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.
Voices Israel and the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023
The bodies of our member Judih Weinstein Haggai and her husband Gadi Haggai, both murdered on their kibbutz, Nir Oz, were retrieved by the IDF and their funeral at long last held. We pray that the current ceasefire will succeed; we rejoice that almost all the hostages have been returned and hope and pray that the one remaining hostage will soon be with us too.
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
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.
July to September 2025
Our 2025 Anthology launch took place on September 14th as a hybrid event: in-person at the Karaoke Bar, Netanya, and via Zoom. For a description and photos see our 2025 Anthology Launch page.
On September 2nd we held a very successful in-person workshop, “Two American Poets”, in Haifa.
Baruch November, our 2025 Reuben Rose international judge, read poems and was interviewed about his life and poetry, by Susan Olsburgh, in a Voices Israel special Zoom presentation on Sunday August 17th. For more about Baruch November, see our August Newsletter.
The Reuben Rose Competition opened for submissions on July 15th. For details see our Submit to the Reuben Rose page.
April to June 2025
There has been considerable interest in our proposed Poetry Appreciation group — details coming soon!
The “12 day war” with Iran forced us to cancel our in-person workshop in Haifa on June 24th, with two presenters on the poets Emma Lazarus and Bob Dylan. We hope to reschedule it soon. Instead we held a mini-Zoom workshop on that date, led by Ann Bar Dov.
We held the awards event for the 35th Reuben Rose competition on April 27th, by Zoom. Thirty-two members from Israel and abroad attended. For full details see our 2024 Reuben Rose Awards Event page.
Our Bar Sagi Young Poets prize had regrettably few entries this year and it was felt that none merited an award. We hope for better results next time.
We’re happy to note that submissions to our Anthology were higher this year than for the past two years. We’ve finished the selection process — congratulations to everyone whose poems were accepted! The Anthology is currently being printed.
We’re considering opening a Poetry Appreciation group — details are in the April Newsletter. If you would like to participate in such a group please contact our President, Julian.
January to March 2025
This is the time for Early Bird membership renewal: click here to renew or join at a reduced rate (until the end of March).
Our AGM will be held on Sunday March 23rd at 7pm (Israel time) via Zoom only. It will be followed by an Open Mic poetry reading. All members are warmly invited to attend! Please register to get the Zoom link by filling in the online form here.
On March 5th at 3 pm our Upper Galilee local group gave a poetry reading at the Geiger English Library in Sfat, to celebrate World Poetry Day.
We’ve fixed the date for the Reuben Rose / Bar Sagi competitions award event: it’ll be on April 27th at 7 pm Israel time, via Zoom.
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.
November 2025: congratulations to:
Helen Bar-Lev, whose poem “Green to Heal” has won 2nd prize in the Italian-based Amilcare Solferini Poetry Contest 2025. It can be read in the Poet’s Corner section of the December Newsletter.
Wendy Blumfield, who has two articles in the ESRA Magazine: “Healing and Recovery Through Ecological Gardening” and her book review “Meet The Author – The Legacy of Hansen House – Review”.
Isaac Cohen for his many successes throughout the month.
Mark Levinson, whose poem about Judih Weinstein z”l has been published in the Fall 2025 issue of The New Croton Review, https://newcrotonreview.com/ along with his poem “The Used Book”. Both poems can be read in the Poet’s Corner section of the December Newsletter.
Pesach Rotem, whose poem “Independence Day Potluck” has been published in the ESRA Magazine. It is also in the Poet’s Corner section of the Decemberb Newsletter
Elana Wolff, whose poem “Juney, It’s You” has been featured in the Anacapa Review.
October 2025: congratulations to:
Hayim Abramson, Julian Alper, Mindy Aber Barad, Eli Ben-Joseph, Esther Cameron, Roberta Chester, Larry Lefkowitz and Amos Neufeld, who have all had poems published in the latest issue of The Deronda Review – you can read the poems at: https://www.derondareview.org/vol11no1.pdf
Julian Alper whose article “A Topsy-Turvy Tale of Etrog Painting” has been published by The Lehrhaus here. Also four of his poems were selected for publication in “Published” in the journal All Your Poems – October 2025. Two of the poems, “Morning Coffee” and “Poppy Fields” are included in the Poet’s Corner section of our November Newsletter.
Miriam Arman, whose video/poem “Awakening” is now on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWJS-7TJiAc.
Esther Cameron – whose article “How it has Been for Us since October 7” has been published by New English Review – you can read it here.
Esther Cameron and Mindy Aber Barad who have just published the latest issue of The Deronda Review – see https://www.derondareview.org/vol11no1.pdf
Isaac Cohen for his many successes throughout the month.
Mara Lee Grayson, whose poem “My Father the Mixologist” has been published by STREETLIGHT Magazine – you can read Mara’s poem here.
Elana Wolff whose poem “Don’t We Look Marvellous” has been published in the fifteenth issue of Pinhole Poetry – you can read Elana’s poem here and the magazine’s interview with her here.
September 2025: congratulations to:
Isaac Cohen for his many successes throughout the month.
Amiel Schotz whose Haiku poem “Towards the Future” has been published in Whispers of the Seasons – a contemporary haiku anthology by Fresh Words magazine; and whose poem “Butcombe Lake, Somerset” has been published in the Soul Poetry, Prose, and Arts Magazine, Summer 2025.
Esther Cameron who has had “Three Poems for Israel” published on the New English Review’s web site. You can read Esther’s poem’s here.
Helen Bar-Lev whose poem “Uprooted” has been accepted by Persimmon Tree for publication. It was previously published in our 2024 Voices Israel Anthology.
Pesach Rotem, whose “Passover Haiku” was published in Of The Book: you can read it here.
Wendy Blumfield who has had two articles published in the September Jerusalem Report and a poem, “FIFTY EIGHT STEPS – BOOM BOOM” in the ESRA magazine.
Voices Israel Group of Poets in English 