(JTA) — A New Jersey synagogue said that it set a new Guinness World Record by lighting 834 menoras on 90 tables in an airport hangar.
The event planned by the Jewish Center of Princeton, N.J., took place on Dec. 11, the fourth night of Hanuka, at the Princeton Airport. It was organized by the Conservative synagogue’s director of programming, Neil Wise, according to the Daily Princetonian student newspaper.
The previous record was set last year by the Merrick Jewish Centre in New York, with 782 lit menoras.
Participants in Tuesday’s event made videotape testimonies of their names, hometowns and registration numbers for official documentation for the Guinness committee, according to the newspaper.
Princeton University students and alumni, as well as members of the general community, participated in the record-setting attempt.
On Monday, a Jewish student organization at Binghamton University claimed to have broken a record for dreidel spinning, but a student newspaper there says the spinners spun out before breaking the mark.
Some 749 dreidels were spun simultaneously for at least 10 seconds on Dec. 10 at upstate New York’s Chabad Center for Jewish Student Life, the Associated Press reported, citing the center. That would break the Guinness World Record of 734 set last year by the United Synagogue Youth in Philadelphia.
Organizers of the dreidel spin told the AP that they have photos, video and other necessary documentation that will be submitted for review to the Guinness committee.
But the Pipe Dream student-run publication said the group fell about 40 dreidels short of the mark. It reported that while 749 people were in the room at the time of the joint spin, only about 700 were able to keep their dreidels spinning for the required length of time. Some 900 people were present at the opening of the event, but some did not stay around for the dreidel spin.
The event raised more than $10,000 for an annual toy drive for children with cancer.
