The center piece of a Jewish gambling game, dreidels are almost as important to Hanukkah as Hanukkiahs and latkes. Each of the four sides of the spinning top contain a specific letter: Nun, Gimel, Hei, Shin (or Po if in Israel). The letters represent the phrase: A great miracle happened there (or ‘here’, if in Israel) and dictate how the game is played, with players winning or losing, depending on how the top lands after its spin.
Found in all sizes and colors, dreidels are made from the most mundane of materials to the most
glamorous – from plastic to jewels – and are designed to either be played with or showcased as art.
With so many possibilities, there’s no wonder that collections of this classic Hanukkah toy abound. Here, Wendy Auerbach, Ilene Goldman, and Jamie Alpern share a bit about their collections.
Jamie Alperin
Twenty-four-year-old Jamie Alperin, a Tidewater native currently studying for her Psy. D. in clinical psychology, has amassed a dreidel collection beyond her years.
Started by her maternal grandfather when she was five years old, Alperin’s collection stands at 32 dreidels, often receiving more than one per year from her Florida-based grandparent.
James Jacobson decided it would be fun to start collections for both of his granddaughters when they were young. For older sister, Jenna Alperin, he gifted menorahs.
Jamie’s dreidels have been purchased from Judaica stores and other shops where Jacobson found the spinning tops. A few in her collection are made from clay, “painted and man-made by my child hands,” Alperin says.
Her favorite? A menorah-dreidel made of glass. “It makes me feel closer to my sister.”
Ilene Goldman
When Ilene Goldman married her husband, Dean, her parents gave the newlyweds a Hanukkah menorah as a wedding present. Ever since, Goldman has received dreidels and menorahs as gifts, regardless of the occasion. “I guess I’m a hard person to shop for!” she laughs.
Each Hanukkah season, Goldman displays the dreidels and menorahs on her dining room table and makes a big spread. In the collection are roughly 10 dreidels and eight menorahs. Many of these works are not run-of-the-mill Judaica; instead, these high-end selections are made from crystal or other artistic creations. She favors two cut-glass crystal dreidels that she purchased for herself.
When her children were young students at Norfolk Collegiate School, Goldman was the mom who came in for Hanukkah. She purchased small, easy-to-spin, wooden dreidels on Amazon and taught the classes how to play dreidel games. Goldman also brought gelt candy and showed these youngsters how to bet. At the end of the game, this doctor mom threw away the gelt that had been handled by children with colds and other winter crud, and instead sent each student home with a bag of untouched chocolate.
“It started in kindergarten, but the kids wanted me to come through fifth grade. I read the same Hanukkah book to the class for six years in a row!”
Wendy Juren Auerbach
Wendy Auerbach’s dreidel collection, a Maccabean army of 78 spinning tops, started by chance. “I love Hanukkah, and these portable, functional works of art make them fascinating to me. I like that something can be interpreted in so many ways.”
Auerbach’s collection includes dreidels made from various materials, including felt and other fibers, as well as glass and metal. “A few are from my mother, because she knew I was collecting them.”
While most dreidels in Auerbach’s cabinet have been purchased, she has crafted some herself, including an oversized, paper mâché object that she painted, and a dreidel she crocheted from old t-shirts. She considers several standouts in the collection, dreidels made from unusual materials or different shapes, but she is partial to those made from common objects, such as Legos, wood, paper, and nuts and bolts. “I even have one made from leather, which is from the Jewish Museum in New York.”
Auerbach says that most of her dreidels spin, and they all contain the four letters on the sides. Several dreidels in this vast collection come from Israel, where one of the letters differs. Instead of the common “nun, gimmel, hei, shin,” (a great miracle happened there), a dreidel from Israel ends with a “pe” (a great miracle happened here)
