MercazUSA/CANADA & WOMEN S LEAGUE. Essay Contest FOR CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM

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1 Essay Contest Page 1 of 6 AWARDS: FIVE SCHOLARSHIPS IN THE AMOUNTS OF: $1,000, $600, $400 and $250 (2X) ELIGIBILITY: Applicants must be years of age; applicants must be members of a Conservative congregation; and the scholarship will apply to any Conservative movement sponsored Israel program (including Israel programs taking place from June 1, 2010 and on). THEME OF THIS YEAR S ESSAY COMPETITION: Theodor Herzl is broadly known as the visionary of the Jewish state. His treatise Der Judenstaat ( The Jewish State ), written in 1896 set forth the reasons why a Jewish state was necessary. However, Herzl was not interested solely in creating a physical space for the Jewish people. Rather, as expressed in his less familiar novel Altneuland ( The ), published in 1902, Herzl had a vision, an almost utopian vision, of what that state should be like. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Herzl s birth in 1860, we are inviting teenagers affiliated with the Conservative Movement to delve into Herzl s dreams and to consider both their relevance for the Jewish world today and the challenge they constitute for the Zionist movement more than 60 years after Israel s founding. ESSAY FORMAT: You may articulate your thoughts in one of the following two formats: 1) Conduct an interview with Theodor Herzl as though it is taking place in the present, asking him questions about his vision against the backdrop of the reality of contemporary Israel. 2) Write a journal describing highlights of your visit to Israel in the year 2023 (Altneuland imagines the Jewish state in 1923), relating what you experience on your imaginary visit and comparing it to what Herzl described seeing in his imaginary visit a hundred years earlier. SOURCES: To get you started, we suggest that you a) View the following 15-minute film: b) Review the attached selection of quotes (on pages 4, 5 and 6) entitled Positive Zionism, from Herzl s writings.

2 Essay Contest Page 2 of 6 c) Read Altneuland, sections of which are available on-line at no cost at: urce=bl&ots=6vsetdy1cd&sig=i9zwk2ex-v0dcopkgppm8_hnsra&hl=iw&ei=jhdpsvdkktomjaes_ PGZDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Temple&f=false SCHEDULE: The biennial MERCAZ-Women s League Essay Contest has traditionally run over the late spring and summer. This year s essay contest has been moved earlier in the year to facilitate students planning their summer travel plans to Israel: 1. Opening of Essay Contest: December 1, 2009: Go to or for your entry form or see page Deadline for Entries: March 1, Announcement of Winners: Winners will be announced publicly during the Women s League convention, December 10-15, (Those applying for Israel programs taking place during Summer 2010 will be notified privately by May 1st.) FORMAT: Up to 500 words typed and double-spaced, accompanied by a passport-size photo. MAIL ESSAYS TO: MERCAZ USA/CANADA/Women s League Essay Contest, 820 Second Avenue, 10th Floor, New York, NY OR 1000 Finch Avenue West, #508, Toronto, Ontario M3J 2V5. (It is also recommended that the essays be sent in electronically to info@mercazusa.org for the United States or mercaz-masorti@intrr.net for Canada). MUST INCLUDE: Entry form (on page 3), which must serve as title page. Entry forms are also available from the MERCAZ USA website (tel: ), the MERCAZ-CANADA website (tel: ) OR the Women s League website (tel ).

3 Essay Contest: Entry Form Page 3 of 6 NAME: ADDRESS: CITY / STATE or PROVINCE ZIP or POSTAL CODE DATE OF BIRTH: TELEPHONE: ADDRESS: CONGREGATION: CITY / STATE or PROVINCE ZIP or POSTAL CODE CURRENT SCHOOL: CURRENT GRADE: ISRAEL PROGRAM(S) APPLYING FOR:

