Yid Vid: Hanukkah in Santa Monica — a Great Miracle Didn’t Happen There

By Daniel Treiman December 29, 2008

As Hanukkah nears its end, the good folks at Temple Emanuel in Cherry Hill, N.J., can breathe easily. Their world-record of 541 dreidels spinning simultaneously has withstood a challenge mounted by Sha’arei Am in Santa Monica, Calif.:

Take that, Tom Lehrer!

UPDATE: There appears to be some uncertainty as to exactly who holds the dreidel world record: Last year students at the University of Maryland spun a prodigious number of dreidels, Sports Illustrated reports, and back in 2003, we reported that “the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center at Indiana University broke the world record — previously held by Maryland — for the number of dreidels spun at once, when more than 500 students and members of the local community came out to spin 713 dreidels for 10 seconds.” It’s all very confusing, but don’t despair. We have crack a crack reporter on the case and will let you know more as soon as we know more.

UPDATE II: Here’s what we found out.

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