Out for a Spin

Mere seconds separated victory from defeat for 541 members of the Bloomington community, from toddlers to senior citizens, who all lent a dreidel-spinning hand Sunday afternoon at the IU Fieldhouse in an attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Records record for the most dreidels spun in unison. \nDespite the effort by the Bloomington community, the University of Maryland will maintain its title as the official world record holder, with 535 dreidels spun in unison, as IU failed to meet all of the requirements to officially break the record. \nThe rules stipulate each person can only spin one dreidel. In addition, the event must take place specifically to break the record and all dreidels must spin in unison for 10 seconds or longer. \nIU met all but the last of these requirements. \nA little more than 500 dreidels spun for 10 seconds or more, leaving IU only a few dreidels shy of a world record. About 30 dreidels did not spin long enough for this attempt to count.\n"What is important is that the people who worked on it put together such a great event," said Rabbi Sue Shifron, executive director of the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center. "It was such a great time; we had a great message of working together as a community."\nAlthough Maryland holds the record, it will attempt to break its own record at a basketball game next week. \n"It is ignorant that Maryland is going to use a basketball game, because that is already an established crowd, there's no effort there," said Hillel employee Gregory Terry,\nThe event featured a live band, Spanky's Club House, and a chance for students to gather with members of the community to work toward a mutual goal. \n"It really shows how passionate people are about the Jewish community and their supporting of a Jewish cause because they are here during a Colt's game," said junior Matt Raidbard.\nThe dreidel-spinning event comes just a few days before Hanukkah -- the Jewish Festival of Lights.\nA dreidel is a four-sided top used in a Hanukkah gambling game, where chocolate coins called gelt, are the prize. Each letter stands for a different amount of gelt a player can win. A player spins the dreidel and if it lands on the letter Nun, nothing happens and the next player spins the dreidel. If the dreidel lands on the letter Shin, the player must put one coin in the pot; if a player spins the letter Chey, the player takes half the coins in the pot and if the letter Gimel is spun the player receives the entire pot of coins. The letters on the dreidel mean, "A great miracle happened there." \nSunday's event was IU's second attempt to break the world record. Last year, IU unofficially held the world record for a week but the paperwork was never sent in because Maryland beat the record one week later. \nIn spite of the disappointment of a near victory, morale is still high for next year.\n"We have to have better attendance," said senior Steve Kolmin, the event coordinator. "It's up to IU to come out bigger next year."\n-- Contact staff writer Amber \nNicholas at amrnicho@indiana.edu