Tech quiz, defense expo to be held in honor of 60th

By YAAKOV KATZ
The format will be like the annual Bible Quiz, broadcast on Channel 1 every Independence Day. The questions, though, will not have to do with King David or Moses, but will focus on quantum physics, chemistry and advanced mathematics. As part of the nationwide celebrations for Israel's 60th anniversary, the Defense Ministry announced plans on Sunday to hold a "Security-Technology Quiz" for high school seniors, the winner of which will receive a full scholarship for college studies at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. The selection process for the quiz - the brainchild of MAFAT, the Defense Ministry's Research and Development Directorate - began several weeks ago with 7,000 high school students. The number was gradually cut to 88, and in the end only 12 finalists will appear before the panel of judges, which will include Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The quiz will be held at Beit Hahayal in Tel Aviv on June 6. The ministry's various projects - which include renovating 60 War of Independence memorials - will cost some NIS 30 million, compared to the NIS 10 million that the ministry usually spends on Yom Ha'atzmaut festivities, project manager Amikam Svirsky said Sunday. "The main message behind all of the different projects is the youth, who we are trying to integrate in everything that we do," Svirsky said. In addition to the quiz, Defense Ministry director-general Pinhas Buchris has also decided to hold a first-ever defense industry expo, open to the public and displaying all of Israel's greatest defense inventions since the creation of the state. The expo will be held in Rishon Lezion from September 10-17. Another project that will end this Tuesday is "In the Footsteps of 1948," which was launched several weeks ago and took nearly 50,000 high school students on a tour of the Armored Corps Museum at Latrun and to the Western Wall, stopping on the way at different War of Independence battle sites. The final ceremony will be held at the Western Wall on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in attendance.