It’s baaaack! The Second Annual OU Kosher Essay Contest for Grades 4-12, building upon the success of the First Annual Event, is now open for entries from students across North America, with the deadline for submissions being March 7, 2008.
Once again the prizes will be $50 gift certificates from Eichlers.com, a leading Judaica website. Winners will have their essays published online at www.oukosher.org, and Grand Prize winners will be invited to record their essays on OUKosher Radio.
As an indication of the national interest in the competition, winners in the First Annual Contest, announced in June, came from New York, New Jersey, Maryland and California.
According to Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran, Senior Rabbinic Coordinator and Vice President of Communications and Marketing at OU Kosher, the contest is a key component of OU Kosher’s educational outreach to schools. This program also includes visits by OU Kosher rabbis to schools across the country. Most recently, OU Kosher visited with the Alexander Gross Academy in Miami Beach, Stern High School in Philadelphia and SAR Academy in Riverdale. On December 18 OU Kosher will give a presentation at the Fuchs Mizrachi School in Cleveland to discuss various aspects of kosher law and its applications with an audience of eleventh and twelfth graders.
Among the suggested topics in the essay contest are: describing your favorite OU certified candy, snack, food or drink; how eating kosher makes you feel better about being Jewish; writing a letter to a non-observant friend about keeping kosher; describing the kosher experience of walking the supermarket aisle; and how someone stranded in Montana can eat while keeping kosher. Applicants can also make up their own topic, Rabbi Safran says.
Essays should range from 250-500 words for grades 4-6 to 1,000 words for the upper grades.