This year’s Hannukah festivities at the university went beyond the celebration of miracles.
This year it was personal.
About 602 students took up dreidels last night at Ritchie Coliseumin a dreidel “spin-off,” apparently reclaiming the title in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people spinning dreidels simultaneously.
The university held the record from 2000 to 2005, when Temple Emmanuel, a congregation in Cherry Hill, N.J., captured the title with 541 peoplespinning dreidels.
With Hannukah falling within the school year, the event celebrated the holiday and united the Jewish community in competition.
Even university President Dan Mote took up a dreidel.
“I’ve never spun a dreidel before,” Mote said. “I should be able to figure it out since I am a mechanics major. Whether I have the skill or not is another question.”
The university’s glory could be short-lived, however. The University of Michigan is scheduled to host its own spin-off tonight.
The competition has been heating up all week with Indiana University hosting a similar event to capture the honor for itself in what has become a cross-country dreidel-spinning showdown.
With 300 registered and 550 more expected, Hillel, the campus Jewish student organization, hoped to have a total of around 800 last night. Though these high expectations were not met, 602 was enough to beat the previous record set by Temple Emmanuel.
For an official record to be set, there had to be more than 541 individuals spinning dreidels for ten consecutive seconds. Guinness must still certify the results.
Ritchie Coliseum was decked out last night with a moonbounce, velcro wall, free doughnuts and a cotton candy machine.
After the room quieted briefly for the lighting of the second candle of Hannukah, students, faculty and staff got down to business, sitting on the floor with multi-colored plastic dreidels, poised for action.
After setting their dreidels in motion and counting down the ten seconds, cheers erupted and participants threw their dreidels in the air to echoing notes of Queen’s “We are the Champions.”
Junior journalism major Andrew Lean described his adulation at recapturing the record.
“It was hard to understand the scope of what was happening,” Lean said. “I was just concentrated on spinning my own dreidel. When I saw everyone throw their dreidels up in the air, I knew we had accomplished something huge.”
The University of Michigan is still determined to come out on top with its spinning session scheduled for today. Assistant Director of the University of Michigan Hillel Joel Marcovitch said he expects around 800 students to attend.
“It’s the University of Michigan,” Marcovitch said. “Why wouldn’t we win?”
Regardless of Michigan’s performance tomorrow, HillelRabbi Ari Israel said he felt the unique Hannukah celebration was a success.
“This is the miracle of Hannukah,” Israel said. “On a snowy night when people have other things to do they came here. There is a sense of pride, a sense of ownership.”
And for all the frenzy of competition, some also found the spin-off was a rare opportunity to celebrate their faith.
“I’m not in a Jewish sorority,” senior public health major Rachel Mochan said. “I’m not exposed to a large amount of Jews on a regular basis. Hannukah brings it out in you. Whether people are orthodox or never celebrate, people from all across the Jewish spectrum came here to celebrate.”
tousignantdk@gmail.com
