The first prize went to Michal Mendelson from ORT Kiryat Tivon, Israel, for her poems about the Holocaust and a literary analysis of a poem written by a fellow student. She also contributed colour photographs taken in the concentration camps. The panel was impressed by the profound identification and the high literary standard of Michal's poems "Mirror of the Soul" and "Piepel" [based on the famous book by the survivor-writer Ka- Tzetnik] and her literary analysis of the poem "It was Grey" by Tali Haushalter. The prize was vouchers worth $200 for books on Jewish subjects.
Gathering
Touching each other
Looking for their exact place in the mosaic
where they will join together
to become a whole.
Piece by piece
fragment by fragment
I gather.
Transparent pieces
forming a mirror -
for myself.
To stand in front of
and see the soul.
To stand in front of
and look at everything that I went through there
and then break it up once more
and put together again.
Translation from Hebrew: Talia Horev
Moni,
I wanted you to live so much.
I wanted so much to reach the end
and know that you are there:
alive!
You survived all heads of barracks
Everyone’s Piepel -
A human being.
Your beautiful eyes still haunt me
and the book has ended.
Moni,
Why did Ka-tzetnik kill you
on an electrified barbed wire?
Translation from Hebrew: Talia Horev
