Independence Day Bible Quiz: Bringing Jews worldwide together

Israel’s 10th year of independence was marked by the state’s first-ever International Bible Quiz, hosted at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Givat Ram campus in August 1958, during the summer break. One of the founders of the quiz was Aura Herzog, the mother of President Isaac Herzog, who headed the governmental committee responsible for planning the 10th anniversary of the Jewish state. 

Fifteen Jewish contestants from 13 countries participated in the various rounds, at the end of which Amos Hakham, 37, was pronounced the winner with 42 points out of the maximum 45. He was followed by the 42-year-old French contestant Simone Dumont, who had garnered 29 points. In third place came 39-year-old Irene Santos from Brazil, with 22 points. 

Aiding the foreign participants were interpreters who had “worked through the night at their sealed-off quarters in the Eden Hotel to prepare translations of the questions,” according to a Jerusalem Post article at the time, by Malka Rabinowitz.

The audience was comprised of religious figures and diplomats, along with Israeli leaders, such as president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and his wife, Rachel Yanait. Rabinowitz quotes prime minister David Ben-Gurion as remarking during the interval: “Perhaps I could have answered 40% of the questions.”

The Post article described the enthusiasm and excitement surrounding the event. More than 2,000 people, had “sat attentively on hard stone benches through the entire five hours of the quiz. There was no movement through the entire amphitheater except for the contestants who were eliminated leaving the stage.”

Large crowds gathered at the entrance of the King’s Hotel in Jerusalem to welcome Hakham, the winner, and the other contestants, after the quiz.

At home too, people showed great interest in the contest, with the article remarking, “Most of the nation at the same time sat by their radios as the entire quiz was broadcast by Kol Yisrael.” 

According to a poll compiled that night by the Israeli Applied Institute for Social Research and cited in the Israeli daily Herut, 1,200,000 people listened to the quiz, some 66% of Israel’s Jewish population.

The relation between the quiz and Diaspora Jews was significant: “For the Kol Yisrael staff, the end of the contest was the beginning of a race against time to prepare 13 tape recordings for shipment by early morning plane to the radio stations of the participating countries,” Rabinowitz wrote.

The History of the Bible quiz in Israel

IN 1963, a new iteration of the quiz was introduced, initiated by Prof. Haim Gvaryahu of the Society for Bible Study. This was the International Bible Quiz for Youth, for youngsters from eighth through 12th grades. This contest has since been held on Israel’s Independence Day.

Independence Day and the Bible quiz are inextricably linked, explained chairman of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), Yaakov Hagoel, a judge on the Bible Quiz for Youth in previous years, set to retake the position this year.“As a youth, I remember sitting and watching the Bible Quiz, there was only Channel One in black and white at the time. It was the national sport,” he told the Post.

Now, as a judge, he described the last moments of the final of the quiz, “You can see the tension not only on the [contestants’] faces but their whole bodies, and they give responses that you wouldn’t have known even without the pressure.”

“It’s an amazing experience,” Hagoel said. “First and foremost,” owing to “the atmosphere of Jews, Israel, and Zionism.”  

The organization he chairs is involved in the “international” part of the quiz, he explained. The WZO is “spread all over the world and we help locate contestants and hold local competitions,” mostly via schools and youth movements but also more increasingly through social media. This allows the organization to reach a wider audience.

Hagoel said he accompanied the youth from abroad in the preparatory camp which takes place in Israel prior to the quiz, where “there are people from Mexico, Argentina, the United States, Canada, and Australia. It creates a very nice and interesting discourse on the People of Israel,” he noted.

For Hagoel, the Bible quiz illustrates “how we can do things together.” 

“We are one people,” he emphasized. “We need to protect this one nation, certainly in light of what has been happening in the last six months, in the difficult period here but also there. Solidarity is very important and the Bible quiz does it in a small way.”

A similar sentiment was echoed by Ruth Cohen, the 2020 winner of the quiz at age 16, the first woman in 10 years to have received the title. The Bible “is what connects me with the rest of the People of Israel,” she told the Post.Now, Cohen is a counselor in the preparatory camp organized for the Diaspora youth, where, she said, the foundational basis for the relationship between Jews worldwide is rendered all the more palpable.

Strengthening the relationship with Jewish heritage

“THE BIBLE revives the Jewish identity in its most basic form,” she said. For her, the initial link with the Bible was on a personal level when she realized the Bible stories were relatable. 

“In the end, it speaks of conflicts between human beings,” she said, adding that it allowed her to connect with herself.Before beginning to study for the contest, Cohen said, there were some books in the Bible she had not been familiar with. 

“I studied the Bible as if it were the script of a play,” she related, affirming, “There is no such thing as finishing studying the Bible, you can stop, but you will never finish.”

“Studying the Bible showed me where we come from and our relationship with Israel,” Sheila Reiff, a 2020 contestant from Argentina told the Post.

Reiff, who was born in Buenos Aires and grew up in Israel before returning to Argentina with her family, said that watching the Independence Day quiz during her childhood inspired her to participate.

“My parents made aliyah, I grew up here, I really love Israel, and I hope to come back and live here,” she said. “I think my studying for the Bible Quiz strengthened my love for Israel. While learning the Bible, “you see what the People of Israel have gone through in the Torah, Nevi’im (Prophets] and Ketuvim [Writings].”

The Bible “creates a connection between being Jewish and the Jewish State.” Studying for the quiz strengthens the bond of Diaspora youth to Israel, she said, while also showing them that although they are in the Diaspora, Israel has their back.