Murals Add Colorful Vibe to Remodeled Chabad Idaho

Rabbi Mendel and Esther Lifshitz, the Shluchim in Boise, Idaho were just about finishing to remodel their Chabad house, but it didn’t feel complete before adding Jewish colorful energy.

“We paid so much for the renovations, but we worried, what will draw in the children when they enter the Chabad House,” Rabbi Lifshitz said. Rebbetzin Lifshitz had the solution a year ago! She called Sheina Yarmush from Sheina’s Art, asking her if she’d fly to Idaho to transform the 3 children’s rooms, hallway and entrance to the Chabad Youth Division with her colorful and engaging art.

“Wow, has Sheina delivered! Each room is exploding with color and meaningful Jewish art,” Rebbetzin Lifshitz said.

The inviting entrance has children doing their favorite Idaho activities – but with Jewish slogans and logos on their gear. For example, the girl fishing has a bucket that reads “kosher catch” and on her hat is the CTeen logo. The boy skiing has “I 🤍 Chabad” on his scarf and ‘Thank You Hashem’ as the design on his skis. Yarmush cleverly added at least 2 Jewish / Chabad details to each character.

In the hallway, Yarmush painted an exploding Torah. Alef bet flying out as well as images, explicitly Jewish or neutral, coming out of the Torah, depicting that the Torah is the source of everything, even Chabad of Idaho! Can you find חב״ד איידהו hidden within the letters? Yarmush also snuck in an Alef at the beginning of the painting, a mem in the middle and a tof at the end. Because Torah is Emes.

“I always put Beis Hei – Baruch Hashem on paintings that I sign, hidden or obvious – it’s there!” Yarmush says.

The room for the youngest children Sheina Painted 10 splashes , all the colors in a typical marker set , with sharp pictures representing each of the 10 Mivtzoyim.

In the room for middle-school age kids, Sheina painted a living room scene, in a sketch like style, with each Jewish holiday represented on different shelves. The shalosh regalim – Yomim Tovim are all on the bookshelves – Rosh Hashana, Purim and Chanuka on floating shelves, and Shabbos on the table.

For the teen room, Rabbi Lifshitz wanted Sheina to use her signature neons and create something super cool using spray paint. The Shluchim felt that the teens can appreciate a deeper Jewish concept and chose “על שלושה דברים העולם עומד״” – on three things the world stands – on Torah, Avoda and Gemilus Chasadim – to be depicted in the art. Sheina magnificently painted neon beams with the 3 pillars, Torah, Avoda and Gemilus chasadim, in 3 different colors, and used those colors to make rays around the words, symbolizing the strength of those beams.

In addition to all these, one super small but super special thing Sheina painted was the library sign. The library was donated in memory of a little boy in the community. Sheina copied the handwritten name of Ilai A”H in “Ilai’s Library” may his Neshama have an Aliya.

The most amazing part – Sheina painted all this in less than a week, painting for over 12 hours each day, and on Thursday she painted for 17 hours, from 9 am to 2 am.

“I know I have a lot of energy, but do I always use its full potential?” Sheina says. “This week I definitely did, Baruch HaShem! I am so excited for lots of Jewish children to see how Judaism is fun and exciting and am so proud for my art to give them those positive vibes.”

You can follow Sheina’s vibrant art on Instagram @sheinasart. Contact her for murals, paint parties and live painting shows! She has already had a few live painting shows, where everyone gets to participate in painting the masterpiece, creating pride in the art for the participants who come to those Shuls 718-363-2981.