KRT Campus
BLOOMINGTON, Ind.- Indiana University's largest Jewish organization put a new spin on Hanukkah on Sunday by claiming an unofficial "whirled" record.
Armed with tiny wooden tops emblazoned with Hebrew characters, more than 500 people perched cross-legged on the floor of the university's Gladstein Fieldhouse flicking their wrists, pinching their fingers and trying to earn a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for twirling the most dreidels simultaneously.
Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, which began Tuesday night, celebrates the miracle that followed the Jews' defeat of their oppressors when they returned to restore their house of worship. With only enough oil to light the temple for one day, its lamp miraculously glowed for eight.
On Sunday, dreidel spinners were hoping for a miracle number of 536.
Students at the University of Maryland hold the world record of 535 dreidels spun in 1999. The original record of 289 was set in 1998 by the Mayer Kaplan Jewish Community Center in Skokie, Ill.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
"Given the rivalry between Maryland and IU in basketball in the NCAA, we had to take on the challenge here," said Steve Kolmin, a coordinator of the event sponsored by Indiana University's Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.
He said 541 participated in the event, which he hopes will break Maryland's record.
But the so-called "dreidel bash" was also a way to spread the meaning of Hanukkah across a multitude of faiths.
"A lot of people think it's the Jewish Christmas, which it's not," said Rabbi Sue Shifron, executive director of IU's Hillel.
Children and families spin the dreidel as part of a popular game of chance played at Hanukkah. Each side of the dreidel is painted with one of four Hebrew letters: nun, gimel, he and shin. The letters stand for "A miracle happened there." In Israel, it stands for "A miracle happened here." In the game, they represent how much the player wins. Players wager candy or coins called gelt.
"It's about winning the pot and being triumphant," said Jaclyn Shapiro, 21, a junior from Buffalo Grove, Ill.
Both the phrase and the game are intended to remind Jews of their battle for religious freedom and instill a sense of pride. In the Hanukkah story, legend has it that Jews, who were forbidden to study the Torah, would do their lessons with a dreidel by their side. When soldiers approached, they would whip out their dreidels as a decoy.
"It was really the first victory over religious persecution in the world," said David Vonnegut-Gabovitch, president of Hillel's board of directors, who drove from Indianapolis to spin. "That's why it should be more of a universal celebration."
