Hanukkah's Glimmer, Main Street Beige

One observes the Temple Har Shalom and Park City Museum collaboration with a certain weariness. It’s the same display, fundamentally, each December—hand-crafted menorahs, ostensibly created by the Religious School students, now ranging in age from toddler to sixth grade. Amy Omessi and Suzanne Jacoby, loyal soldiers of early childhood education, have maintained this tradition for eleven and ten years respectively, admirable if slightly monotonous. This year, the introduction of Rabbi Jeff Dreifus adds a negligible amount of novelty. I am informed the display has garnered “national attention” in the past; I suspect this is a generous reading of local news coverage. The online shop, run by the Women of Har Shalom, is an attempt, I assume, to fund more construction paper and glitter. One cannot fault their industry, merely their limited reach. The focus on children’s artwork is a safe, beige choice for a town otherwise obsessed with the chromatic excess of The Series, or, at the very least, the vibrant hues of a Kimball Art Center gala. The preservation efforts of the Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History are, however, a more compelling use of local resources. A donation, perhaps, is preferable to braving the Main Street crush.