The winners of the 5th annual MyLife: Chassidus Essay Contest 2019 were announced in April, chosen by an expert panel of judges from among hundreds of essay submissions; top prize was US$10,000.
Aharon Zev Moshel, age 17, a student at Yeshivah Gedolah, was ranked 8th in the world for his English essay on the topic: “Chassidic Lessons on Growing Through Trauma”.
Contest director, Rabbi Sruli Steiner, explained the remarkable experience of the entire process, from the submission stage to the evaluation stage to the final announcement of the winners. “The much-anticipated announcement came after weeks of intense deliberations by a panel of esteemed judges, who used a rigorous grading system to select the winners out of the hundreds of essays submitted in this year’s contest.”
Hailing from every continent around the world, the contestants spanned a wide variety of ages and backgrounds, attesting to the broad appeal of the MyLife: Chassidus Applied Essay Contest. Submissions arrived from men and women of the entire social spectrum, including rabbis, laymen, professionals, shluchim, educators, professors, yeshiva bochurim, seminary graduates, and high school students.
Rabbi Simon Jacobson announced the winners during a Sunday night broadcast of the highly acclaimed MyLife: Chassidus Applied series, which spawned the Essay Contest five years ago. The 257th episode of the popular series was a special Yud Alef Nissan edition honouring the Rebbe’s 117th birthday.
“What better way to honour and celebrate the Rebbe’s birthday than to have hundreds of people and thousands of readers invested in learning and applying Chassidus to contemporary life?” said Rabbi Jacobson.
Rabbi Jacobson explained that the auspicious days leading to Yud Alef Nissan is a “most fitting time for the culmination of this extraordinary contest, driven by our collective mission and quest to disseminate Chassidus. The MyLife: Chassidus Applied Essay Contest has proven to encourage hundreds of men and women to study and apply Chassidus to their, and our, personal lives. The contest has created an unprecedented surge and excitement in the core mission of the Rebbeim: hafotzas hamayonos chutzah. Surely the Rebbe is deriving much nachas from the study and the propagation of Chassidus that this contest has brought about.”
The MyLife: Chassidus Applied Essay Contest is a project of The Meaningful Life Center.
