Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday September 29, 2006

World shofar record blasted in Boston ’burbs

by the jewish journal

Boston’s North Shore reclaimed the world record for largest shofar ensemble Sept. 17 when 798 participants sounded the shofar for 7 minutes, 50 seconds, on Phillips Beach in Swampscott, Mass.

The Great Shofar Blowout, organized by the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, demolished the previous record of 400, set last year by a synagogue in Philadelphia. Organizers say the total number was probably well over 800, but the official tally includes only those who registered and were known to have made the half-mile walk from the assembly area at Congregation Shirat Hayam to the beach, where the blowing took place.

The Lappin Foundation considers the event part of its efforts at “keeping our children Jewish.” Lappin has worked to export the blowout franchise around the country, subsidizing the efforts of other communities to break the North Shore record.

Official confirmation from the Guinness Book of World Records won’t arrive for several weeks. The foundation must first submit registration logs, press clippings of the event, and testimony from five authenticators.

After the 7 minutes and 50 seconds of blowing, an elated Deborah Coltin, executive director of the Lappin Foundation, announced, “We did it! We have to get ready for our tekiah gedolah (the big blast). We’re going to face Israel. Get ready.”

And the crowd did, blowing a lengthy and spirited tekiah gedolah toward the Jewish state, 6,000 miles across the ocean.

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.