3 Days of JSPA

THURSDAY: Students at JSPA’s 2024 convention watched as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, above, was interviewed for a national Zoom audience by JSPA’s scholar-in-residence, Ami Eden of 70 Faces Media (Joelle Keene)

Last December, editors-in-chief from student news media at three Jewish high schools – one in one in Atlanta, one in Los Angeles, and one in Memphis, Tenn. – got up early on a Friday morning to teach problem-solving tools that had worked in their newsrooms to about two dozen other students and their advisers from around the U.S. They had 10 minutes each to present,and their fellow students listened raptly, none of them required to be there and many taking notes instead of eating breakfast.

The day before, more than 30 had watched Ami Eden, CEO and Executive Editor of 70 Faces Media, interview Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro live on Zoom from a room across the hall. On Friday afternoon, they heard from Jennifer Medina, a National Political Correspondent for the New York Times, who described the hard work, resourcefulness and courage involved in news reporting — and said she’d never faced antisemitism there in spite of once needing to walk out on a story to be home for Shabbat.

FRIDAY: Oliver Mason, editor-in-chief of Palette at Atlanta Jewish Academy, tells fellow editors how he increased reader interest by encouraging staffers to try new kinds of topics. (Joelle Keene)

And on Saturday, a 12:30 p.m. Shabbat luncheon stretched past 3 as the same students wrestled enthusiastically with a moral dilemma that had faced one of their newsrooms the previous year.

These are just a few of the electric moments at this year’s three-day convening of the Los Ange- les-based Jewish Scholastic Press Association, to which students and presenters alike responded in a wave of unsolicited emails, thank-yous and descriptions of how the conference had revved up their excitement about student news media in their schools.

They represent an increasing number of student-led publications in Jewish high schools around the country – some started with JSPA’s encouragement or enhanced through its programs, which also include adviser training, a national contest for Jewish- and Israel-related news coverage at any school, and a monthly Editors’ Roundtable for student publication leaders.

JSPA’s annual conference runs from Thursday through Saturday. This year it featured topics including Fact vs. Opinion; Principles of Newspaper Page Design; It’s Possible: Building Blocks of Press Freedom for Jewish High Schools; 10 Ways to Cover Israel Now; and Lashon Harah + 4: A Torah framework for ethical journalism. They were taught by leading journalists and journalism educators, including award-winning photojournalist Jackson Krule; Jessica Nassau, adviser to the award-winning Lion’s Tale at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Md.; and David Nimmer, leading intellectual property attorney and editor of the authoritative legal text Nimmer on Copyright.

Founded in Los Angeles in 2013, the organization has about 20 member schools. We would love to tell you more about it, and invite you to join us as we help Jewishly educated young adults find their place in America’s newsrooms, while also letting them know that journalism is a field where they can meld their spiritual and secular identities in service of tolerance, democratic values, and all of their highest ideals.

For more information, please write to us at [email protected], to arrange a call with our Executive Director, Joelle Keene.