The 56th International Bible Contest for Jewish Youth 5779

As in past years, Israel Independence Day featured the International Bible Contest for Jewish Youth held in Jerusalem, which this year was observed on May 9th. The Bible contest is sponsored by the Israeli Education authority, the Jewish Agency, and the Keren Kayemet (JNF). This year there were about eighty young people who came from thirty different countries to participate in the contest, a number greater than in any of the past ḥidonim, for which the Jewish Agency representative deserves the credit. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on hand for the competition, held annually on Independence Day; this year the nation celebrated its 71st anniversary.

In addition to contestants from Israel and the United States, there were young people from Mexico, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and France. Several thousand Jewish youths participate in Bible quizzes world-wide, and those who do well come to Israel for the Hidon on Independence Day, where they are given tours of the country and exposed to many of the places mentioned in the Bible, as well as to Israeli VIPs, during a Bible camp lasting about two weeks. During the camp, all contestants take a Bible test, and the top sixteen scorers appear on television to compete for the title of Bible champion.

Of particular note this year was the participation of Misgenaw Ayahu, representing the Jewish community in Ethiopia and eagerly awaiting governmental approval to make aliya. JBQ editor Rabbi Zvi Ron met with him personally a short time before the contest, while visiting the community in Addis Ababa; Misgenaw took fourth place in the Diaspora contest.

The classic Bible contest traditions were maintained. In the first round, each of the sixteen contestants is asked a question via short educational films, a practice now in place for several years. Before the Master of Ceremonies, veteran presenter Dr. Avshalom Kor, put the questions to the contestants, three speeches were given. Israel’s outgoing Minister of Education, Naftali Bennett, called on the Israeli government to become involved in the struggle to prevent more Jews from assimilating in the United States. The head of the Jewish Agency, Yitzhak Herzog, recalled that it was his mother, with the support of Ben Gurion, who organized the first Israeli Bible contest, which was covered by radio in an era before television came to Israel; that first contest was won by Amos Hacham, hailed by the entire nation like a war hero for his biblical knowledge. The third speech was given by Mr. Yuli Edelstein, Speaker of the Knesset, who for the seventh year served as chief judge of the contest; he spoke of how the Bible helped him survive years of imprisonment in a Siberian labor camp, to which he had been sent by the Communist Russian government for being a Zionist.

This year, after a tight competition, the winner of the Ḥidon was Yonatan Weissman, 18, a resident of Jerusalem who studied at the Degel Yerushalayim yeshiva in Nachalim. The close runner-up, taking second place, was Benjamin Colchamiro, 15, a New Jersey resident who attends the Kushner Yeshiva in Livingston, New Jersey.

The annual Hidon is sponsored by several organizations, including the government’s Education Department, the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet), and the Jewish Agency. Jewish communities around the world are urged to prepare pupils for local Bible contests where they are held, or to prepare them privately, so they can become future participants in the international Hidon. Pupils may study the Bible either in Hebrew or in their native languages; translators are always available during the written exam in Israel and at the Independence Day contest for anyone speaking a language other than Hebrew.