Weekly Quiz - Pre 2019 

Reverend Theodore Parker & Passover

Four Questions is so passé. Add today’s question to your seder for Five Questions. Then, click here to obtain a free copy of RASHI, RAMBAM and HAGGADAH-LAMADINGDONG: A Quiz Haggadah of Jewish Trivia Facts & Fun and you will have another twenty five questions, for a total of Thirty Questions.

Had He led us to the Promised Land and not given us Thirty Questions, it would not have been enough. Only when you add RASHI, RAMBAM and HAGGADAH-LAMADINGDONG to your seder can you say Dayenu.

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The Reverend Theodore Parker, a renowned abolitionist in the 1800's, inspired Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., among others, with his writings and speeches. What statement did Reverend Parker make in reference to the Jews and Passover?

A. Representative James Buffinton of Massachusetts invited Revered Parker to deliver the opening prayer for the House of Representatives in April of 1860, as many southern states were discussing secession. Said Parker to Congress, “As our Jewish brothers and sisters gather together this week to observe Passover and celebrate the freedom of their ancestors, let us all pray today for the freedom of our Negro brothers and sisters in the south. I call on all of you, our Representatives of this great nation, to join with me in the words of the spiritual. Let my people go. Let my people go. Let my people go. Amen.”

B. In an 1860 meeting with President Lincoln to discuss the issue of slavery, Reverend Parker said, “Mr President. I stand with you in working to combat the evils of slavery. In the Old Testament, we read of the plight of the Israelite people and their long march to freedom, crossing the Red Sea, traversing the Sinai Desert, and finally crossing into the Promised Land. I will work with you to help the Negroes of the south on a similar journey. However, I beseech you to provide them loaves of bread for their journey. This matzah is just too constipating.”

C. Reverend Parker was not involved in the anti-slavery movement until he was invited to a Passover seder by Rabbi David Einhorn, a leader of the reform movement in the United States and a staunch abolitionist. On the Sunday following the seder in 1859, Reverend Parker delivered a sermon at his church stating, “Having recently heard the story of the Jewish people bravely crossing the Red Sea to freedom, I recognize that we all must take responsibility for those who are enslaved today. Therefore I am committing myself to a life devoted to the abolition of slavery. I will not rest until every slave is free to cross the Mason-Dixon line, our symbolic Red Sea.”

D. Delivering a sermon to his congregants at the 28th Congregational Society of Boston in 1858, Parker said, “Just as the wrath of the Lord rained down upon the Pharaoh in Egypt to bring freedom to the Israelite people, so shall the Lord in our time bring his wrath upon the slave masters and those who would lead our country to war to protect this evil institution.”

EIn his book, Life and Correspondene of Theod. Parker, Minister of the 28th Congregational Society, Boston, Parker wrote, “I doubt not that they [the Jews] did sometimes kill a Christian baby at the Passover.”

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Haggadot

This week’s question comes from RASHI, RAMBAM and HAGGADAH-LAMADINGDONG: A Quiz Haggadah of Jewish Trivia Facts & Fun. Click here to find out how you can obtain your free copy.

Your seder guests can recite the Four Questions in their sleep. In fact, they probably are sleeping at your seder. With RASHI, RAMBAM and HAGGADAH-LAMADINGDONG, you get 25 more questions and answers guaranteed to keep your guests awake no matter how late your seder drags on.

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Which of the following are all real Haggadot?

ASixty-Minute SederReudor's the Doodled Family Haggadah, and Fifty Shades of Haggadah.

BSammy Spider's First HaggadahHaggadah in Another Dimension, and The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County Haggadah.

CHaggadah Good Feeling About ThisSo Called Seder: A Hip Hop Haggadah, and Ina Gada Haggadah.

DUh! Oh! Passover HaggadahThe Un-Haggadah, and Haggadah Be Me.

EHaggadah for Jews & BuddhistsHaggadah for the Liberated Lamb, and Haggadah for Stoners.

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San Diego

RASHI, RAMBAM and RAMALAMADINGDONG welcomes readers of the San Diego Jewish World, which is now publishing our weekly Jewish Trivia quiz. As a shout-out, here’s a question about San Diego Jewish history.

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In San Diego in 1888, Congregation Beth Israel hired its first rabbi, Samuel Freuder. What career move did Rabbi Freuder subsequently make that he later considered a mistake?

A. In 1889, Rabbi Freuder converted to Christianity and became a missionary. Twenty years later, having failed in that calling, he returned to Judaism and wrote, “If ever I preach in any Christian pulpit again, may my right hand forget its cunning and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.”

B. At the start of World War I, Rabbi Freuder joined the military as a chaplain, originally serving at Naval Base San Diego. However, he found that anti-Semitism was so rife in the Navy that even the Christian chaplains would have nothing to do with him. As a result, he resigned his commission and left the Navy after only one year of service.

