With the vibrant photograph to the right, published in the Fall 2002 issue of Reform Judaism magazine, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations launched the 21st Century Photography Project.

This far-reaching project is designed to capture in photographs the creativity and diversity of North American Reform Judaism. The URJ Art Committee's plan is to feature these images in the pages of Reform Judaism magazine, on the walls of our national offices, in URJ Press publications, on the URJ's Web site, and, in the future, as part of a colorful URJ Biennial slide show to be displayed to more than 5000 Reform delegates. We hope that, ultimately, we will have collected enough wonderful images to publish a book capturing a year in the life of our Reform communities. In addition, these archived photographs will serve to document for future generations the history of 21st-century Reform Judaism in North America.

We need your help to make this a reality!

Photography Submission Guidelines

Please send us color or black-and-white photographic prints or slides. Photographs must be no smaller than 5" x 7" in size. No digital images can be accepted unless they were originally taken with a high-end digital camera and you supply prints for initial viewing. (Digital photography submission details can be found below.)

The images can represent:

1. URJ-affiliated synagogues or sanctuaries (either the whole or a detail)
2. A treasured ritual item (e.g. a menorah, a ner tamid, etc.) in a Reform synagogue
3. A dynamic picture depicting Reform congregants actively involved in an event or activity (e.g. nursery or religious school, Purim shpiel, Simchat Torah, etc.)

These should be artistic, evocative, and emotive images, action photographs of people and/or exceptional pictures of synagogue architecture…not fronts of buildings, handshaking, people-lined-up-in-rows. We favor unusual, surprising perspectives, both in composition and in subject matter.

On a label on the back of each picture, please provide:

1. The Reform congregation by name and community
2. A description of the image depicted
3. The photographer's name
4. The name and phone number of a contact person from the congregation who would be consulted prior to the publication of an image. Please enter the information on the label before affixing it to avoid damaging the surface of the photograph.

Carefully package the prints for mailing, but do not mount them on a rigid backing. Send them to:

URJ 21st Century Photo Project
633 Third Avenue, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Attn: Librarian

Regrettably, the photographs cannot be returned--instead, we will display or archive them. There is no deadline for submissions to this ongoing project, as we hope to use the images in future editions of Reform Judaism magazine as well as for the long-term projects noted above.

Digital Photography Submission Guidelines

No digital images can be accepted unless they were originally taken with a high-end digital camera and you supply prints for initial viewing. Whenever possible send a photo, transparency or 35 mm slide. Color or black & white imagery is acceptable. If you absolutely MUST send digitally, please follow these guidelines:

• Digital images must be accompanied by printouts. Color printouts are preferable for color images; if this is not possible, please note on B/W printout that the original is in color.
• Images must be saved as Photoshop TIFF or Photoshop EPS.
• Unless otherwise instructed, save all electronic files as 4" x 6" at 300 dpi. Prints should be no smaller than 4" x 6" in size.
• Save in CMYK mode.
• Send on a zip disc or a CD.
• E-mailed images are not acceptable.