Weekly Quiz 2022
The Shofar
Jews around the world are listening to the blowing of the shofar during the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, and again on Yom Kippur. The shofar is typically a hollowed out ram’s horn, though other animals’ horns are also used, including goats, ibexes and kudus. While there is not a specific reference to the shofar in the Torah, it says in Leviticus Chapter 23 Verse 24, “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts.” What shofar-related event took place that made the Guinness Book of World Records?
Shofar by slgckgc is licensed under CC BY 2.0
A. At the Reform Stephen Wise Temple in Los Angeles in 2018 a shofar blower set a record for the loudest recorded shofar blast, hitting 125 decibels (most shofar blasts are in the range of 90 decibels).
B. In 2014, the Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life sponsored the “Great Shofar Blowout” in Whippany, New Jersey, where 1,022 participants blew the shofar at the same time, breaking the old Guinness record of most shofar blowers by more than 300.
C. A Chabad rabbi set the record for the longest held tekiah gedolah note at Kfar Habad in Israel on Yom Kippur 2017. The blast lasted 1 minute and 55 seconds.
D. In 2012, at a synagogue in Safed (Tzfat), Israel, the record was set for the longest length shofar ever blown, a kudu horn measuring 34" long.
E. In 2021, a congregation in Jerusalem set a record for the most people infected with COVID-19 by a shofar blower. Within days of the Rosh Hashanah service, 53 people tested positive after the shofar blower, not knowing he was positive for the virus, unwittingly spread his germs throughout the congregation with his many tekiahs, shvarims, and teruahs, not to mention his outstanding tekiah gedolah.
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University has refused for years to recognize the Y.U. Pride Alliance, an LGBTQ student organization. The organization has sued the university, which argued in court that the school’s “religious freedom” rights as the “world’s premier Torah-based institution of higher education” would be violated if it has to recognize and support the LGBTQ group. The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that the school must obey the decision of the New York State Supreme Court, which stated that because the school is incorporated as an educational institution, not a religious one, it cannot deny the club’s request. In response, Yeshiva University announced that for the time being, they are suspending all student club activities. A lawyer representing the student organization called the university’s action “a throwback to 50 years ago when the city of Jackson, Miss., closed all public swimming pools rather than comply with court orders to desegregate.” There are almost 100 student organizations affected by the University’s decision, including which of the following?
Yeshiva University Zysman Hall from northeast by Beyond My Ken is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0
A. The Bagel Club, whose members “dive into the plethora of bagels available in New York, the ultimate Jewish dining experience.”
B. The Out-of-Towner Club, whose signup sheet says, “Are you an out-of-towner? Are you looking to make new friends! The Out-of-Towners club has got you covered!”
C. The Rock-Paper-Scissors Club, an organization whose members “engage in serious competition followed by camaraderie and schnaps.”
D. The Catholic Student Organization, which provides “a place of fellowship” for Yeshiva’s Catholic students.
E. The YU Menswear Club, whose mission is “to inspire, educate and introduce students to real world fashion and menswear professionals.”
Queen Elizabeth II, RIP
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth died at the age of 96, having reigned for 70 years. She is being mourned around the world, including by members of the British Jewish community. According to Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, “Her affection for the Jewish people ran deep, and her respect for our values was palpable.” In 2005, the Queen bestowed knighthood on Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi. In that same year, Queen Elizabeth met with a group of Holocaust survivors at St. James’s Palace, where according to Rabbi Sacks, she remained long beyond her scheduled appointment (very unusual for the Queen) in order to spend time hearing the stories of each of the survivors. The Queen was criticized, however, in 1996 on an official visit to Poland, because she did not visit Auschwitz. She also received criticism on that visit for not referencing the Polish Jews who had suffered under Nazi occupation in a speech she gave to the Polish Parliament. What was the official explanation for this omission?
Queen Elizabeth II March 2015 by Joel Rouse/ Ministry of Defence is licensed under the United Kingdom Open Government Licence v3.0
A. According to the Communications Secretary to the Queen, “The Queen had no desire to offend her hosts at this official address.”
