Tammy Kaiser came for the party atmosphere. Josh Levin wanted the latkes. But there was a consensus last night among students at Hillel – they all wanted revenge.

The year-long dreidel war came to a dramatic peak last night as hundreds of Jewish students stormed into Hillel to reclaim the university’s lost world record for the most dreidels spun at once, but inadvertently established a new record in the process.

Students flocked to Hillel last night, braving rainstorms and blowing off studying for finals for a chance at decimating the current dreidel-spinning champions at Indiana University.

Shuli Karkowsky, president of the Jewish Student Union, even brought her parents for a piece of the action.

“How much drama can you get from dreidels spinning?” Nancy Karkowski laughed as she practiced spinning. “[Hillel is] preparing this like a sporting event.”

Ever since losing the title of dreidel masters last year, Hillel has been gunning for redemption.

“I respect [Indiana University]; they’re my friends and my colleagues … outside of 15 minutes a year,” Hillel Director Ari Israel said, sporting a very large and impossible-to-miss grin on his face before walking away to rally his troops.

Hillel is reporting approximately 486 students participating in the event – 55 short of beating the already disputed record of the number of people spinning dreidels held by the current champions at Indiana University.

Last Sunday, Indiana University organized to further their stranglehold on the record they took from the university last year. The numbers of the Indiana attempt have been disputed between the Chicago Tribune and the school’s newspaper, so consensus has yet to be reached.

But never one to easily let down his followers, the ever-eccentric Israel used a quirky contingency plan to pull out a completely new record for the university.

“There’s an argument based on the Talmudic [Jewish law] interpretation of [The Guinness Book of World Records],” Israel said, “If the record is per person or per dreidels spun.”

Up until last night, the rules of the dreidel madness had been loosely defined. On previous attempts, there was little consistency in what the record actually was, Israel said.

The ultimate decision will be up to officials at Guinness, but the Maryland Hillel strongly preferred the per dreidel record, which would put Hillel up on Indiana by over 900 despite the lack of attendance.

Last night’s was just the latest battle in the dreidel conflict, with various attempts from Indiana University and this university to ensure dreidel dominance over the world record.

Israel’s original plan, however, would have absolutely shattered the current world record, according to Hillel members. For months the group had planned to spin thousands of dreidels during the Terp basketball game on Sunday. Athletics officials deemed the plan a safety hazard last week, and the top-secret plan had to be rethought.

Hillel has become known on the campus for staging highly publicized events aimed to bring attention to the religious center. On Nov. 5, Israel and Hillel hosted Shabbat 1036, an event that sought to bring together 1,036 students for a traditional Friday night dinner.

Israel, never at a loss for quirky religious significance in his events, originally designed the event to involve 613 people spinning, a number representing commandments in the Torah, a holy Jewish document.