Join us at the SW corner of 575 Manila Avenue, this Sunday Dec 22nd at 5:30PM for a Hanukkah menorah lighting. If anybody wants to paint flames for the next next seven nights please drop me a line. We have paint. Thank you to @averynice @moullyart @chabad_young_hjc for making this project come to be. #GVM019 #LightOverDarkness
Green Villain, a creative platform that uses public art to drive community engagement throughout Jersey City, has partnered with Rabbi and artist Yitzchok Moully an NJ based artist, Rabbi Shmully Levitin of Chabad Young Professionals of Hoboken & Jersey City, and Avery Nice to produce an interactive public art project located at the South Western corner of Buy Rite Liquors at 575 Manilla Ave, Jersey City, NJ.
#LightOverDarkness, a 2018 project established by Yitzchok Moully, invited local community members to write positive messages, mitzvahs and prayers onto a mobile Menorah mural traveling around New York and New Jersey throughout Chanukah last year.
Days after the Dec 10th anti-Semitic attack on the Kosher store in the Greenville section of Jersey City, Rabbi Shmully Levitin connected Gregory D. Edgell, founder of Green Villain, and Yitzchok Moully to see how they could bring the project to the streets of Jersey City.
Within days, a location was procured and a Menorah mural was painted in memory of Det. Joseph Seals, Leah Mindel Ferencz, Douglas Miguel Rodriguez, and Moshe Deutsch.
Starting today, Wednesday, Dec 18, everyone is invited to come by and write their own messages, prayers or names on this mural and be a part of the project. Bright colored markers will be onsite and everyone is encouraged to bring more supplies.
On each of the eight nights of Chanukah, which begins Sunday evening, Dec 22, different local artists and community leaders will paint a large flame on another branch of the menorah, thus completing the mural.
Positioned directly between the inbound and outbound roads of the Holland Tunnel and across from the Port Authority Police Department, this mural will be a beacon of light for the 42k vehicles driving by each day.
Over the past 11 years, Green Villain has amassed 53 public art sites and built relationships with hundreds of artists, business owners, landlords, city officials and community members with the goal of spreading awareness of how public art can change a city for good, and in times of need, be used as a vehicle to get important messages out to people.
“I believe it’s the responsibility of every single individual alive today to take a part of the community they live in onto their shoulders and walk blindly into the light in hopes to improve a piece of their world. That is the spark that inspired me to bring this project, to this section of Jersey City,” said Gregory D. Edgell of Green Villian.
Anyone with questions or interest in contributing can contact Mr. Edgell directly at (973)-610 5145 or [email protected].
If you’d like to donate to the victims, more information can be found here.