B. According to officials at Buckingham Palace, the omission was a “typographical error.”
C. According to the Queen, “My remarks today were intended to be non-political.”
D. According to Queen Elizabeth’s Press Secretary “This event was a joyous occasion that Her Majesty did not wish to mar with references to that tragic time.”
E. According to a spokesman from Buckingham Palace, “Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl but she doesn’t have a lot to say.”
Jane Fonda & Mikhail Gorbachev
Last week saw the passing of Mikhail Gorbachev, the former General Secretary of the Communist Party and head of state of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev instituted a policy of glasnost (openness), pursuing more democratic ideals, ultimately leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Also last week, Jane Fonda announced that she is being treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Fonda has pursued a 7-decade long acting career, while also being an active political voice in America, opposing the Viet Nam war, fighting for civil rights and feminist causes, and advocating for climate change efforts among other issues. How did Mikhail Gorbachev and Jane Fonda cross paths in their lives in a Jewish-related way?
Mikhail Gorbachev by Yuryi Abramochkin is licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0
Jane Fonda at the Cannes film festival by Georges Biard is licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0
A. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, Gorbachev was working as a bureaucrat, first at the Stavropol regional procurator’s office and then other low to mid-level local government positions. But in 1972, Gorbachev saw news coverage of Jane Fonda’s trip to Hanoi, where she was famously photographed standing on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, the picture which earned her the nickname “Hanoi Jane.” Gorbachev said in his autobiography that he was inspired by that photo, which made him begin to think about the Soviet government more critically. Said Gorbachev, “I thought about that photo when I struggled with the question of allowing our Jewish citizens to leave the Soviet Union. Jane Fonda criticized her country because she knew her country was wrong. And I knew that it was wrong for my country to not allow so many of our citizens to follow their own beliefs. So I opened the doors to more religious freedom, and I opened the doors of exit for those who wished to leave.”
B. Gorbachev visited Israel in 1996, a few years after his time as General Secretary of the Communist Party, and his term as President of the Soviet Union. Coincidentally Jane Fonda visited Israel at the same time, and both were invited to dinner with Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres. They began a relationship with ongoing correspondance and occasional visits that continued until Gorbachev’s death.
C. In 2009, Fonda was a signatory of a letter protesting the Toronto International Film Festival’s spotlight on Tel Aviv, which she later apologized for, noting that while it was legitimate to criticize Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, that letter was overly broad in attacking independent Israeli filmmakers. Said Fonda in an interview with Diane Sawyer, “I recently read Memoirs, the autobiography by Mikhail Gorbachev. He said that one of his proudest moments was when he visited Israel in 1992 and received a Peace Prize from the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology. Just think–Gorbachev, who oversaw the jailing of hundreds of Jewish dissidents, later was honored for his freeing of Jews to go to Israel. It’s a reminder that everything is complex, and there is good and evil on all sides.”
D. Fonda was an advocate for Soviet Prisoners of Conscience, many of whom were Jews who simply wanted to practice their religion or emigrate to Israel, including Ida Nudel and Anatoly (Natan) Sharansky. Fonda even traveled to the Soviet Union and secretly met with Nudel, and then launched a public campaign on behalf of her cause. As a direct result of the efforts of Jane Fonda and others, Gorbachev granted Ida Nudel an exit visa in 1987, and she left the Soviet Union for Israel.
E. According to Natan Sharansky, the Jewish activist who spent nine years in a Soviet labor camp, the first sign that he saw of a loosening of restrictions by Gorbachev was when the prisoners were provided with a VCR for entertainment. Said Sharansky, “We had only been able to watch mind-numbing government propaganda on the television, but then, with the VCR, all of a sudden our world expanded. I remember all of the prisoners joining together to exercise to the Jane Fonda’s Workout video. That’s when we knew that Gorbachev was bringing about real change.”