Israel to relaunch Bible Quiz for adults next Hanukka

After 29-year hiatus, Education Minister Sa'ar embraces "an additional tool for the strengthening of our roots."

By BEN HARTMAN
Avner Netanyahu 311 (photo credit: Channel 23)
Avner Netanyahu 311
(photo credit: Channel 23)
After 29 years, the national Bible Quiz for adults will be re-launched next Hanukka, the Education Ministry has announced.
Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar (Likud) has called “on the public to take an active role in the quiz – which presents an additional tool for the strengthening of our roots, and the cultural wealth of the Hebrew language and Israeli society.”
The decision to relaunch the quiz was taken by Sa’ar following a request made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the 2009 Bible Quiz. Netanyahu’s son Avner, 15, won the National Bible Quiz in mid-March in Kiryat Shmona, beating 12,000 contestants around the country for the crown.
Interested parties can register for the quiz – open to all members ofthe public over the age of 18 – via the Education Ministry’s Web site.The competition will culminate in the crowning of a Bible Master andtwo runners-up.
The quiz will not be for the faint-hearted, covering three separatestages testing Torah mastery. The first stage will be a written testheld in six different regional locations on July 27.
In the next stage, the top 16 to 18 finalists from each of the sixregions will take part in a quiz on October 12, and the top two fromeach region will be selected to take part in the final stage. By thethird stage, to be held on December 7, only 12 Torah titans will beleft standing to battle it out for the title of Israel’s adult BibleQuiz master. The challenge still won’t be over for the newly-crownedvictor, who along with the second and third-place winners, willrepresent Israel in the International Bible Quiz in 2011.
The International Bible Quiz for adults was held five times in Israel’shistory, the first in 1958 and the last in 1981, when it was won by thelate Rabbi Aharon Ben-Shushan.