Kids & Family

Want Gelt? Visit the Giant Dreidel at Chabad in Basking Ridge

Public invited to tour the Chabad Jewish Center's iconic dreidel that each year is assembled in Basking Ridge.

With Hannukah and Thanksgiving falling on the same day this year, Chabad of Basking Ridge's giant dreidel already has been pieced together and placed alongside the Jewish center on Valley Road again — but this year with a special invitation.

The pieces of what the Basking Ridge center bills as the world's largest dreidel — constructed about 17 years ago by students at the Rabbinical College of America in Morristown — was reassembled at the end of last week. The freestanding dreidel on a platform is about 18 feet high.

The structure has become a landmark in the community and each year people stop by to take a look.

But this year, Youth Rabbi Yitzchok Moully said the center is going a step further and is extending more of a welcome anytime to have community members take a look.

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Inside the dreidel will be Hannukah gelt (traditional chocolate coins) and also (much smaller) Hannukah dreidel spinning tops, offered to visitors, he said.

The "Got Gelt?" banner — an open invitation — went up on Monday alongside Valley Road.

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A giant menorah, to be lit for Hanukkah, also has been placed by the Chabad center at 3048 Valley Road in Basking Ridge. It will be a centerpiece in the center's Hannukah activities this year, which are outlined online.

Since the first night of Hannukah this year falls on Thanksgiving — a rarity — the center's Zimmer Preschool children are planning a celebration that combines both traditions.

Moully said the dreidel will remain in place through December, after which it will be taken apart and stored for another year.



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