Sara and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flank their 15-year-old son, Avner, as he is named winner of the Jerusalem Bible Quiz. Photo: Isranet
One of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s sons beat out 50 other teenagers to win the Jerusalem region Bible quiz. Avner Netanyahu, 15, will represent the city at the Israeli national competition, where he will compete to represent the Jewish state at this year’s International Bible Quiz, an annual worldwide contest on knowledge of the Hebrew Bible.
The contest includes contestants from Jewish communities around the world and covers the whole of the Hebrew Bible. It is held in Jerusalem each year on Yom Ha’aztmaut, Israeli Independence Day. Since Israelis win so often, there is a separate contest for the top non-Israelis as well.
The Bible contest is a national cultural event founded by David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister: Contestants come to Israel for special events in the weeks before and after the quiz, traveling through the Holy Land, meeting dignitaries, participating in special programs, and going through preliminary tests that winnow the contestants down to the finalists, who appear on the nationally televised quiz. The International contest is always held in Jerusalem, while the Diaspora contest travels to different cities around the country.
The International contest’s winner receives a four-year college scholarship to Bar Ilan University, Israel’s one overtly religious university, which is located just outside Tel Aviv.
The Prime Minister usually asks at least one question during the contest, so Netanyahu may end up quizzing his own son.
What do you think?