While menorah-lighting ceremonies in Dizengoff Square in downtown Tel Aviv have been a familiar Chanukah scene for the last 35 years, a thousand dreidels spinning simultaneously at nearby Rabin Square has been a rather new development.
An enormous crowd of local residents, visiting Israelis and guests from around the globe set a Guinness World Record on Wednesday night when 2,000 people simultaneously spun dreidels.
Adults and children, wrapped warmly in the evening air, positioned themselves at long wooden tables for the attempted feat. The end goal: The dreidels had to spin for at least 10 seconds simultaneously, which they did.
And Merkaz (Central) Chabad Lubavitch Tel Aviv didn’t stop there.
The menorah lit that evening at Rabin Square, just blocks away from Dizengoff Square, is the tallest one erected in Israel to date, measuring 9.5 meters high—the highest height that is kosher.
Entertainment included a fire-juggling show, live acrobatics, a boys’ school choir, and refreshments like sufganiyot (jelly donuts) and chocolate-coin gelt.
Before the lighting of the menorah, Rabbi Yossi Gerlitzky, head Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in Tel Aviv and director of Merkaz Chabad, addressed those assembled
{Matzav.com}