Welcome to Voices Israel
Who We Are:
Voices Israel is the natural home for Israeli poets writing in English, and for those abroad who support our goals and share our enthusiasm for poetry. From our initial launch by four founders in 1971, we have grown to a membership of around 150 poets in Israel and several other countries. We are a fully-accredited and approved organization registered since 1993 with the Israel Organizations Authority.
For Fuller Information:
- see our About Voices page;
- Come visit our Facebook page!
- download our flyer and email it to others who would like to hear about us.
- We also have a short flyer for notice boards. If there’s a place where English speakers gather – why not print it out and pin it up there?
Come join us!
We’re always happy to welcome both new and established (yes and would-be) poets into our family!
- To attend a local meeting to try us out – contact your local Coordinator. You’re welcome to ask to attend, as a guest, any of our local meetings, via Zoom or in-person, for two or three meetings prior to deciding whether to join.
- To become a member of Voices Israel – fill in our membership application form and send it in! Full details are on our Membership page. Our modest annual membership dues cover our costs and entitle you to a free copy of the Anthology and reduced fees for workshops.
Some of our local groups hold face-to-face meetings, while others meet via Zoom. For members with no convenient local group, we also have two Global Groups which include members from both Israel and abroad: see the Our Team page for contact details of their coordinators.
Chapbooks currently available can be ordered via PayPal: click the link below, it will ask you to log in to your PayPal account and then to fill in the amount to send Voices Israel with a note saying what the payment is for. Please also send an email to whoever is distributing them (our chapbook producer, Judy Koren: koren.judy@gmail.com).
The link: PayPal.me/VoicesIsrael.
What we’ve been doing of late
Below is the list of our activities for the last few months. To see the full list of what we’ve been doing, check out our Voices Israel’s Activities page
July to September 2026
In light of rising costs, particularly for overseas postage, we will have to increase the membership fees for 2027. Members will have an opportunity to discuss the proposed increase at an EGM on Zoom on Wednesday 28th October at 7:30pm (Israel time). The EGM will be followed by an open mic poetry reading – further details will follow soon.
The launch of this year’s Anthology will be held in-person and via Zoom on October 14th, 6 to 9 pm Israel time, at the Chalet restaurant in Kiryat Mitzkin, a 2-minute walk from the train station just north of Haifa. Registration details will be sent soon.
We’ll be holding a Zoom workshop, led by Elana Dorfman and Dina Yehuda, on the poetry of Tehillim, on Wednesday September 2nd at 7 pm to 8:30 pm Israel time. Registration details will be sent soon
Dina Yehuda will be interviewing Mara Lee Grayson on Zoom on Sunday August 23rd at 7:30pm (Israel time) Their discussion will focus on Mara’s life, work and poetry. Registration details will be sent soon.
Our 2026 Voices Israel Anthology has been published and sent out to all members and contributers.
Our Reuben Rose Competition is now open for submissions. The submission period runs until October 1st. For details see our Submit to the Reuben Rose page.
On Tuesday, 14 July, we held a special Zoom evening to honour our nonagenarian members – Ada Aharoni, Amiel Schotz, Judy Foner, Miriam Webber, Ricky Friesem, and Stanley Barkan.
April to June 2026
We held the joint Reuben Rose Competition and Bar Sagi Prize awards event via Zoom on Thursday, 30 April 2026. Over 50 people attended including family and teachers of the winning Bar Sagi poets. The Zoom recording is up on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/NXeaU3irNns.
On April 15th, Dina Yehuda, our past Chief Editor of the Anthology,interviewed Miriam Botzer of Sfat, via Zoom, on her life and creative journey, focusing on seven of her poems. To see a recording of the live interview, click here. Passcode is: Gp*^2t3B.
The editorial board for the 2026 Anthology has made its decisions and the Anthology is now in preparation. Congratulations to everyone whose poems were accepted!
January to March 2026
Our Early Bird membership renewal period ran until March 31st. And we extended the deadline for submissions to our Voices Israel Anthology till the same date — see the Anthology section of this website.
Our Annual General Meeting proceeded as scheduled despite the war, on March 19th, and was attended by 27 people.
On March 5th, a few days after the war began, we held an impromptu Open Mic session, which was very well attended.
Our Zoom workshop on Light was so well attended that there wasn’t time to hear the poems written at it; so we held a poetry reading for them on January 13th.
The Reuben Rose Prize winners and Honorable Mention recipients have been announced. For details, see our 2025 Reuben Rose Competition page.
Our Bar Sagi Young Poets Prize competition submission period has now closed and the judges are considering the entries.
Our 2026 Anthology is open for submissions, till March 31st.
October to December 2025
Our Zoom workshop on Light, presented by Elana Dorfman, is on Tuesday December 9th at 7 pm Israel time. The registration form is on p.11 of our December newsletter.
