any school.

We promote these goals in a way that respects Jewish values and the Jewish calendar, in particular using Torah teachings as the framework for an ethical journalism high school students apply to tough questions in the newsroom.  Chief among these is our motto, found in Leviticus Chapter 19, verse 16 — You shall not go up and down as a talebearer among your people; you shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor; I am the Lord.   Applying this in journalism means using both courage and restraint, knowing when to use which, and being able to channel curiosity into purpose.

If you’ve ever attended conferences of the National or Columbia scholastic press associations (NSPA and CSPA), then you know how tremendous the impact of young journalists meeting and thinking about journalism together can be.  JSPA adds Jewish meaning and Torah wisdom to this formula, and will help your students become news writers, designers, thinkers and leaders of tomorrow.

For more information, please email [email protected], either to ask questions directly or to set up a time to speak by phone.