4 Essay Contest: Herzl Quotes Page 4 of 6 P O S I T I V E Z I O N I S M Theodor Herzl on the Vision of Creating an Exemplary Society 1) On the Zionist ideal I truly believe that even after we possess our land, Zionism will not cease to be an ideal. For Zionism includes not only the yearning for a plot of promised land legally acquired for our weary people, but also the yearning for ethical and spiritual fulfillment. Tikvatenu. March ) On universal values All that you have cultivated will be worthless and your fields will again be barren, unless you also cultivate freedom of thought and expression, generosity of spirit, and love for humanity. These are the things you must cherish and nurture. 3) On Jerusalem All the buildings [in the Old City of Jerusalem] were devoted to religious and benevolent purposes hospices for pilgrims of all denominations. Moslem, Jewish, and Christian welfare institutions, hospitals, clinics stood side by side. In the middle of a great square was the splendid Peace Palace, where international congresses of peace-lovers and scientists were held, for Jerusalem was now a home for all the best strivings of the human spirit: for Faith, Love, Knowledge. 4) On the status of women In our new society, women have full and equal rights Their right to vote and to run for office is taken for granted. 5) On Arab-Jewish relations The Jews have enriched us. Why should we be angry with them? They dwell among us like brothers. Why should we not love them? (spoken by the fictional character, Reschid Bey, a prominent Arab explaining why the New Society needed no army) 6) On Jewish renewal It is true that we aspire to our ancient land. But what we want in that ancient land is a new blossoming of the Jewish spirit. Address to the Zionist Congress

5 Essay Contest: Herzl Quotes P O S I T I V E Z I O N I S M Theodor Herzl on the Vision of Creating an Exemplary Society Page 5 of 6 7) On the dignity of labor We believe that salvation is to be found in wholesome work in a beloved land. Work will provide our people with the bread of tomorrow, and moreover, with the honor of the tomorrow, the freedom of the tomorrow. Address to the Zionist Congress 8) On creating a just society Those of us who are today prepared to hazard our lives for the cause would regret having raised a finger if we were able to organize only a new social system and not a more righteous one. Address to the Zionist Congress 9) On religion and state Shall we end by having a theocracy? No, indeed. Faith unites us, knowledge gives us freedom. We shall, therefore, not permit any theocratic tendencies to emerge among our spiritual authorities. We shall keep them to their synagogues... Army and Rabbinate will be honored as highly as their valuable functions require and deserve. But they must not interfere in the administration of the State which confers distinction upon them, else they will conjure up difficulties without and within. The Jewish State 10) On the stranger in our midst I have charged the Jewish people: fashion your state in such a manner that the stranger will feel comfortable among you. Diary 11) On public service Politics here is neither a business nor a profession. We have kept ourselves unsullied by that plague. People who try to live by spouting their opinions instead of by work are soon recognized for what they are. They are despised, and get no chance to do mischief. Our courts have repeatedly ruled in slander suits that the term professional politician is an insult... 12) On foreign aid People come from all over Northern Africa and Asia to have their eyesight saved or restored here in the greatest eye clinic in the world The blessings bestowed by our medical institutions have won us more friends in Palestine and the neighboring countries than all our other industrial and technological progress combined.

6 Essay Contest: Herzl Quotes Page 6 of 6 P O S I T I V E Z I O N I S M Theodor Herzl on the Vision of Creating an Exemplary Society 13) On health care The needy sick only have to apply to the public charities. No one is turned away We should be ashamed to send a patient from one hospital to the other as used to be done in the old days. If one hospital is full, an ambulance in its courtyard will at once take an applicant to another where beds are available. 14) On equal opportunity We neither reward nor punish our children for their fathers business transactions. Each generation is given a new start. Therefore, all our educational institutions are free from the elementary schools to the Zion University. All the pupils must wear the same kind of simple clothing We think it unethical to single out children according to their parents wealth or social rank. That would be bad for all of them. The children from the wellto-do families would become lazy and arrogant, the others embittered. 15) On idealism A community must have an ideal for it is that which drives us The ideal is for the community what bread and water are for the individual. And our Zionism, which led us hither and which will lead us still further to yet unknown heights, is but an ideal, an infinite endless ideal. If you will it, it is no dream [ ] True [ ] False [ ] Undecided Sources compiled by Dr. David Breakstone, Head of the Department for Zionist Activities in the Diaspora, World Zionist Organization davidbr@wzo.org.il