The Voices Israel Group of Poets

in English

To all our returning visitors: welcome to our new website!

We now have a top menu with sub-menus  (the little arrow beside a menu item tells you whether it has a sub-menu or not). Note that the top menu items are also clickable – e.g. you can click on About Voices as well as on the items in its sub-menu.

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 160 poets in Israel and many other countries.  We are a fully-accredited and approved organization registered since 1993 with the Israel Organizations Authority.  


For fuller information: 

What We're Doing

Almost all our groups are holding meetings this month -  details are in the Newsletter sent to all our members. Would-be members who'd like to visit a meeting: please see our Contacts page to get in touch with your local group coordinator. 


We've extended the deadline for submitting to the Anthology until March 31st. This is because we noticed a discrepancy in the online information - the Submittable page gave until end of March, the website until March 15th. While the latter was the correct date, we decided to make sure nobody missed the deadline because they went by the Submittable page's information, so you have till March 31st. Don't miss that one!


The judges of the Reuben Rose Competition have just announced the winners. The three winners will receive cash prizes totalling $700 and publication of the winning poems. Ten poems have been awarded Honorable Mentions, with publication of the poems. Here's the list of winners and Honorable Mentions; we'll have the texts of the poems up on that page as soon as we can - watch this space!


Our Annual General Meeting will be held Tuesday March 12th at 6 pm. Mark the date! Here's the agenda. The notice circulated to Voices members includes the exact address. After the formal business of the evening there will be an Open Mike session - another opportunity to read your poems! - so do start thinking what your choices may be to read to the gathering.


Voices and IAWE held a joint Poetry Reading in Tzfat — on January 24, at Mystic Mountain Studio and Brewery in the Artists' Quarter of Tzfat - see it on Google Maps. Featured poets: Reuven Goldfarb, Shlomo Sher, Michael Dickel (Dekel); invitees: Yehudit Goldfarb, Ann Bar-Dov, Pesach Rotem, and Michael Kagan. After the poetry readings the venue was opened to the public and a Hassidic-looking band played blues and jazz. For fuller information and a few photos to convey the atmosphere, see our Tzfat Poetry Event page.

Thanks to Reuven Goldfarb for organizing this event! 

Membership renewals are now due for 2019. Do renew quickly to take advantage of the Early Bird discount! You do it by filling in our membership form and sending it by mail with a cheque, or by email with details of your bank transfer, to our Treasurer. Full details, and the form to fill in, are on our Join Voices page.

We recently held a workshop: "Imagery, Imagination and Poems that Build to a Series." Led by Dr. Judy Belsky -  poet extraordinaire and an amazing teacher of poetry writing - the workshop took place on December 17th in Jerusalem. The chapbook from this workshop, entitled "Mosaics of Memories," has now been published and is available for downloading here, and from the workshop page which gives more details about it and about how to order a print copy of the chapbook. 

Wondering what our workshops are like? Take a look at the Workshops section of our website.
Recent and upcoming events
The submission period for the 2019 Anthology opened on December 16th.  Last date for submissions is March 31st 2019 - so if you didn't yet submit, do remember to do so by then!  Details of how to submit are on the 2019 Anthology Submissions page. 
We launched our 2018 Anthology with a wonderful evening at the Karaoke Bar, Netanya.
Our  yearly anthologies contain the poems voted by our Editorial Board  to be the best of those submitted.   Interested? For more information, including details of how to order copies, see our Anthology page.

What our Members Have Been Doing: congratulations to:

Rumi Morkin (aka Miriam Webber) whose poem "Smartphones" was published in Sasson Magazine, October 2018 (see https://sassonmag.com/smartphonesby-rumi-morkin/); and whose poem "Utopia" has been accepted for publishing in the Deronda Review of 2019.


Judy Koren whose poem "Utopias" has been accepted for publishing in the Deronda Review of 2019.


Ruth Fogelman who has two poems published in the February issue of The Seventh Quarry.


Matthew Anish whose poem was published in the December/January issue of The Amulet. Matthew also has a chapbook, “Golden Words,” available for purchase at $7.00. You may reach him at greatceasersghost1@gmail.com.

Pesach Rotem, whose poem “Doom” was published in Tuck Magazine


Britta Kollberg (Germany), Julie Bloch Mendelsohn (Israel), Channah Moshe (Israel),

Shlomo (Steven) Sher (Israel), Immanuel Suttner (Australia), whose poems were published in the 2018 Mizmor Poetry Anthology from Poetica Publishing.


Edit Gavrielly, on the birth of two grandsons.


Eli Ben-Joseph, on the birth of a grandchild.
Helen Bar-Lev, on her appointment as Overseas Connections Coordinator for Voices Israel.

Hannah Moshe, who has had the following poems and works published:

  • "Ai Way Way" (a poem in English) and חודש סליחות (a poem in Hebrew with an English translation) in
          Amaravati Poetic Prism 2018, the international multilingual poetry anthology 2018.
  • "Autumn" in Mizmor Anthology eCollection, December 2018.
  • "May Every Step" and "Taking Time" in an extremely beautiful anthology called Family Celebrations
         2018    .


Avril Meallem, whose poetry books, Dancing with the Wind and Come Sit with Me by the River, together with her two collections of Tapestry Poetry (co-authored with Indian poetess Shernaz Wadia) have now been published on Amazon (worldwide) and are available as both paperback and Kindle e-book editions. The paperback versions are still available in Israel via https://tapestrypoetry.webs.com/ or https://avrilm.webs.com/


Pesach Rotem, whose poem “Ripple” was published in Nine Mile Magazine (http://ninemile.org) and whose poem “Drawing Hands: Part One” was published in Constellations (www.constellations-lit.com/issues/vol8.html); and whose poem "Comforting Pats" was published a month or two earlier, in The Poeming Pigeon: In the News .


• Channah Moshe, Hayim Abramson and Avril Meallem for having their poems published in the “Amaravati Poetic Prism 2018” – an International Multilingual Poetry Anthology.

Awards and Publications: Congratulations to:
Matthew Anish, USA, who had two poems published in the November issue of Beyond Bree, a Mensa publication, and before that, two poems published in the July-August issue of The Amulet.
Esther Cameron, on the publication of the third and final installment of her article "Put Down That Smartphone and Listen" in  Sasson Magazine; and for being interviewed by Rivka Levy, founding editor of that magazine.
Seymour Mayne, whose book In Your Words: Translations from the Yiddish and the Hebrew (Ronald P. Frye & Co.) received a Canadian Jewish Literary Award for outstanding book in 2018.
Ricky Rapaport Friesem, who has won First Prize in the nonfiction category of the Tiferet Journal 2018 writing contest for her submission “What’s in a Name?”
David Silverman, whose short story “Elvis Helps Me Courting” was chosen as one of the 12 winning stories in the ESRA Magazine Short Story Competition 2018.
Bernard Mann, for the interview with him in ESRA magazine's Sept/Oct/Nov 2018 issue about the writing of his book David & Avshalom, Life and Death in the Forest of Angels.

Come Join Us!

We're always happy to welcome new and established (yes and would-be) poets into our family!

  • To attend a local meeting to try us out - contact your local Coordinator.
  • To become a member of Voices Israel - fill in our membership application form and send it in - full details are in the form. Note that we charge a modest annual
         membership fee, which covers our costs and entitles you to a free copy of the Anthology and reduced fees for workshops.