‘My Israel’ school video competition goes national

UNITED Israel Appeal (UIA) has announced its “My Israel” video competition is returning for a second year.

This year, Jewish day schools in Melbourne and Perth are joining Sydney in the annual competition, which has also been extended to include both primary and high school-aged students, as well as the option for families to participate.

In small teams, students and families are encouraged to create original short videos about Israel covering topics including history, food, politics, culture, hi-tech, security, agriculture and tourism.

The purpose of the competition is to engage the community through Israel education and UIA, as well as generate greater awareness about the Jewish State and create a sense of unity within the Australian Jewish community.

The top videos from each school will be entered into the state-based competition, which will be judged by a panel of experts from the film and entertainment industry.

The winning teams from the state-based competition will enter the federal stage of the competition, where the overall winning videos (primary and high school) from Sydney, Melbourne and Perth will be determined by Facebook votes.

The winning high school team of the federal stage of the competition will receive the ultimate prize of $5000 towards Israel travel.

“At UIA, we are for the people of Israel, so what could be better than school students educating and connecting the community through short videos covering topics related to Israel?” UIA NSW shlichah Jasmine Malul said.

“We are excited to launch this project for the second year, and the first year in schools federally – Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.”

She added, “Since we are all practising social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, creating videos to enter into the competition is a great activity for students to do at home!”

Watch videos from Sydney and Melbourne schools from Monday, June 29 on the UIA Australia Facebook page at facebook.com/uiaaus.