Weekly Quiz - Pre 2019
Iran
Who said "Jews are safe in Iran. There has never been a single instance of anti-Semitism in Iranian society"?
A. The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
B. Siamak Moreh Sedgh, the only Jewish member of Iran's parliament.
C. The Shah of Iran.
D. The Pshaw of Iran.
E. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran.
Happy Sukkot
For what was Rabbi Judah Loew known?
A. He was the first rabbi at Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island, America's oldest synagogue.
B. He founded the Loew's Home Improvement Store after having difficulty finding all of the building products he needed to construct a sukkah at his synagogue.
C. He was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
D. In 1927 he opened the Loew's Theater in Borough Park, Brooklyn, with separate men's and women's sections, so that the Chassidic community could see the just-released film, The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson.
E. He was a Talmudic scholar in Prague in the 16th century who is reputed to have created the Golem of Prague to protect the Jews from anti-semitism and a blood libel.
Miley
For what was Rabbi Menachem Nachum Twersky known?
A. He established the first Chassidic yeshiva in New York after emigrating to the United States in 1862.
B. He was a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and the founder of the Chernobyl Chassidic dynasty.
C. He codified the teachings of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of the Lubavitcher movement.
D. He created a popular dance that is a variation of the hora, where participants shake their tushes up and down while dancing in a circle around the bar or bat mitzvah celebrant.
E. He walked alongside the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King on the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
L'Shana Tova
What is a kitel?
A. A cover that is draped over the Torah scroll in between readings.
B. Something that will eat ivy, too (wouldn't you?).
C. A white robe, traditionally worn on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
D. The name of a section of the Western Wall that was recently excavated, which is only 14 inches high.
E. A small fish commonly served with cream cheese and bagels.
Labor Day
What was the Mink Brigade?
A. A group of Israeli nature activists who advocate for the re-flooding of the long-ago drained Kabbara Swamp in northern Israel, to encourage the restoration of native flora and fauna, including the near-extinct Canaan Mink.
B. From the Hebrew acronym, Maginim l'Nashot haKotel, Protectors of the Women of the Wall, this is a group of men who surround the women who want to pray at the Western Wall, to protect them from those who object to their presence.
C. A group of wealthy women, including Frances Perkins and Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, who supported the (mostly Jewish) International Ladies' Garment Workers Union when they struck for better conditions in 1909.
D. A Jewish community from Minksk in Russia in the late 1800's who organized under the Minksker Rebbe to fight against anti-semitism from the neighboring gentile communities.
E. A militant animal rights group that pickets on the High Holidays outside synagogues in wealthy New York neighborhoods, protesting the manner of dress of the female attendees.
