AMI magazine

I know that many writers in Israel have never seen a copy of Ami magazine.

Some of you, like me, may even have written for them, without ever having seen what the new weekly even looks like.

So when my sister, from Teaneck came, I asked her to see if she could get me a copy. Being the extremely kind sister that she is, although Ami isn’t available where she lives, she shlepped out  three times and brought me three different issues.

Now three issues do not make me an expert, but I guess if you’ve never seen a single copy then the information I’ve gleaned may help you.

Please understand that the information below is my subjective opinion based on what I read only in those three issues and it is far better to get detailed guidelines from the editors themselves.

In the issues I saw there was no fiction  except in aim, the tween  section ( more of that in detail below) and even the stories in aim all seemed to be serialized, (each episode written by the same author).

Ami

The main  magazine contains  news  and current events  articles as well as articles on general topics .

The columns below seem to be open to freelancers and I’ve tried to give a brief synopsis of the stories in the 3 editions I saw.

Ambassadors

These were all as-told-to ….. stories based on  the goodness of human nature (my description)  -

  around 800 words

a)A story about a landlord who reduced the rent for a couple who were struggling to pay.

b)A woman who pretended to buy some old clothes from a poor person in order to re-sell them, but was really just helping her get an income.

c) A business whose owners continued to pay workers who were  not  needed as technology had replaced their jobs.

Human Experience

As-told-to …… people going through very difficult life situations ( 2000-3000 words)

a)      A second marriage where the household fell apart when the wife became ill.

b)      A Muslim who discovered he was really a Jew and his return to Yiddishkeit.

c)      A  bochur who moved in with a blind man to care for him 24/7.

Jewish Living in …….    ( 700 – 800 with photos)

Short  pieces about Jewish life in

 a) Cleveland   b) The Lower East Side      c)  Meron, Israel

AMI LIVING   The women’s magazine.

The editors said they are very happy to receive  queries for  all types of general  features of interest to women.

Weekly columns which seem to be open to freelancers:

The Clean Bill – Real People on a quest for health      as-told- to  (2000- 4000 words)

a)A wrong diagnosis by a doctor

b)A boy with Asperger’s syndrome

c) A wrong diagnosis by a doctor

Truth or Consequence

Should a person always be told the truth  ( 2000 – 3000 words)

a)      Should you take the car keys from an elderly parent who could be a danger on the road.

b)      Discovering your nephew on a diet eats at a soup kitchen to get extra food.

c)      Should people always be told the truth about their medical condition.

ESSAYS

They also publish  up to  four essays each week of very varied lengths ( the shortest I saw was only 400 words – the longest about 1500 words)

aim -  Magazine for tweens

The sections which appear to take freelancers are:

Real Tweens – Real Life   (approx 1500 words)

a)      An unpleasant camp experience

b)      Awkward incident with a teacher at school

c)      A torn tendon in a thumb and the lessons learned from it.

At the end of  each edition I had  there  was another section that looks like it would take freelance contributions as each one was by a different writer – no  special subject / title    (1500 – 2000 words)

a)      The trials of having very curly hair

b)      A bad experience babysitting

c)      Leaving one girl out of the friendship clique

If anyone else has any information that might help potential contributors to Ami, please leave a comment.

Hope this helps those of you who’ve never seen the magazine.