| |
LOUISVILLE — Students 16 to 22 years old are invited to compete for $100,000 in prize money in the first Reaching Common Ground essay contest by writing about Christian-Jewish relations and the spiritual bonds between the two faiths.
The competition, funded by a 25-year-old Boston philanthropist Elizabeth Goldhirsch, is co-sponsored by Baltimore’s Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies (ICJS). The program will award a $25,000 grand prize, a runner-up prize of $10,000, 10 awards of $5,000, and 15 awards of $1,000. Reaching Common Ground is the richest student writing contest in the nation.
Entries must be original essays addressing one of three theological questions posed at the contest Web site, www.ReachingCommonGround.com. The essays, which must be in English and no longer than 2,500 words, will be evaluated by ICJS judges for original thinking, literary merit and knowledge of the “common ground” shared by Christians and Jews. Winning essays will be published on the Web; winning authors also will be eligible for 12 ICJS fellowships to be awarded in 2005.
The deadline for submissions is July 31. There is no entry fee.
Goldhirsch hopes to make the contest an annual event and to expand it to include other faiths. Mel Gibson’s film, “The Passion of the Christ,” inspired her to fund the program with part of her inheritance.
Goldhirsch has history and journalism degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University and is a theology student at Harvard Divinity School. She also is a director of The Goldhirsch Foundation, which funds medical research. Her late father, Bernie Goldhirsch, created INC. magazine.
|
|