CIn 1901, Rabbi Freuder left the rabbinate and opened a kosher fish restaurant, the first kosher establishment in southern California. However, he regretted this decision when the Lox and Sable Conservation Society launched a campaign against his restaurant, claiming that his smoking of these species was cruel, inhumane, and too salty.

DRabbi Freuder was a friend of Samuel Goldwyn, the movie producer, both having been born in Nemet Keresztur in Hungary. Rabbi Freuder moved to Los Angeles from San Diego and partnered with Goldwyn to create Goldwyn Pictures. Freuder, however, could not adjust to Hollywood culture and sold his partnership back to Goldwyn. Goldwyn Pictures eventually became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Rabbi Freuder, who returned to the rabbinate, stated that I don’t regret leaving Hollywood. I’m just sorry I didn’t hold onto my stock for a few more years.”

E. The Panama-California Exposition, a World’s Fair, was hosted by San Diego in 1915-1916. Rabbi Freuder was hired by the Los Angeles Jewish Community Council to coordinate an exhibit on Jewish life in southern California. However, when Exposition organizers learned that this “Goldeneh Medinah California exhibit would not be open on Friday nights and Saturdays, they canceled the exhibit despite Rabbi Freuder’s efforts to explain to them the importance of Sabbath observance in the Jewish community.

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Selma

Many rabbis, most notably Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, participated in the marches and other civil rights movement activities in the 1960’s. The wearing of a yarmulke was adopted by many black marchers, necessitating the special delivery of 1000 yarmulkes for the march from Selma to Montgomery 50 years ago this month. What did the black marchers call their yarmulkes?

AAfro caps.

B. Freedom caps.

CThe Rab-beret.

DHeschel Hats.

E. My brother’s kippas.

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Happy Purim

A Purim bonus question. Chag Sameach!

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Ashkenzaic Jews remember Haman's evil by making noise with a greggar whenever Haman's name is said at the Megillah reading. How do Moroccan Jews note Haman's wickedness?

AThey make a three cornered pastry similar to a hamantashen, but it is filled with red strawberries, representing the blood of Haman.

B. Whenever Haman's name is read in the Megillah, Moroccan Jews ululate, emitting the high-pitched sound that is common in Arabic cultures as a sign of great emotional intensity.

C. They bake a bread which includes two hard boiled eggs, representing Haman’s eyes, which they proceed to pluck out.

DThey tie closed the top and bottom of a kaftan after filling it with Hamanis, which are traditional triangular Moroccan Purim candies. They hang the kaftan from a pole, and children strike it with small bats, releasing the candies for everyone to enjoy (similar to a Mexican piñata).

EThey dress up as Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour and sing We're Off on the Road to Morocco.

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Leonard Nimoy, z”l

At one point in his life, Leonard Nimoy scheduled a speaking tour, but a number of synagogues then canceled his scheduled appearances. What was their objection?

Vulcan hand gesture

A. Nimoy produced and starred in the movie Never Forget, based on the true story of Mel Mermelstein, a Holocaust survivor who confronted a Holocaust-denying organization in court. Nimoy was booked to speak in many synagogues to publicize the movie, but when some Orthodox synagogues learned about the Vulcan hand greeting based on the Priestly Blessing of the Kohanim, they took offense at this secular use of the religious ritual by Nimoy and canceled his appearances.

BNimoy, an accomplished photographer, published a book of his photographic work entitled The Shekhina Project, which explored the feminine side of G-d. He was “intrigued with scriptural mythology that tells us that G-d created a divine feminine presence to dwell amongst humanity…” The book featured photographs of women wearing tefillin (phylacteries) and nothing else. A number of synagogues had booked Nimoy for the accompanying book tour, but canceled the appearances when they learned about these photographs, which they considered offensive.

C. Nimoy was a frequent speaker at synagogues, where he shared stories of his early exposure to anti-semitism in Boston, his later embrace of Judaism, and his professional connections to the Jewish people, including playing Golda Meir’s husband in the TV movie A Woman Called Golda, his performances as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, and his portrayal of Holocaust survivor Mel Mermelstein in a film which Nimoy also produced, Never Forget. But in 2014, Nimoy reunited with William Shatner to film a Star Trek-themed Volkswagen commercial, touting the auto company’s electric cars. A number of synagogues canceled speaking engagements they had booked with Nimoy in objection to his participating in the commercial for the German car company.

D. Nimoy was on a book tour for his first autobiography, I Am Not Spock, and was scheduled to speak at a number of synagogues. However, many synagogues canceled his talk when one of the passages in his book was publicized. In the book, Nimoy mentioned that one of his favorite meals was chopped tribble liver, which he first tasted when filming the iconic Star Trek episode The Trouble With Tribbles. Nimoy noted that it was much tastier than the chopped chicken liver his mother used to serve. Some traditional synagogues objected because tribble is not a kosher animal; while it has a cloven hoof, it does not chew its cud.

E. Nimoy was on a book tour in 1995 following the publication of his second autobiography, I Am Spock. When it became known that in the book Nimoy advocated for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, a number of synagogues canceled his appearance in protest of his beliefs on this issue.

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