Jewish

Question 1

What is the approximate worldwide Jewish population today?

Answer 1

14 Million

Question 2

What does the word “rabbi” mean in Judaism?

Answer 2

Teacher

Question 3

What are the three sections of the Hebrew Bible? (Tanakh)

Answer 3

• The Law
• The Prophets
• The Writings

Question 4

What is the Pentateuch?

Answer 4

The 5 Books of Moses

Question 5

What word refers to rabbinic commentary on or interpretation of Jewish Biblical text?

Answer 5

Midrash

Question 6

Where can we find the earliest reference to the people of Israel outside the Bible?

Answer 6

The victory stela of Egyptian pharaoh

Question 7

The word Jew originally referred to those belonging to what?

Answer 7

A particular territory

Question 8

What do traditional Jews believe about the origins of the Torah?

Answer 8

It was divinely revealed to Moses

Question 9

According to the Documentary Hypothesis, what do textual inconsistencies in the Hebrew Bible reveal?

Answer 9

Indicators of different sources of the text

Question 10

What was the earliest Jewish material to have been written down?

Answer 10

The Torah

Question 11

What does the Jewish festival of Passover commemorate?

Answer 11

The liberation of Israelites from slavery in Egypt

Question 12

What is the specific term used to describe the relationship between the Israelites and their God?

Answer 12

Covenant

Question 13

Most scholars now understand the Israelite acquisition of Canaan, as described in the book of Joshua, to have been accomplished through which of the following?

Answer 13

Settlement rather than military conquest

Question 14

Following the death of King Solomon, when Israel split in two, what name did the southern kingdom use?

Answer 14

Judah

Question 15

The Babylonian Exile marks the beginning of which of the following?

Answer 15

The Jewish Diaspora

Question 16

What term refers to the period of Jewish history that followed the Babylonian Exile?

Answer 16

Second Temple Period

Question 17

Why is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint?

Answer 17

It was translated by 70 Jewish sages who, according to legend, independently produced the same text.

Question 18

What does the word Sabbath mean in Judaism?

Answer 18

Seventh Day

Question 19

The kings of the Hasmonean dynasty in ancient Israel were descendants of whom?

Answer 19

The Maccabees

Question 20

What does the Jewish festival of Hanukkah commemorate?

Answer 20

The rededication of the temple bu the Maccabees

Question 21

Who were the two major first century Jewish groups?

Answer 21

The Sadducees and the Pharisees

Question 22

When did the Romans destroy the Second Temple?

Answer 22

70 CE

Question 23

According to rabbinic tradition, the Oral Torah originated with whom?

Answer 23

Moses

Question 24

What is the Hebrew word for commandment?

Answer 24

Mitzvah

Question 25

What was the result of the Bar Kochba revolt in 132-135 CE?

Answer 25

It failed miserably

Question 26

How did rabbinic Halakah treat the status of women?

Answer 26

As subordinate to men

Question 27

The Jewish Talmud is composed primarily of what?

Answer 27

Mishnah and Gemrah

Question 28

In rabbinic literature, what is Aggadab

Answer 28

Narrative material

Question 29

After the Bar Kochba revolt, where were Judaism's two main rabbinic centres?

Answer 29

Palestine and Babylonia

Question 30

Sephardim is a designation for descendants of Jews from where?

Answer 30

Spain and Portugal

Question 31

The Ashkenazic Jewish community uses the what language?

Answer 31

Yiddish

Question 32

What did Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides emphasize?

Answer 32

Rational Philosophy

Question 33

In Kabbalah, what term refers to the ten aspects or emanations of God's power?

Answer 33

Sefirot

Question 34

Who was the founder of Hasidic Judaism?

Answer 34

The Baal Shem Tov

Question 35

What did the eighteenth century Haskalah movement in Judaism seek to do?

Answer 35

Help jews integrate into European society

Question 36

In the eighteenth century, what did Moses Mendelssohn urge German Jews to do?

Answer 36

Be a jew at home, and a German on the Street

Question 37

Which of the following is NOT a modern branch of Judaism?

Answer 37

Pharisaic

Question 38

Which of the following is true of Reform Jews?

Answer 38

They do not generally keep kosher dietary laws

Question 39

What do the Jewish dietary laws stipulate?

Answer 39

The foods that are acceptable, how they are to be cooked, and the types that may be eaten together in the same meal

Question 40

The Reconstructionist movement in in Judaism developed primarily out of which other modern Jewish movement?

Answer 40

Conservative movement

Question 41

In modern snyagogues, the Holy Ark where the Torah scrolls are kept, symbolizes what?

Answer 41

The place that stored the tablets given to Moses at Mount Sinai

Question 42

What term refers to a group of ten adult males who make up a quorum for Jewish public prayer?

Answer 42

Minyan

Question 43

What is the name of the celebration of the Jewish New Year?

Answer 43

Rosh Hashanah

Question 44

What is the Hebrew term used to refer to the Holocaust?

Answer 44

Shoah

Question 45

What act on September 15, 1935 resulted in the revoking of Jews' German citizenship and the deprival of their legal and economic rights?

Answer 45

The passage of the Nuremberg Laws

Question 46

When did the state of Israel come into being?

Answer 46

May 14, 1948

Question 47

In Judaism, what prayer is recited by the children of the deceased after his or her burial?

Answer 47

The Kaddish

Question 48

What ritual happens at the conclusion of Jewish wedding?

Answer 48

The breaking of the glass

Question 49

In Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism, when is a child considered Jewish?

Answer 49

If either parent is Jewish, as long as the child is raised as a Jew and adopts a Jewish identity