Asher Weintraub — Disruptor Awards

In 2013, when Hanukkah and Thanksgiving overlapped for the first time in over a century (a juxtaposition that will not happen again until the year 79811), 10-year-old Asher Weintraub came up with the idea for the Menurkey™, a menorah shaped like a turkey. Seeing that both holidays were similar in commemorating being ‘Thankful’, Weintraub named the product, designed the logo, created a 3D CAD sketch of the prototype, and bugged his parents to help him launch a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for its production. The campaign quickly become an internet phenomenon as the Menurkey™ raised twice its campaign goal, went viral, was featured in stores and news outlets nationwide, and ended up in the permanent collection of New York's Jewish Museum. The Menurkey™ came to define the hybrid holiday and landed Weintraub at the White House, where President Obama lauded his ‘creativity' and ‘ingenuity.' Asher’s two prescriptives for the retail phenomenon? They had to be made in the USA and a percentage of proceeds donated to charity. Asher Weintraub aspires to be a video game designer and is already proving he has the creative and technological prowess to be anything he wants to be.