2026 Middle School Writing Contest: New Americans and You

Contest Details

The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience invites all middle school students to participate in this year’s writing contest. This year, MSJE’s writing contest is inspired by our special exhibition Holocaust Survivors in a New Land: The New Americans Social Clubs. 

A “New American” is someone who comes to the United States to build a new life, whether they are a refugee or an immigrant. This title has been given to different immigrant groups at different times. After World War II, it was often applied to European Jews who had survived the Holocaust and resettled in America.

Many of these Holocaust survivors formed local support networks that they called New Americans Clubs. These were places where they socialized, helped each other learn about and adapt to their new communities, and provided important connections to their shared culture, history, and experiences. 

Writing Prompt: 

Imagine there is a new student in your class who recently arrived in the United States. If you wanted them to help them feel more comfortable in their new school, what three customs, traditions, or values would you tell them about the school to make their transition easier. Share why you think it is helpful for them to know about those three things. Then write three questions you would ask to get to know about what three important traditions, values or items they are bringing with them. Finally, write about why you are interested in learning about their cultures and traditions.

Instructions:

Use examples from your own experiences or interests to support your ideas, beliefs, and convictions for your essay. This is NOT a research paper, and the best submissions will NOT be summaries of history. Your writing will be judged foremost for its thoughtfulness, originality, clarity of expression, creativity, and adherence to the contest theme, as well as its historical accuracy, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Museum staff will read and evaluate all entries and select the winning submissions.

Tips:

• You spend more time in your school than just about anywhere. Think about how people there interact with each other and what you wish you knew when you first got there.

• If you can, visit MSJE’s Holocaust Survivors in a New Land: The New Americans Social Clubs exhibition to learn more about New American stories. 

Rules and Formatting Guidelines

• Contest is open to all students (grades 5–8) in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. You don’t have to be Jewish to submit. 

• Your total submission must be 600 words in length or less total. Students may only submit once.

• All submissions should:

  • be typed double spaced in a 12-point font

  • have one-inch margins

  • be saved and submitted as a .pdf

  • Writings must be submitted via the contest website by Friday, May 1, 2026 

  • When you are ready to submit, click below, fill out this simple information form, and attach your .pdf file

Awards

First Place: $500

Second Place: $250

Third Place: $100

Winners will be notified by mid-May 2026. Winning submissions will be posted on the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience’s website, along with the names of honorable mentions.

If you have questions about eligibility, rules, or anything, email us at info@msje.org.

Find a full information sheet to share with your community below.

2025 Essay Contest Winners

1. Imagine that you have dug up a time capsule from a relative who was your age 100 years ago. In that time capsule, there are 3 items and a letter. What might the letter say? What 3 items might they have included to tell you about their time, and why?

2. Next, prepare to send the time capsule back in time (yes, it’s a time-traveling time capsule) to that relative with a letter of your own and 3 items that represent your time.

2025 Essay Contest Winners:

Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 Middle School Writing Contest. You can read their outstanding submissions below:

First Place: Laizer F, "The Clock"

Second Place: Thomas K, "A Brief Window into Time"

Third Place: Adeline M, "My Great-Great-Bubbie"

2024 Essay Contest Winners:

1st Place: Aydin S., Columbia, SC., "RE: National Historic Park Campaign..."

2nd Place: Netanya Victoria H., New Orleans, LA., "Dear Congressman Carter..."

3rd Place: Emzi F., New Orleans, LA., "Dear Honorable Troy Carter..."

2023 Essay Contest Winners:

Which Three Artifacts Would You Put In YOUR Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience?

1st Place: Leah S., Virginia Beach, VA, “My Southern Jewish Experience”

2nd Place: Dylan R., Nashville, TN, “Jewish Christian Crossroads in the South: A Middle Schooler’s Perspective”

3rd Place: Ezra H., New Orleans, LA, “My MSJE”