New Voices Magazine COVID-19 Support Fundraiser

New Voices Magazine is the only national Jewish student magazine, by young Jews and for young Jews -- and in these strange and historical times, supporting young Jewish mediamakers matters. For 50 years, the Jewish Student Press Service has believed in the power of Jewish students across the country to affect change. Motivated by the opportunity we have given them, our writers and editors have gone on to shape and shake the Jewish world with an influence far beyond their numbers.

At a time when so much about the future is uncertain for college-age American Jews, your support for New Voices matters more than ever. You can be a champion for New Voices during COVID-19.

Under the new leadership of Editor in Chief Rena Yehuda Newman (they/them), New Voices magazine seeks to become a digital hub for young Jewish mediamakers. Rena Yehuda, a newly-graduated comix artist, writer, and previous New Voices fellow took up the magazine’s reins at the beginning of July 2020 and arrived to find a budget slimmer than years past due to COVID-19; but this hasn’t stopped us from dreaming big.

Over the next two years, we’ll be transforming New Voices into a virtual community of innovative, passionate Jewish students by facilitating online community meetings for mediamakers to collaborate and pitch ideas called, “Writers’ Tables”, virtual workshops, chevruta (Jewish partner learning) programs, and even collaborative print media projects through the magazine, all while continuing the New Voices Fellowship. In order to maintain these fantastic programs and innovate the new, we need your help.

With even a small contribution of $36, you can support this historic platform for the writing and creations of Jewish students. With a larger contribution of $180, you can help ensure this historic magazine can continue lifting Jewish student voices through these hard times. 

When you support New Voices with any amount, you’ll receive a special digital “Editor’s Picks” edition of New Voices as a thank-you for your contribution. This mini-magazine contains fantastic writing from the past year by various New Voices mediamakers and provides a small taste of the big ideas from our passionate creative community.

If we can reach our goal to pull us through the pandemic, here’s what’s on the docket for New Voices Magazine:

Current Projects:

• Publishing Jewish student writing and media from around the world
• Hosting the New Voices Fellowship year: a stipended, joint fellowship for four outstanding Jewish student mediamakers through New Voices Magazine partnering with Jewish Currents, Judaism Unbound Podcast, and Unsettled Podcast.
• “Bunk Tales: Jewish Camp Counselor Stories” A summer-long project to publish reflections and stories from college-age Jews who have recently worked at Jewish Summer camps, sharing their experiences in this pandemic off-season.

Projects and Goals for the future:

• Monthly virtual “Writer’s Table” events, where current and prospective New Voices writers will meet to do exercises, pitch stories, and create community.
• “Mediamaker’s Spiritual Chevruta Learning Program,” in which New Voices writers will be paired up to do in-depth Jewish learning on topics of their choosing, learning spiritual and wellness tools while engaging with Jewish texts and eventually producing pieces for New Voices inspired by their learning.
• Print-version New Voices Publications, including hard-copy collaborative zines
• Paying our fantastic writers and mediamakers for their labor and creations
• Story Circles and Writer’s Table events for queer and transgender Jewish students to discuss their experiences and build projects and collaborations to be published through New voices

Your support will open the door for new programs and opportunities for New Voices and its creative community. Thank you so much for standing with New Voices during COVID-19, helping new Editor Rena Yehuda begin their editorial term from a place of security, and supporting the outstanding work of young Jewish mediamakers from around the world.