![]() Students have the option to compete in English or Hebrew, with most selecting Hebrew, according to Nadel. This year, there are 85 chosen chapters from four books: Esther, Exodus, Jonah, and 2 Kings. Right away, American students get to work, memorizing a number of chapters-out of a total 929-from selected books. contest organizers reveal which parts of the Hebrew Bible students will be tested on at the national level. (The only other champion from another country was Canadian, crowned in 2014.) In 2010, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own son, Avner, won locally in Jerusalem only to come third the international competition.Ī student concentrates while taking the first round exam at the Chidon Ha-Tanach competition.Īmerican contestants have been victorious just four times-and two of those were ties with an Israeli. ![]() Each year, dozens of countries participate in the international Chidon Ha-Tanach, but since 1958, when Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, founded the contest, Israelis have won 57 out of the 60 years it’s been held. There, under brighter stage lights and on national television in Jerusalem, one ultimate champion will be anointed by the country’s prime minister on Israel’s Independence Day next spring. On the line is a free trip to Israel, where the top two winners from the middle and high school divisions compete against Jewish students from all over the world for the international title. Then he adds: “It’s like the World Series or the Super Bowl.” “The kids are becoming more competitive each year,” Nadel, the 2007 Chidon champ, tells me. There have never been this many kids going after the crown, according to Dovi Nadel, a New York rabbi who’s organized the event for the past eight years. Ritch is among 325 middle and high school students who’ve gathered here from across the country, some from as far away as California and Texas-with each one vying to prove they’re the most learned young Jewish scholar in America. “I studied every single second I had a break,” she says, beaming through her braces. “The reason why I wanted to do this is because I want to become an orthodontist, and then after that, the prime minister of Israel,” Ritch tells me in a packed gymnasium in the Bronx on a recent rainy Sunday in April.įor the past year, Ritch tells me she’s pored over the Tanach-the Hebrew Bible-even skipping recess and lunch to prepare for this moment. ![]() (Sample question: “Who found a scroll of the Teaching in the House of the Lord?” Answer: Hilkiah, a Hebrew priest who lived 600 years before Jesus entered the scene.)īut Hadassah Esther Ritch, a 13-year-old from New Jersey, has other motives. It’s like a game of trivia, many tell me, only the questions are religious and even more obscure. ![]() Every year, kids come to the Chidon Ha-Tanach, the country’s biggest competition on Hebrew Bible knowledge, because it’s their idea of fun. ![]()
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