Staff Writer: Compelling Features for Jewish Chicago

Jewish United Fund; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 55,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) match

Paid time off 22 days (starting 15)

Sick days 11 (starting 7)

Paid holidays 21

Job summary

Jewish United Fund (JUF) is seeking a Staff Writer to tell compelling stories for Jewish Chicago: The JUF Magazine. You will research, interview, and write feature stories with a nuanced understanding of Jewish life, audience, and community impact.

The role emphasizes deadlines, collaboration with editors and designers, and contributing to calendar listings and content repositories. This is a hybrid, full-time position with strong benefits and opportunities to deepen engagement with the Chicago

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, English, communications, or another relevant field.
• 3-5 years of professional writing experience, ideally in journalism, marketing, public relations, or related fields.
• Exceptional storytelling ability and a fresh, engaging editorial voice.
• Strong editorial judgment and the ability to handle sensitive or nuanced topics with discretion.
• Deep knowledge of Chicago’s Jewish community, culture, heritage, traditions, and Jewish communal organizations.
• Outstanding interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills.
• Excellent organizational and time-management skills, with the ability to pivot and multitask regularly.
• Self-motivated, deadline-driven, and able to work independently while also thriving in a collaborative team environment.

Responsibilities

• Pitch and develop original story ideas and news topics, staying attuned to the pulse of both local and global Jewish communities.
• Conduct interviews, research, and reporting with professionalism, accuracy, and creativity.
• Write feature stories, profiles, and news coverage with a versatile, engaging editorial voice.
• Meet deadlines and work effectively under pressure while maintaining high quality.
• Collaborate with editors, designers, and other team members within the Marketing and Communications department and across JUF departments to create content that integrates seamlessly with the magazine and related media.
• Participate in monthly content aggregation for regular sections such as calendar listings.
• Build and maintain vibrant community connections to inform your reporting and deepen editorial perspective.
• Create and manage a centralized Jewish Chicago magazine content repository.
• RepresentJewish Chicagoprofessionally in interactions with colleagues, lay leadership, and members of the community.
• Assist the Executive and Managing Editors with copy editing.
• Support JUF Campaign and mandatory campaign-related activities on an ongoing basis.

Skills

Storytelling

Interviews

Editing

Research

Education

Bachelor’s degree in journalism, English, communications, or another relevant field

Job description

Jewish United Fund (JUF) is seeking a Staff Writer to tell compelling stories for Jewish Chicago: The JUF Magazine. You will research, interview, and write feature stories with a nuanced understanding of Jewish life, audience, and community impact.

The role emphasizes deadlines, collaboration with editors and designers, and contributing to calendar listings and content repositories. This is a hybrid, full-time position with strong benefits and opportunities to deepen engagement with the Chicago