Noa Gomberg, a 16-year-old student from Mount Scopus Memorial College, has been named the winner of The Australian Jewish News Rosh Hashanah Poetry Competition. Her winning poem strikes a delicate balance between reflecting on current events and offering a sense of hope.
“I was really not expecting it, I just wrote from the heart,” said Gomberg, expressing her excitement and surprise. “It’s such an honour to have my work praised like this. It’s special.”
For Gomberg, this isn’t a new experience. She has previously won online poetry competitions and sees writing as an inseparable part of her life. “I definitely want to keep writing for the rest of my life. I don’t think I could live without it,” she added, echoing the sentiments of writers like Sylvia Plath, who once said, “I write only because there is a voice within me that will not be still.”
In her prize-winning poem, Gomberg addressed the current situation in Israel, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging the present while holding on to hope. “I think right now it’s ignorant to ignore the situation going on in Israel,” she said, “but it’s also really important that we recognise that it’s not all of our lives … that’s not the way of the Jewish people.”
Despite her success in poetry, Gomberg’s talents extend beyond the literary world. She shared that she has a love for maths, along with English and history, showing a well-rounded approach to her academics. Her future aspirations lie in politics, where she hopes to help immigrants in Australia. “Being an immigrant myself, I know the struggles, and I want to make the process easier,” said Gomberg, who was born in Brazil and moved to Australia at the age of nine.
Considering English is her second language, Gomberg’s achievements in poetry are even more remarkable. Like Maya Angelou once said, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have,” Gomberg’s passion for writing, alongside her empathy for others, signals a bright future ahead.