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Meet Your 2009 Major League Dreidel Champion

You don’t need to be Jewish to be a great spinner

by
Marc Tracy
December 18, 2009

Congratulations to John Heywood—spinning name: Jonny Hei-z (“Hei” as in Nun, Gimel, Hei, Shin)—who won the honor last weekend in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, despite the arguable disadvantage of not being Jewish. Heywood told Tablet Magazine that the competition, which is run by friends of his, rates how long spinners can keep their dreidel spinning, rather than which letters their dreidels land on. Moreover, the tournament is decided via a March Madness-style bracket, so it’s all about performing under pressure: Heywood eked out victory even though his (admittedly impressive) 16-second high was not the best of the night. “This is my first year doing it—I’m a rookie spinner,” he said, adding: “I’m the first non-Jew to win—I found it funny. I think it’s great that everyone can be involved. I had friends who were Jewish growing up, so we had dreidels around.”

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.