A Chanukah Call to Action

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Our national pastime is under attack. Take up arms to save it!

Over 2100 years ago the Greeks tried to extinguish the light of Judaism. Today the World Poker Tour is trying the same thing. Let me explain.

Last Chanukah, Jewlarious took to the streets with a mission: make the world a little brighter. With little more than a dreidel and a little bit of chocolate gelt in hand, we shared our beloved national pastime with the world and it was immediately clear why this little spinning top has kept our people alive all of these years. Okay, maybe it hasn't kept us alive, but at the very least it has consistently given our teenagers more acne than their non Jewish cohorts.

But on that cold December day, Jewlarious didn't just increase rates of non Jewish acne – although that was a welcome side benefit, we shared our beloved dreidel with the world, and they in turn accepted her into their collective bosom. We put together a video of our experiment and called it the World Dreidel Tour and posted it on Jewlarious (Click here to view the video).

Overwhelmed by the response, we posted it on YouTube as well, and faster than you can say "Clearasil" the world was falling in love with dreidel.

But just like the days of yore when a Jewish village was burned down by jealous Cossacks if it started to experience success, so too, Jewlarious was now under attack. We received a letter threatening us with "adverse legal consequences." A cybershakedown if you will. The culprit: World Poker Tour Enterprises.

Video Removed: Copyright Infringement?

From:

YouTube (no_reply@youtube.com)

To:

Jewlarious

YouTube | Broadcast Yourself™

Dear Member:

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by WPT Enterprises, Inc. claiming that this material is infringing:

World Dreidel Tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGrrsWkwfk4

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to prevent this from happening, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Center to access the instructions.

Be aware that there may be adverse legal consequences in your country if you make a false or bad faith allegation of copyright infringement by using this process.

Sincerely,
YouTube, Inc.

After receiving the above notice from YouTube I was shocked. Jewlarious might be subject to "adverse legal consequences"? We weren't making dirty bombs. We were playing dreidel! We weren't part of the axis of evil, we belonged to the axis of dreidel!

I didn't know what to do. I needed some advice, so I went to the only place I could think of: my magic eight ball dreidel. I spun it and it landed on "nun" for "miracle". Indeed, I needed a Chanukah Miracle.

I decided to write a letter to this 21st Century "Antiochos." I needed to rescue our beloved dreidel. I needed to save Chanukah. If Judah the Maccabee were alive today, he would lead our cause and take up arms. Or at least send an email. In Judah's absence, I stepped forward.

Below is the text of my letter. Admittedly, I got a little emotional, but dreidel is an emotional issue for me.

Hello. My name is Richard Rabkin and last year, I produced a video called the World Dreidel Tour on behalf of Jewlarious for the Jewish holiday of Hanukah. We hit the streets and told people that if they like poker, then they'll love the thousands year old Jewish gambling game called "dreidel" where players spin a top and bet against one another over which side the top will land on. Because the World Poker Tour is the top destination for poker we named our dreidel project the "World Dreidel Tour" because we wanted to be the top destination for dreidel. The people we met on the street had a blast. We filmed the results and posted the video on YouTube. The internet was abuzz and dreidel was poised to become the next gambling sensation. Until the World Poker Tour stepped in.

For some reason, the World Poker Tour made an official complaint to YouTube alleging that our little dreidel game infringed on your copyrights. As a result YouTube took down our video. Once again, the big corporation - the World Poker Tour beat the little guy - the World Dreidel Tour. Goliath killed David.

But it didn't have to be this way. You didn't have to fear the dreidel. After all, maybe we could have joined forces. Perhaps we could have come up with a hybrid dreidel/poker called "droker." We'll never know because you killed us before we could sit down and explain ourselves, just like people like people like you have been doing to my people throughout history.

World Poker Tour, you have extinguished the light of Hanukah. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Sincerely,

Richard Rabkin
Former Commissioner, World Dreidel Tour

Despite our emotional plea, the World Poker Tour refused our request. The World Dreidel Tour is still banned from YouTube. The light of Chanukah is dimming and we need your help. Take up arms! Write your congressmen! Take to the streets and save the dreidel! For thousands of years the dreidel has given our people so much. It has never asked for anything in return. Until now.

Click here to join Jewlarious's petition, and help save the dreidel!

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