About Voices Israel
The Voices Israel Group of Poets in English started in response to a letter from Leslie Summers published in the Jerusalem Post, July, 1971. The four founding members, Leslie Summers, Reuben Rose, Moshe-Ben-Zvi and Jacob Katwan, held their first meeting in August of that year.
Our Goals
- to provide an outlet for writers of English poetry in
Israel
- to encourage new poets in their art
- to promote international friendships through poetry
How We Achieve Them
- Members read their work at monthly group meetings in their town or locality, for friendly discussion and positive critique.
- One or two poems from each group’s meeting are published in
the Voices Newsletter each month.
- We hold workshops two or three times a year, mainly for
members but non-members and prospective members are welcome to join us.
For more information, see our Workshops page. - We hold an annual competition among our members, in memory of Reuben Rose,
the founding editor. Submissions, which are
anonymous, are judged by a panel of three independent judges. Cash prizes totaling $700 are awarded as well as publication of the
winning poems and those awarded honorable mentions. - We publish an annual Anthology of the best poems submitted by our members (and non-members). For details see our Anthology page.
- We encourage membership by interested poets from other countries, and publish a monthly selection of their contributions in the Voices
newsletter along with those chosen at each meeting by our Israeli members. - We seek and maintain affiliations with English-language poetry organizations world-wide and encourage our members to publish
abroad.
Our Groups
We currently have Voices Israel groups in the cities of Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Netanyah, and in the regions of Upper Galilee, Western Galilee, Sharon (together with Netanya) and Southern Israel. Some of these groups meet face to face, and some via Zoom. In addition we have a Global Group, held permanently via Zoom, for overseas and Israeli members who do not have a local group or are unable to attend one. We hope to re-start a Bet Shemesh/Modi'in group, probably also via Zoom. A list of our officers and branch coordinators is on the Contacts page.
How to Join Us
We welcome visitors thinking of joining us to any of our monthly meetings - for your local group coordinator see our Contacts page.
Our annual membership fee is 120 NIS for Israeli residents / $40 for overseas members; "Early Birds" rate (until March 31st of that year) 100 NIS / $35 respectively. To join, please download our ,membership application form, fill it in, and send it with your payment (check or bank transfer) to our Treasurer, Chanita Millman (details are in the application form).
We look forward to seeing you!
Download Our Flyer
If you love poetry - spread the word! Please download our flyer and distribute it, in email or print, to anyone you think may be interested.