The awards event for the 36th Reuben Rose Poetry Competition took place via Zoom on April 30th 2026. As usual, several dozen people attended: prize-winners, their guests, and Voices Israel members from Israel and other countries including the UK, USA and Canada.
Our President, Julian Alper, and the competition administrator, Mark L. Levinson, jointly presided over the event. Following a welcome by Julian, Mark summarized the data for this year’s competition. Our International Judge, the poet Baruch November, was unable to attend, but our other two judges, Judith Robinson of the U.S.A. and Fran Levin of Israel — winners of the 2024 competition — each gave useful and enthusiastic comments.
As usual, three prizes and ten Honorable Mentions were awarded, and the poets of these top thirteen, all of whom were with us, then each read their winning poems.
The texts of all the poems, and audio recordings of the three winners reading their poems, are on the 2025 Reuben Rose Competition page, accessible also from the list of winning poems year by year on the Winners and Poem Texts page.
We had time at the end for a short Open Mic session, where several of our members, including some from overseas, each read one of their poems.
We recorded the event via Zoom, including the Open Mic at the end, and have uploaded the video to the Voices Israel YouTube channel. It’s a public video: do watch and feel free to share with whoever you like!
Below are a few screenshots to give a feel of the evening.
Julian Alper and Mark L. Levinson, introducing; judge Judith Robinson, commenting
The winners reading their screen-shared poems:
Voices Israel Group of Poets in English 