What does Hanukkah mean? Our contest winners can show you

Jed Brandes, Stevan Labush of Touro Fraternal and Fran Ostendorf of The Voice join the winners.

Students in grades 1-8 stepped up to the challenge this year: Let us know what Hanukkah means to you and your family.

A panel of judges examined each of the 90 entries we received in the 2014 Hanukkah Art and Writing Contest, sponsored by The Jewish Voice and Touro Fraternal Association. They chose what they thought best represented Hanukkah this year. Art was judged on creativity. Writing – on what got the message of Hanukkah across. Judges were Fran Ostendorf, editor of The Voice, Tricia Stearly, advertising sales manager of the Voice, Irina Missiuro, writer and editorial consultant for The Voice and Steve White from Touro Fraternal.

The judges did not know whose drawing or essay they were examining. That’s how two siblings ended up winning in the art category. The Taitelbaum family from Providence certainly has some young artistic talent! And the winning essay was penned by a fifth grader who managed to hit on all the elements of what you might expect Hanukkah to mean. Well, done, Alexander! We hear that your classmates at Temple Beth-El’s religious school thought you’d win after you read your essay aloud.

Everyone who entered the contest should consider themselves a winner. The drawings and essays were all wonderful, making the choice of first, second and third-place winners a difficult one. We look forward to next year’s entries. We really do have a creative community!

The winners:

Art contest for grades 1-4:

First place: Rivkah Taitelbaum, of Providence, grade 4 at Providence Hebrew Day School. A whimsical picture of eight dancing latkes, using construction paper.

Second place: Esther Taitelbaum, of Providence, grade 2 at Providence Hebrew Day School. A drawing of a father and two sons lighting a menorah, using crayons.

Third place: Yael Bulley, of Providence, grade 4 at Providence Hebrew Day School. A colorful dreidel with all her favorite things inside and the candles on top, using crayons.

Writing contest for grades 5-8:

First place: Alexander Orth, of Providence, grade 5 at Temple Beth-El. Essay on how Hanukkah means happiness, joy, presents and helping others. In the essay, he talks about donating presents to the kids in the hospital.

Second place: Sarah Brosofsky, of Providence, grade 8 at Temple Beth-El. Her essay is about how Hanukkah is a time to believe in miracles.

Third place: Sarah Peckman, of Taunton, Mass., Grade 7 at Congregation Agudath Achim in Taunton. Her essay discusses how Hanukkah means being together with the people she loves.

First-place winners received $108. Second-place winners received $72. Third-place winners received $36. In addition, the first-place winners’ school received a grant  of $720 to use for technology. Thanks to Touro Fraternal for supplying these prizes.

FRAN OSTENDORF is editor of The Jewish Voice.