The Jewish Scholastic Press Association is pleased to announce the 2025 Jewish Scholastic Journalism Awards, to be presented via live webcast in February 2025.
Honoring high school students’ work published during calendar year 2024, JSPA will award a first-, second- and third-place certificate in each category, and a Grand Prize in Jewish Scholastic Journalism will be selected from among the first-place winners. The winner or winners of the Grand Prize will be awarded a personal recommendation from the American Jewish Press Association for a journalism internship at an AJPA member publication of their choice.
There are two new categories this year, both for students whose work is published in professional news media. Category 11 is for Jewish- and Israel-related news and feature stories, and Category 12 is for Jewish- and Israel-related op-eds and other opinion pieces.
“We were pleased last year to see how often high schoolers were writing in non-school media, and we want to recognize and encourage this,” said Joelle Keene, JSPA’s founding executive director.
“JSPA’s goals include supporting the inclusion of Jewish stories in all media, and encouraging students from any school to write on these kinds of subjects in as many different kinds of publications as possible. So this is a moment when we’re happy to be able to expand our range of award categories.”
Ms. Keene also encouraged students to enter their podcasts and photographs, categories she said had received fewer entries than others.
“It’s impossible to imagine news media today without photography, and podcasts are having a moment of particular popularity and impact,” she said. “They are both clearly a part of journalism, and we want to encourage high school students to be as literate and ambitious as possible in every means of informing and interacting with their communities.”
Any work that wins first-prize in its category will be published on the JSPA website, and other winners will be viewable via hyperlink. Click here to see a list of last year’s winners, including judges’ comments and links to winning stories, photos, videos and page design.
Please be careful to follow journalism best practices, and do not submit first-person or opinion articles in the news and feature categories.
Entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on Jan. 30, 2025.
If you have questions about entries or payment, please contact [email protected].
2025 JEWISH SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM AWARDS
CONTEST CATEGORIES
- Category 1: News reporting on Jewish communities, religion, education, institutions, activism, culture, leaders or personalities. NOTE: First-person and/or opinion articles will not be accepted in this category.
- Category 2: Feature reporting on Jewish communities, religion, education, institutions, activism, culture, leaders or personalities.
- Category 3: News and feature reporting on current events involving Israel. NOTE: First-person and/or opinion articles will not be accepted in this category.
- Category 4: News or feature reporting on interreligious or intercultural events. NOTE: First-person and/or opinion articles will not be accepted in this category.
- Category 5: Ongoing reporting on any subject in Category 1, 2, 3 or 4. Ongoing reporting means at least two stories on two different days, covering a story that is evolving with additional facts or occurrences. NOTE: First-person and/or opinion articles will not be accepted in this category.
- Category 6: Opinion: Non-first-person opinion on any Jewish or Israel-related story. This category would encompass unsigned editorials.
- Category 7: Opinion: First-person opinion or first-person experience regarding Judaism, Jewish culture or identity, or Israel, or any Jewish or Israel-related story.
- Category 8: Photojournalism: Photograph attached to any Jewish or Israel-related story.
- Category 9: Layout, design, illustration or infographic attached to any Jewish or Israel-related story, one page or multiple pages.
- Category 10: Video or podcast reporting of any Jewish or Israel-related story.
- Category 11: Any Jewish or Israel-related news or feature story by a high school student and published in a professional publication. NOTE: First-person and/or opinion articles will not be accepted in this category.
- Category 12: Any Jewish- or Israel-related opinion story by a high school student and published in a professional news publication.
ELIGIBILITY: All submissions must be the work of a high school student or students, and published in print or online from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2024. Except for Categories 11 and 12, all entries must have appeared in an ongoing school news publication. Categories 11 and 12 recognize work published in professional ongoing professional news publications, excluding social media and blog posts.
DEADLINE: Entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on January 30, 2025.
SUBMISSION: All entries, including those published on paper only, must be submitted electronically. Entries published online should be entered as URLs on the entry form. Entries published only in print may be submitted as PDFs or photographs of the print pages. Entries submitted as text only (in Microsoft Word, Google Docs or other word-processing software) will not be considered.
LIMIT: There is a limit of five entries per category per publication. Entries that are eligible for consideration in multiple categories may be submitted to each qualifying category.
PAYMENT: Entries are $5 each. Advisers or staff submitting work from a JSPA member publication may submit up to 25 from that publication for no charge. Individual members may submit up to 5 entries for no charge.
Advisers of member publications will receive a discount code via email to be used at checkout. Please contact [email protected] if you have not received your code by Jan. 2.
JSPA school membership is $150 for the academic year 2023-24, covers all publications and students at the member school, and includes discounted access to JSPA programming as well as the contest. To sign up for JSPA membership, please click here.
Payment is via Paypal or credit card on the contest link.
If you have questions about entries or payment, please contact [email protected]
