The 43rd Annual International Bible Contest for Jewish Youth
A report on the 2006 Chidon HaTanakh, televised from Jerusalem on Independence Day with the Prime Minister asking the final question. Fifty-nine students from 34 countries competed in the Diaspora round at Ashkelon; Yisrael Witte of Canada won it, and Israeli student Adi Diamant took the main contest. Poland, Romania, Latvia and Uruguay were represented for the first time.
One of the key celebrations of Israel’s Independence Day is the live televised Annual Bible Contest for Jewish Youth held in Jerusalem with the participation of the Prime Minister (who asks the final question), the Speaker of the Knesset, Chairman of the Jewish Agency, Minister of Education, Army Chief Rabbi, and other dignitaries. This year, 59 high school students from 34countries who had won their country’s Jewish Agency sponsored regional Bible contest participated in the preliminary special contest for Diaspora youth held in the Israeli town of Ashkelon. The winner of the Diaspora Contest was Yisrael Witte of Canada. He and eleven others who scored the highest points at the Diaspora contest participated in the main contest on Independence Day along with four Israeli high school students who had scored highest in the local Bible contest for Israeli youth. All 59 Diaspora as well as the four Israeli contestants met with the President, Speaker of the Knesset and Prime Minister.
This year representatives from Poland, Romania, Latvia and Uruguay participated in the Diaspora contest. Another first was the presence of a brother and sister, Rachel and Daniel Bernard from Kansas City, who both scored enough points in the Ashkelon contest to be one of the twelve participants at the main event.
This year’s winner was Israeli high school student Adi Diamant with Shira Rosengart and Yitzchak Palu tied for second place, and Hillel Weintraub from Flatbush Yeshiva in Brooklyn coming in third. The contest is supported by the Army’s Education Corps, the Ministry of Education, the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund Keren Kayemet. Jewish schools in the Diaspora are encouraged to have their students participate in their country’s regional bible contests. Schools receive a list of biblical books or chapters on which the contest is based and students may study and take exams in their own languages both in their home countries and when they arrive here. For further information about the Contest, contact your local Jewish Agency representative through http://www.jafi.org.il
Cite this article
Joshua J. Adler. "The 43rd Annual International Bible Contest for Jewish Youth." Jewish Bible Quarterly 34, no. 4 (October – December 2006).
Joshua J. Adler. "The 43rd Annual International Bible Contest for Jewish Youth." Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 4, 2006.