I think most [Jewish] people have an impressions in their minds when thinking of what put Lakewood on the map. Most people probably think of Rav Ahron Kotler opening Beit Medrash Gavoha (sp?), aka Lakewood Yeshiva, which has thousands of young men learning there daily, and over the decades since being founded they have churned out hundreds of thousands of students and have made a major impact on their city, and also on all of American Jewry.

Janet Kisri, 75 years old from Modiin, decided to set yet another world record and made the largest potato latke ever.

Kisri says she used her grandmother's recipe (from Poland). Adjusting it for the larger than normal portion required her to use 87kg of potatoes, 60 eggs, 17kg of flour, plus salt and pepper. It has a diameter of 1.60 meters and took 6 hours to prepare

I want to know how they had a frying pan large enough for this. and then how they flipped it.

Kisri shared her latke with the other people in the apartment complex she lives in, as they assisted in the project along with soldiers stationed nearby. 280 people partook in the consumption of this latke.

She does not tell us if they ate it with apple sauce or sour cream...

 

Just so you should know, Michael Wardian, an accomplished world class runner, is right now taking on an attempt at the record for fastest known time to cross the entire Israel National Trail.

Wardian recently broke the world record running 10 marathons in ten days, of which 7 of them were also on  different continents, as part of another challenge.

The Israel National Trail is 631 miles long, or 1015 kilometers. Wardian is trying to run the entire trail in less than ten days. The average amount of time it takes to cross the trail is 45-60 days, though people are not usually running the trail.

You can track Mike's progress and keep apprised of his schedule and observations on the Fastest Known Time site along with via Mike's twitter account along with the FKT Facebook Group..

Best of luck Mike! We are rooting for you!

this is a great story,

Amihai Bannett, a local Bet Shemesh resident and friend, tweeted about his 97 year old grandfather having now blown the shofar in his shul, as of this recent Rosh Hashana, for 80 consecutive years - he did not miss a single year since he started.

Hi Amihai, we do have this mass participation record title but we don't currently monitor a category for the oldest person blowing a shofar horn: https://t.co/NjwhW5WKIi
^Dan

— GuinnessWorldRecords (@GWR) September 12, 2018

The tweet became a news item of a human interest story. I don't know if Guinness will agree to open a new category for the oldest person blowing shofar during services or for most consecutive years, but either way, kol hakavod to his grandfather! Maybe some momentum and publicity can get it going!

8 divorces is a lot, but it isn't a record.

According to Haredim10, and Actualic, some Yerushalmi guy just got his 8th divorce, setting some sort of undisclosed record.

I did a quick search online and found some guy with 28 divorces, and a lady with much more. I found a couple that set a record divorcing and remarrying each other 109 times! Maybe this guy's 8 divorces are a record for Israel or for Jerusalem, but it is not a global record. He is going to have to try harder..

The serial divorcer's 8th was his toughest to date. It almost left him an "Agun" - a chained husband. He was married to his 8th wife for just four months. When he wanted to give her a divorce, she ran off, leaving him abandoned and stuck. Poor guy.

After some searching, the case was turned over to the beis din's department of agunot. They found her in Tel Aviv and detained her, making her sit in jail overnight. She continued to refuse, and eventually the beis din convinced him to offer her a payment of 12,000NIS to agree to the divorce, which she accepted.

Crazy story. I wonder how the other marriages ended. I also wonder if maybe everyone would be better off had he been left "chained" and unable to marry again...

mazel tov

very cool. How did they bake it, though? How'd they get it into an oven?

2 pictures for today's PoTD.. both depicting many different people coming together for the jewish nation..

1.  this picture is from the White City Shabbat Friday night world record setting dinner.. this picture was taken by the official Shabbos goy. He was the only person allowed to take pictures of the event (though there are other pictures from before Shabbos started)




2.  these following images (and many others) from the mass prayer rally at the Kotel for the 3 abducted young men...

Tomorrow night, Friday night, will be the long-awaited attempt in Tel Aviv's Hangar 11 to set the Guinness world record for the largest Shabbat dinner, with 1800 attendees.

The dinner event has been put together by an organization called White City Shabbat, consisting of local Tel Aviv residents.

