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This must end.
On the anniversary of the tragic terrorist attack in Israel on October 7th, the American Jewish Congress is launching our inaugural Solutions Challenge. We are calling on young Jewish leaders to join us in confronting antisemitism head-on.
We are looking for bold, fresh perspectives that tackle the real dangers Jewish students face today. This is your chance to make your voice heard, influence decision-makers, and create lasting change for Jewish students.
Highlight how antisemitism is affecting Jewish students and propose innovative solutions on how to address this critical issue.
Have a direct impact: inspire action, public advocacy campaigns, and policy changes.
Stand out and be recognized for your thoughtful contributions as an emerging Jewish activist and leader.
Entry is open to students in the United States. Students must be between the ages of 18-23 and currently enrolled in their undergraduate or graduate studies at the time of the competition in October 2024-January 2025.
• Language: All submissions must be in English
• Essay length: 500-1,500 words
• Format: Font size – 11; Line Spacing – 1.5
• Submission Limit: Entrants are limited to one written submission per year
• Originality: Each essay must be original. Essays must reflect the participant’s ideas, analysis, and expression. Any essay found to involve plagiarism will be immediately disqualified from the competition.
• AI Usage: The use of AI tools for assistance in writing is strictly prohibited.
• Accepted Digital Formats: MS Word, PDF
• Content: Video highlighting why you chose to participate in the contest, the challenges Jewish college students face and summary of the ideas from your essay addressing this issue.
• Language: All submissions must be in English
• Video Length: 120 seconds or less
• Format: Either choose a creative approach or keep it more traditional—what matters most is that your video clearly communicates your ideas.
• Submission Limit: Entrants are limited to one video submission per year
• Originality: Each video must be original. Videos must reflect the participant’s ideas, analysis, and expression.
• Accepted Digital Formats: MP4, MOV, AVI, WebM, or FLV format
• Participant surname followed by _AJCongressSolutionsChallenge
• Example: Doe_AJCongressSolutionsChallenge
• Early Submissions (both essay and accompanying video) must be submitted no later 23:59 (11:59PM) Eastern Time (ET) on December 8th, 2024
• Regular Submissions (both essay and accompanying video) must be submitted no later 23:59 (11:59PM) Eastern Time (ET) on January 25th, 2025
Judges conduct a blind evaluation of the Essay submissions and deliberate on the winner(s). Essays will be judged on:
• Originality and Creativity: Unique perspectives and innovative thinking.
• Depth of Analysis: Well researched, thoughtful insights that go beyond surface-level understanding.
• Relevance to the Theme: Clear connection to the topic of antisemitism, staying focused and on point.
• The entrant represents and warrants as follows: (i) that the submitted essay and accompanying video are the entrant’s original work of authorship; (ii) that the submitted essay and accompanying video do not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, rights of privacy, publicity, intellectual property rights, or other rights of any person, entity, or other party; (iii) that the submitted essay and accompanying video do not violate any law or regulation; and (iv) that the submitted essay and accompanying video have not been published in any form or in any publication.
• Submissions by entrant must not only be entirely original works of authorship and content, submissions may not have yet been published in any form or in any other publication. If your submission contains small amounts of material or content (i.e. a paragraph or two) that has been previously published, please let us know so that we can evaluate whether or not we can accept such a submission. To that end, please note in your submission the specific text that has been previously published elsewhere, and please provide the name of the publication where such text was previously published.
• Submissions may not: (i) include any language, expression, or content that constitutes hate speech or defamation in any form whatsoever; (ii) contain any content that is harmful to children, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable; (iii) violate any applicable laws or regulations; (iv) impersonate any person or entity; (v) include any content that you do not have the right to make available or that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary rights of any person or entity; or (vi) include content containing advertisements or other commercial solicitations without our prior written permission. We will make such determinations, in our own discretion. Should there be a determination by us, in our sole discretion, of breach of this prohibition, the submitted essay will not be further considered by us, and its submission shall be considered null and void ab initio.
Judges with expertise in journalism, public engagement, and educational writing, will review all essay submissions and select the winners based on the established criteria.
Winner:
• $2,500 for the winning essay*
• Featured in the AJCongress newsletter and website
• Participation in a session with the leadership of the AJCongress
Runners-up (2nd and 3rd place):
• Amazon gift certificates worth $500 and $250 each.
• Certificates of achievement.
• Participation in a session with the leadership of the AJCongress
*If there is more than one winner in any given year, the amount will be distributed evenly among the winners.
Elli Stern is Professor of Modern Jewish Intellectual and Cultural History in the Departments of Religious Studies and History and Chair of the Program in Jewish Studies at Yale University.
