Eliana Jaffee, a fifth-grade student at Pardes Jewish School in Scottsdale, won the grand prize in the American Immigration Council’s Celebrate America Creative Writing Contest. Her poem “Why We’re Here” describes America as a place of freedom, hope and refuge for new arrivals. It was chosen from thousands of entries nationwide. Click here to read Eliana’s poem.
Eliana says she was inspired by the famous Emma Lazarus poem, “The New Colossus,” which is engraved on an interior wall plaque of the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal. Reflecting on her family’s immigration heritage, Eliana recounted how her family fled Germany after Hitler rose to power and that her grandfather took advantage of the opportunities in the U.S. to become an electrical engineer. She considers herself “lucky that I live in a nation where people are allowed to practice their religion and express their culture without being punished. I am proud to be a part of a nation that opens her doors to those in need and provides opportunities to people who may not otherwise have any.”
The contest provides youth with an opportunity to learn more about immigration to the U.S. and to explain, in their own words, why they are proud America is a nation of immigrants. Fifth-grade writers use the theme “Why I am Glad America is a Nation of Immigrants” to discuss their personal immigration experiences, learn about and share family histories or write about the broader questions of the challenges facing immigrants in a new land.
The celebrity judges of the national contest included Gerda Weissman Klein, local Holocaust survivor and founder of Citizenship Counts; Edwidge Danticat, author and National Book Award finalist; Valentino Achak Deng, minister of education in South Sudan; Arun Toké, founder of Skipping Stones: A Multicultural Literary Magazine; and Anya Frazer, the 2015 grand prize winner.
Eliana will read her poem and receive her award at the American Immigration Council’s annual benefit in Las Vegas.