Interestingly, while just about every article (that I could find) talks about it being run by White City Shabbat and talks to the organizers (e.g. Indiegogo campaign, Jpost, INN, Facebook event page, Algemeiner, etc.), Maariv/NRG reports the dinner as being organized by Chabad of Thailand.

Anyways, best of luck for the event and I hope the record gets set smoothly!

Jay Shultz is trying to set a new Guiness record - for the largest Shabbat dinner...

from Israel21c:

White City Shabbat — a group that helps connect people with Shabbat hospitality in Tel Aviv – has decided to up the ante and set a new Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Shabbat Dinner. The non-profit organization needs over 1,000 Israelis and new immigrants to attend the dinner set to take place on June 13, 2014.“While White City Shabbat is going to be the first organization to attempt this record, our hope is that in years to come communities around the world will come together to try and surpass the standard we set this year. What a beautifully holy race it would be to have Jewish organizations trying to outdo each other. It will be a real win/win for Am Yisrael,” said Jay Shultz, founder of the group.The dinner will be free of charge for attendees but the group recently launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to cover the costs. The campaign mimics the theme of The Most Interesting Man In The World Dos Equis commercials but instead features Shultz, in the character of the Most Interesting Jew In The World.“With more and more young Jews from around the world choosing to make Tel Aviv their home, celebrating the first ever World’s Largest Shabbat Dinner with the Guinness Book will further establish Tel Aviv as one of the most important cities for the Jewish People today,” said Eytan White, co-director of White City Shabbat.WCS says the guest list will include notable Israelis such as Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, former Chief Rabbi of Israel Israel Meir Lau, and Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs, Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan.

President Shimon Peres is now the holder of a record in the Guiness Book of World Records, in addition to all his other accolades. Mazel tov!

No, Peres's record is not as the longest serving politician, nor is it for the oldest living politician. It is for teaching the largest class in the world.

Shimon Peres this morning taught an online class in Civics to more than 9,000 students, both jews and Arabs, from 215 classes between 9th and 12th grade of the "Amal" chain of schools in Israel.

The record has been confirmed by the authorities over at Guiness, and it officially was the largest class of students all in the same lesson.

President Peres transmitted his lesson from the headquarters of Cisco in Netanya. The VP of Guiness Global flew in today and was present at the event. After it is confirmed, he will announce the record  and enter it into the record books.

The Guiness guy actually complimented Peres and then told him that he actually had set a second record as well. That is, Shimon Peres is the oldest head of state in the world. It might not qualify for Guiness, but it is a record in its own right.
source: Srugim

congrats to the President!

The largest sufganiya ever?

According to Ladaat, the Club Hotel in Eilat has created for display purposes the largest sufganiya, measuring 1.5 meters in diameter, and a meter tall.

I think eating such a sufganiya would make anybody sick, especially because this sufganiya is made from only synthetic materials and is not a real edible sufganiya. That is why this sufganiya contains 0 calories. Almost great for anyone's diet.






Actually, now that I think of it, this is the best sufganiya ever - one that won't be eaten...

We have had hummus wars and pita and falafel wars with neighboring countries, and even the world's largest flag to get into the Guiness Book of World Records. One thing I would not have expected to be the focus of an attempt of entry into Guiness Book of World Records was the Mimouna table.

According to Mynet, Yeruham, a town in southern Israel, is attempting to make it's mark on history by way of Guiness by celebrating the upcoming Mimouna with the world's longest mimouna table. the table is planned to be 20 meters long, laden with Moroccan sweets and pastries.

Good luck Yeruham! We are rooting for you!



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The Middle-Eastern food industry has gotten highly competitive in recent years in the Middle East.

Israel and Lebanon having been trading the world record for the largest plate of chumus in recent years. Last year Israel took the record for the world's largest falafel ball. 3 years ago a team from Qatar baked the world's largest pita bread.

It is almost like the battlefield of the wars that have been too common has been adjusted to the battlefield of bragging rights.

take a bite out of that falafel ball!

Well, now, we have a foreign invader. Someone in California at the Santa Clarita Valley Jewish Food and Cultural Festival has claimed the world's largest falafel ball. He surpassed the previous record, held by an Israeli, by more than double, with the falafel ball weighing in at 52.8 pounds.

According to The Daily News Los Angeles:

What's as big as a beach ball, as heavy as three bowling balls, could feed a multitude and harkens back to biblical times?


