Thousands of students from 31 countries participated in the 31st annual Manuel Hirsch Grosskopf International Competition, organized by ANU – Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. The competition, part of the museum’s flagship My Family Story program, encourages young people to explore and present their Jewish heritage through creative, museum-style exhibits. The 2026 winners were announced during a global online ceremony held in June, which was broadcast to audiences on six continents.

The closing event took place via Zoom from the museum and included participants, educators, and family members worldwide. The ceremony was conducted in English, with live translations offered in Hebrew, Russian, French, and Spanish. Arkia Airlines sponsored the event and provided airfare for the winners and their families to travel to Israel.

My Family Story is managed by the Koret International School for Jewish Peoplehood Studies, the educational division of ANU. The program was created and is led by Martha Mazo, who has overseen Spanish-language educational initiatives at the museum for over three decades. The project invites students both in Israel and abroad to research their family histories, document their heritage, and present their findings through projects that include schools, Jewish museums, summer camps, and informal education settings.

This year’s competition attracted hundreds of submissions that delved into themes such as identity, memory, migration, heritage, and community. An international panel of judges, led by ANU officials, evaluated the entries.

Oded Revivi, CEO of ANU – Museum of the Jewish People, emphasized the importance of connecting personal histories to the broader narrative of the Jewish experience. “In a rapidly changing world, the ability to pause for a moment, listen to the stories that shaped us, and connect past, present, and future is an extraordinary educational and moral gift,” he said.

Naama Keller, director of the Koret International School, noted that the program helps children recognize that they are both heirs to history and active contributors to the future of the Jewish people.

Winning projects will be included in an international digital archive and featured in an interactive installation at ANU – Museum of the Jewish People, enriching a growing repository of family narratives.

Among the top entries, Alex Alush from A.D. Gordon School in Givatayim won first place in the Hebrew-language category for “The Album That Never Was.” His project used artificial intelligence to visually reconstruct lost childhood memories of his great-grandmother Gita, a Belarus-born Holocaust survivor who escaped the ghetto at age 10 and whose earliest family photo was taken only after being placed in an orphanage.

Sarah Sitton Massri of Or HaHayim School in Mexico City secured first place in the Spanish-language category with “SHOCK/SHUK,” a multisensory presentation reflecting her Syrian Jewish family’s mercantile heritage through smells, textures, colors, and tastes, alongside symbolic lamps representing intergenerational continuity.

Daniel Voloshchuk of the Shalom Education Center in Rockville, Maryland, won the Russian-language category with a handmade family album-style project that addressed the silences and gaps in Jewish family archives, highlighting the impact of 20th-century tragedies.

In the French-language category, Aaron Lévy of École Marianne Picard in Neuilly-sur-Seine was recognized for “Our Roots Journey,” a board game designed to navigate family history through interviews with relatives and symbolic challenges. The game resides in a vintage suitcase, referencing his family’s journeys between Tunisia and Morocco.

Zoe Sharf from Mount Scopus Memorial College in Melbourne, Australia, earned first place in both the English-language and overall international categories. Her project, centered on a transparent acrylic tzedakah box engraved with copper coins bearing faces, documents, and family values, traced a legacy of charity and resilience inspired by her great-grandmother, a Siberian labor camp survivor, and subsequent generations of relatives committed to community service.

The competition continues to highlight personal and collective Jewish histories, fostering connections across diverse communities and generations.