Dreidels add meaning to Hanukkah

To Nancy Greenberg, a dreidel is more than the spinning top used in a traditional holiday game.

The four-sided objects that line her mantel and decorate several tables in her home at Hanukkah nourish Greenberg’s Jewish roots and rekindle precious family memories.

“I started collecting dreidels and menorahs when my girls were little,” she says. “Every year, I would add a new one for that year – whatever struck our fancy or was particularly eaningful.”

In January, she stores them away – “It makes them that much more special” – but come November or December, depending on when Hanukkah falls (this year it began Friday), she and daughters Ryann and Sawyer unpack about 30 dreidels and 25 menorahs and recount stories as they arrange them around the house.

“The girls help me unwrap each one, and we talk about, ‘Remember when Grandma got you this, and I got you this one?’ Or, ‘A friend made this one for Sawyer, and this one Sawyer got?’ ” says Greenberg.

Greenberg’s collection at her Carmel, Ind., home includes a carousel dreidel for the daughter who loves horses, and another reflecting an interest in theater and dance. Some are handcrafted works of art.

“I have one that’s like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree,” she says. “It has two ‘hays’ printed on it. I got it on a side street in Chicago and said, ‘This is the year of the flawed dreidel.’ “

Hay is one of four Hebrew letters printed on dreidels. The letters represent the phrase “Nes Gadol Hayah Sham,” which means “a great miracle happened there,” referring to an ancient Jewish military victory and rededication of the temple in Jerusalem.

Dreidels are spun like tops in a game of chance that many children and adults play during Hanukkah. The game is a ritual with Cassie Goldstein’s now-grown children.

“But when we sit around at Hanukkah, my boys don’t just play the dreidel game,” she says. “They devise all these ways to spin the dreidel, to have contests as to how long it can spin, how you flip it.”

Now, her three grandchildren are taking baby steps toward continuing the tradition. Year-round, she keeps a basket of sturdy “play” dreidels where the little ones can find them.

Meanwhile, the more expensive and collectible dreidels stay behind glass in the dining room of her Indianapolis home.

“Each year, somebody gets a gift of a dreidel, and it ends up in my breakfront where I keep all my pretty things. It’s become sort of a family collection,” says Goldstein.