Try the world's biggest falafel ball, rolled out for the record books Sunday at the Santa Clarita Valley Jewish Food and Cultural Festival.


"We have a winner!," said Dawn Walker, chef of Dawnsdinners.com, after weighing in the crusty colossus of 52.8 pounds. "We have the worlds' biggest. It's unbelievable."


The 12.5-inch-high falafel, a spicy Middle Eastern snack made from ground chickpeas and fava beans, was certified at 5 p.m. for submission to the Guinness Book of World Records.


"It measured 3-feet, 10-inches round.


Call it chick pea destiny. Organizers of the intimate Jewish festival in Santa Clarita had hoped to beat the official Guinness World Record falafel of 24 pounds.


Only the falafel, prepared by an Israeli chef in New York last May, looked more like a garbanzo hockey puck.


"Our goal was to have a beautiful falafel that was traditional," said festival volunteer Marlene Bernstein.


Meaning it must be round. Succulent. And mouth-watering enough to compel a hunt for a blanket-size pita.


More than 2,000 revelers who had flocked to the Jewish festival for Israeli dancing, a kugel cook-off and a run on Jewish food trucks had salivated for falafel greatness.


Robert Ingram had waited since noon hoping for a falafel crumb.


"It should have not too much crunch. The pita should be nice and toasty, not overdone. Tahini sauce. And it should all come together in one nice 50-pound falafel," said Ingram, 64, of Valencia, "constructed of pure enjoyment."


For Dawn Walker and her husband Dan, it meant borrowing a portable barbecue. Getting some falafel mix, courtesy of Authentic Foods and Tarazi. And experimenting with a custom stainless steel mold.


As the wind whipped through the festival grounds at College of the Canyons, two falafel lumps spent 8 hours in the oven vying for the record headline.


At 3:21 p.m., the first ball emerged during a blast of klezmer music, and weighed in at a frightening 22.9 - whoops, kilograms - or 50.4 pounds, a would-be record breaker.


The second emerged a couple pounds heftier at 3:30 p.m.


"Wow. I feel like David Caradine of `Kung Fu,' said Dan Walker, hoping not to drop the 145-degree winner.


Many marveled at its garbanzo girth. And the musty aroma of its souffle-like caramel-colored crust.


"It looks like a falafel. It smells like one. Of course, it'll taste like one," said Ric Royce, Dawn's dad, of Oxnard, who once supplied venerable dinner houses such as Trader Vic's. "It'll be the biggest - and the best - ever.


"In my wildest dreams, I never imagined her to be the falafel maven."


There was only one problem: because of health regulations, no one would be allowed a taste of the chick-pea chariot. Instead, they could only dream.


"I think it's fabulous," said Sandi Hershenson, chair of the festival hosted by Chabad of SCV, Temple Beth Ami and Congregation Beth Shalom. "We are celebrating the joys of Jewish culture."


"You're in the history books," added Leah Pollack, 39, of Valencia. "You know what's monumental? Jews in Santa Clarita. And we put on the world's biggest falafel ball."


Not everyone, however, was impressed with its culinary charm


"That's disgusting," said Sandi's daughter, Emma Hershenson, 11, of Stevenson Ranch. "I hate falafel. I mean I hate falafel. But I do think this is monumental event."


For the Walkers, the question was what to do with their monumental feat.


"We're going to frame it," said Dawn Walker, known for her luscious brisket and matzoh ball soup, as well as for catering to special diets. "Put it in a Lucite box. Shellac it. Put it in my living room.


"We'll be smelling falafel forever."

Now someone has to put him together with the guy from Qatar with the pita bread and the guy from lebanon with the plate of chumus, and we have a world record portion of falafel!

618 students and staff of Yeshiva University got together to spin dreidels in a "dreidel-palooza" to set a new world record.

Calling it "sports history" seems to be a bit of a spin, but so be it..mazel tov to them!

How come I only find out about these events after the fact!!!???

People stand around a large plate of hummus in Jerusalem May 5, 2008. In an attempt to break the Guinness Book of world records for the largest plate of hummus, the plate of hummus measuring about 4 metres (13 feet) in diameter was displayed on Monday at a fruit and vegetable market in Jerusalem. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (JERUSALEM)What other records will they be trying to break in honor of Yom Ha'atzmaut??