Reg
Registration is now open for the 2024 Jewish Scholastic Journalism Conference, three days of workshops, networking and inspiration for high school journalists and with special programming on Shabbat, set for Dec. 5 – 7 at Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills.
Ami Eden, CEO and Executive Editor of 70 Faces Media — which publishes leading Jewish media ranging from JTA and the New York Jewish Week to the Nosher, Kveller and Hey Alma — will be scholar-in-residence, presenting the keynote address at dinner Friday night and working with students in various capacities on all three days.
The annual gathering provides students with a chance to spend quality time together while enriching their understanding of newsroom ethics, issues and techniques.
On Saturday afternoon, they consider a real-world newsroom dilemma faced by a JSPA member high school within the last year, evaluating it through the lens of Torah verses they can apply to their own student media roles when they get home.
“There’s really nothing that can duplicate the experience of traveling, learning and talking news media together over several days,” said Joelle Keene, JSPA’S founder and executive director. “The group energy of Jewish high-schoolers who are doing the same thing in different schools and cities inspires everyone, and they go home excited to try new things and do more.”
Also highlighting the 2024 conference will be leading photojournalist Jackson Krule, photographer for the award-winning book American Shtetl about Kiryas Joel in New York and contributor to The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, GQ, The Wall Street Journal, Vice, Topic and other publications; Jessica Nassau, former director of the Maryland Journalism Education Association and current adviser to the award-winning Lion’s Tale at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Md.; and Jennifer Medina, National Political Correspondent for the New York Times.
The conference will be held at Beth Jacob Congregation, at the southern edge of Beverly Hills, walking distance from kosher restaurants of all kinds and at least 15 synagogues of various denominations, along with hotels that will offer discounts of 30% to JSPA attendees.
Beth Jacob offers weekday minyanim as well as Shabbat and afternoon services. JSPA will provide a list of neighborhood davening opportunities and times on request.
Convention Weekday Schedule
Beginning at 9 a.m. and continuing throughout the day Thursday and Friday, students and their advisers will be able to choose among various 45-minute workshops, with options for beginning and advanced print, web and multimedia student journalists.
Topics will include…
~ Lashon harah — gossip — and other guiding considerations found in the Torah
~Basic and advanced photojournalism, page layout and design
~How to cover Israel and the larger Jewish world from a high school newsroom
~Jewish journalism on college campuses, led by current university students
~Sports reporting in the Jewish context
… and many more.
The program will break both days for lunch and a chance to sample LA’s famed Pico-Robertson kosher restaurant scene.
At dinner on Thursday, Mr. Krule will demonstrate how editors should choose competing photos of the same subject when it’s time to publish, while also reviewing pictures turned in by attendees earlier in the day.
Also presenting will be Rabbi Kalman Topp, senior rabbi of Beth Jacob and currently serving on the National Council of AIPAC, the Executive Committee of the Southern California Board of Rabbis, and the Advisory Board for the Israel-Christian Nexus. Rabbi Topp will look at journalism through a rabbinic lens at a conference-wide address on Thursday morning.
Convention Shabbat Schedule
Shabbat meals will be held at Beth Jacob, following Kabbalat Shabbat and morning services. Ami Eden will deliver a keynote address Friday after dinner, and on Saturday, after lunch JSPA Executive Director Joelle Keene will lead a moral dilemma discussion on a newsroom challenge experienced by one of JSPA’s member school staffs during the past year.
The conference officially closes with the Saturday lunch and discussion. Parks and other walking opportunities are available, as is napping at your hotel. Havdalah is at 5:24 p.m.
Registration and pricing
Registration via PayPal is $150 per person and includes Thursday night dinner, and Friday night Shabbat dinner and Saturday Shabbat lunch. Early bird registration of $130 is offered to those who pay by Nov. 10. Please click here to register for the conference.
Hotel rates at this writing start at approximately $250 per night for two double beds. For a list of discounted hotels and discount information, please email [email protected] before contacting the hotel. Because the program starts early Thursday morning, JSPA recommends arriving Wednesday night and checking out SUnday to have use of your hotel throughout the day on Shabbat.
There is scholarship aid available this year. Please write to [email protected] for information.
Chaperones
All student groups must be accompanied by a chaperone.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE
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 develop and improve student media at Jewish high schools, enhance journalism education in those schools, 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.
It promotes these goals in a way that respects Jewish values and the Jewish calendar, in particular using Shabbat to create a journalistic cohort that can consider news gathering in a Jewish way. Its motto, found in Leviticus Chapter 19, verse 16, is, You shall not go up and down as a talebearer among your people, neither shall you 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.
This year’s conference is made possible by the American Jewish Press Association, Beth Jacob Congregation, the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, and the Harvey Motulsky and Lisa Norton Family Fund.
For more information, please contact Joelle Keene at [email protected].
