Mirra Goldenberg’s Hanukkah wall hanging is the winner of the 18th annual Hanukkah Art Contest, sponsored by the Chabad House Center and The Chronicle. Mirra is the daughter of Missy and Jeff Goldenberg, a seventh-grade student at the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy and a member of Congregation Beth Shalom. She will be presented with the grand prize, an iPad mini.
Two entries are awarded first-prize gift cards. They are Eli Maker, a third-grade student in Congregation Beth Torah’s Weiner Religious School who created a Hanukkiah symbolizing The Kansas City Royals championship baseball season. Annie Fingersh, a fourth-grade student at HBHA, submitted an entry titled, “Hanukkah Party in the Woods.” It shows animals celebrating Hanukkah in the woods.
Chabad Program Director Rabbi Mendy Wineberg said all of this year’s entries were beautiful.
“It was evident these student put a lot of work into their projects,” Rabbi Wineberg said. All works of art entered in the contest must relate to the story of the celebration of Hanukkah.
Several students chose to paint, design or create in some way a menorah. Rabbi Wineberg said this fits perfectly with the theme of Hanukkah, which changes darkness into light.
“This has been a very trying year both here because of the shootings in April and the war and other violence that has happened in Israel this year. When we light the candles, our focus needs to be in bringing light into the world and thereby chasing away the darkness,” the rabbi said.
This year’s judges were once again wowed by the creativity of the projects.
“There was so much detail in the wall hanging,” one judge noted. “I can’t remember if we’ve ever seen a sewing project entered in this contest.”
“The Royals menorah is a tip of the hat to the wonderful year that the Royals had,” another judge said.
To the judges, Annie’s “Hanukkah Party in the Woods,” showed that Hanukkah doesn’t have to be celebrated in a traditional venue, it can be celebrated wherever you are.
Mirra, the grand prize winner, said she was really excited when her father told her she had won the contest. It was the first time the 12-year-old entered it and she can thank one of her older sisters for the idea.
“She told me because I sew I would probably be able to make something really cool and I’d have a good chance to win,” Mirra said.
The chance of winning an iPad mini, something neither she nor her sisters owned, also contributed to her decision to enter the contest.
Mirra began sewing three years ago when she was in fourth grade. She learned to sew through camps and classes at Harper’s Fabric and Quilt Co. in downtown Overland Park. She now has her own sewing machine and makes a variety of projects including baby quilts, pillows, laptop cases, totes and skirts.
Mirra said she loves it when her family puts up their Hanukkah decorations and she got the idea for this project from their decorations. She liked the fact that she could design it using any fabrics she liked, choosing a turquoise blue fabric for the background, a dark grey for the menorah, yellow for the flames and lettering and favorite patterns for the candles and the decorative dreidels.
“I liked using the fabrics I wanted so I could personalize it,” she said.
Once she purchased the fabric, she cut out the pieces and then sewed them together. She estimates the project took about five hours to complete from start to finish. The only parental help she needed was the trip to the fabric store to purchase the supplies.
She’s pleased with the project and thinks “it looks really cute all put together.” In fact she thinks it looks even better than she imagined during the planning stages.
Mirra is looking forward to hanging her award-winning decoration in her house for Hanukkah where everyone in the family can enjoy it!
Photos by Ben McCall