We are now accepting submissions for the Bar Sagi competition for young poets in Israel. Please help us to publicise the competition to your children, grandchildren, and any teachers you may know! Full details are on our website: https://voicesisrael.com/bar-sagi-prize/.
The submission period for our annual Anthology opens on December 14th. As usual it’s open to anyone, anywhere: submit your three best poems! entry is free. More details are on our Submitting to the Anthology page.
The closing date for submissions to our prestigious Reuben Rose competition has passed and the judges are busy judging the poems.
We’ve sent printed copies of the chapbook resulting from our September workshop to everyone who ordered them. Anyone who wants a copy (or an additional copy), please contact Judy Koren, our chapbook producer.
What our members have been doing
Below is a list of our members’ latest poetic achievements, with links to their publications where available. To see the full list for the past six months, check out our Members’ Activities page.
July 2026: congratulations to:
Miriam Alper and Julian Alper, who have had poems accepted for publication in The Deronda Review.
Miriam Jaskierowicz Arman, who has been appointed Official Representative & Ambassador for Peace ‘The International Association for Arts and Culture for Peace’ (IAACP) under ‘Universal Peace Federation (UPF), Israel’.
Bruce Black, who has had four poems published in the New England Review: “Star dust” – and more.
Esther Cameron, whose essay Between Revolution and Repentance and poem Censorship have both been published in the New England Review.
Isaac Cohen for his many successes throughout the month.
Walter Gonzalez, (writing as W. E. Ticas) whose poems “The Boy called Silence” and “Aida, Whom the Dust Could Not Bury” have both been published in the New England Review.
Mara Lee Grayson, who received this year’s Honeybee Poetry Prize from The Good Life Review for her poem “How to Be a Jewish Woman in Amerikkka while Your Friends Sleep Fitfully in War Zones”. You can read Mara’s poem and hear her read it here .
Judy Koren, who has had four poems accepted for publication in The Deronda Review.
Christopher Carter Sanderson, who has been selected as quarterfinalist in the Outstanding Screenplays Shorts Competition 2026 for his work “Werner Herzog, A Comedy.”
June 2026: congratulations to:
Julian Alper,who has had three poems published in the New English Review under the title “A Hard Night’s Day”.
Peter Bernstein, whose poem “PLEA” was included in Poetry Super Highway’s 28th Annual Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) Poetry Issue.
Esther Cameron, who has had a poem, “To Golda…”, and two articles, “Beauty’s Rose…” and “Santmyer’s Masterpiece…”published in the New English Review.
Isaac Cohen for his many successes throughout the month.
Walter Gonzalez (writing as W. E. Ticas) whose poem “Do Not Forget Us” has been published by the Jewish Literary Journal.
Miriam Green whose poems “This Life Of Sorrow And Elation” have been published by Judith Magazine.
Judy Koren, who has had a poem accepted for publication in the Deronda Review.
Channah Moshe, whose poem “Who decides” has been published in the Jewish Literary Journal .
Klarina Priborkin, whose poem “The Story of a Bouquet” will be published in IAWE’s arc32; and whose article “Reading Lion Feuchtwanger’s The War of the Jews…” has been published in Judith Magazine. In this article Klarina traces a 1965 Soviet edition of the novel from her grandparents’ hushed apartment in Uzbekistan to her own safe room under fire in Israel.
Judy Robinson, whose painting “Yellow Flowers” was featured in the most recent issue of Wild Greens, and whose prose and poetry were featured in the June edition of the New English Review.
Miriam Webber, who has had a poem accepted for publication in The Deronda Review.
May 2026: congratulations to:
Walter Gonzalez (W. E. Ticas) who has opened a blog at The Times of Israel. His first post “Before I Knew the Name” is at https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/before-i-knew-the-name/. Walter has also had a poem “The Last Visit” selected for the Nassau County Voices in Verse 2026 anthology.
Isaac Cohen for his many successes throughout the month.
Miriam Green whose article about the zoo was published in Hadassah Magazine at: https://heyzine.com/flip-book/827b17cffd.html#page/27.
Channah Moshe, whose poem “Breakfast in Sun City” was selected for publication in IAWE’s arc 32.
Yiskah Rosenfeld, whose poem “The Lesson of Garlic” was selected by SWWIM for publication: see https://swwimmiami.substack.com/p/the-lesson-of-garlic.
Pesach Rotem, whose poem “For Beauty Died Our Emily” (written at Eli Ben-Joseph’s workshop on the poetry of Emily Dickinson) has been published in Ibbetson Street (www.ibbetsonpress.com).
Richard Shavei-Tzion on the recent release of his movie, “From Vilna with Valor,” about the remarkable survival story of Abraham and Zina Gontownik, which was viewed over the Yom Hashaoah week by hundreds of viewers. For details contact him via Whatsapp: 052-8385775.
Voices Israel Group of Poets in English 