Objects

The Hanukkah spinning top

It was donated by Małgorzata Melchior. It belonged to the collection of the donor's husband, a history enthusiast and collector.

Hanukkah doughnut (Yiddish: dreidel, Hebrew: seviVon) is connected with a popular children's game played by the youngest during the Hanukkah holiday (the holiday commemorates the recovery of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Jews; see the category note on the holiday: Hanukkah). The game itself was already known in ancient times; the use of spinning tops appeared in Jewish culture during the Greco-Roman period. Dreidels of today's shape became popular in the Middle Ages among Ashkenazi Jews (https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/slownik/aszkenazyjczycy).

This quadrilateral dirk is made of wood; a cylindrical wooden handle is attached to its top, used to hold the dirk with the fingers. On each side there is a Hebrew letter, stamped in black ink: נ (nun, pol. n), ג (gimel, pol. g), ה (he, pol. h), ש (shin, pol. sz). The Hebrew letters visible on each dreidel are the first letters of the words making up the sentence: Nes gadol haja sham/po (from Hebrew: A great miracle happened there/tu). The version with the word "there" functions in the Jewish Diaspora outside the Holy Land; in Israel, the version with the word "tu" is adopted. NR

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Information about the object
Organization / label
unknown
Object type
accessory for play and sport
Time of creation / dating
20th century
Place of creation
Poland (Europe)
Technique
grinding
stamping
Material
wood
Keywords
Copyright status
the object is not protected by copyright law
Owner
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Identification number
MPOLIN-M763
Localization
The object is on display in the museum