Judaism

Question 1

What term refers to Jews originating from Mediterranean countries, especially the Iberian peninsula?

Answer 1

SEPHARDIM or SEPHARDIC

Question 2

What is the term for a person who performs ritual Jewish circumcisions?

Answer 2

MOHEL

Question 3

What Jewish holy day marks the beginning of ten days of penitence, or teshuvah, culminating on Yom Kippur?

Answer 3

ROSH HASHANAH

Question 4

For which Jewish holy is a large meal eaten before the Kol Nidre prayer at sundown because the holy day is marked by fasting?

Answer 4

YOM KIPPUR

Question 5

What ritual meal is eaten on the first or second night of Passover?

Answer 5

SEDER

Question 6

What word, which translates as “proper,” refers to foods permitted by Jewish dietary laws?

Answer 6

KOSHER

Question 7

Spinning what four-sided top is a traditional game played during the holiday of Hanukkah?

Answer 7

DREIDEL

Question 8

What Jewish holy day is celebrated on the tenth of Tishrei, between the 14th of Septeber and the 14th of October every year?

Answer 8

YOM KIPPUR

Question 9

What potato pancakes are traditionally prepared to celebrate Hanukkah in the in Ashkenazi Jewish tradition?

Answer 9

LATKES

Question 10

What term is used to refer to the involuntary mass dispersion of a population from its indigenous territories, especially the dispersion of Jews after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE?

Answer 10

DIASPORA

Question 11

What is the term for a spiritual leader and religious teacher of a Jewish community or congregation?

Answer 11

RABBI

Question 12

Literally translated as the “Head of the Year,” what day marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year?

Answer 12

ROSH HASHANAH

Question 13

What term refers to a school for the study of the Torah and Talmud?

Answer 13

YESHIVA

Question 14

Translated as “Daughter of the Commandment,” what Jewish ceremony marks a girl’s coming of age at 12 years old?

Answer 14

BAT MITZVAH

Question 15

What site is the only remaining part of the temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE and is an important place of pilgrimage for Jews?

Answer 15

WESTERN (or WAILING) WALL

Question 16

Translated as “Son of the Commandment,” what Jewish ceremony marks a boy’s coming of age at 13 years old?

Answer 16

BAR MITZVAH

Question 17

What is the name of the canopy under which the bride, grrom and Rabbi will stand during the Jewish marriage ceremony?

Answer 17

CHUPPAH

Question 18

What Jewish holy day marks the wheat harvest and also commemorates the anniversary of the giving of the Torah by God to the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai?

Answer 18

SHAVUOT

Question 19

What Jewish religious movement, which takes its name from the Hebrew for “piety,” arose as a spiritual revival in the 18th century in Eastern Europe?

Answer 19

HASIDISM or HASIDIC (JUDAISM)

Question 20

What Jewish holy day, the Day of Remembrance, is also the day of judgment in which God remembers and judges each person according to their deeds, and making a decree for each for the following year?

Answer 20

ROSH HASHANAH

Question 21

What is the Yiddish for “Hanukkah money,”distributed to children during the festival of Hanukkah?

Answer 21

GELT

Question 22

What horn, typically made of a ram’s horn, is blown in synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom Kippur?

Answer 22

SHOFAR

Question 23

What Jewish festival commemorates an victory in the Maccabean revolt, against the Seleucid Empire, resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem in the year 164 BCE?

Answer 23

HANUKKAH

Question 24

What unleavened bread is eaten during the Jewish festival of Passover?

Answer 24

MATZO

Question 25

What Jewish holy day is considered the holiest day of the year: a very solemn day devoted to fasting, prayer, and repentance?

Answer 25

YOM KIPPUR

Question 26

What is the name for the head covering worn during Jewish prayers?

Answer 26

KIPPAH or YARMULKE

Question 27

What cousin and adopted daughter of Mordecai who had become Queen of Persia helped foil the plans of Haman to kill all the Jews of the empire?

Answer 27

ESTHER

Question 28

What is the traditional diaspora language of Ashkenazi Jews?

Answer 28

YIDDISH

Question 29

The name of what Jewish festival is derived from the Hebrew word meaning “to dedicate” as it celebrates the re-dedication of the Second Temple?

Answer 29

HANUKKAH

Question 30

What are the five books of the Torah?

Answer 30

GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS, DEUTERONOMY Mnemonic: God's Endless Love Never Dies

Question 31

What Jewish holy day commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, an Achaemenid Persian Empire official who was planning to kill all the Jews, as recounted in the Book of Esther?

Answer 31

PURIM

Question 32

What seven-day Jewish festival is also known as the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles?

Answer 32

SUKKOT

Question 33

In the Jewish religion, what is the term for the four-cornered shawl worn for prayer?

Answer 33

TALLIT

Question 34

What central text of Rabbinic Judaism consists of the Mishnah and Gemara?

Answer 34

TALMUD

Question 35

What school of thought in Jewish mysticism attempts to explain the relationship between the eternal God and the mortal world?

Answer 35

KABBALAH

Question 36

Who is consider to be the father of the Jewish nation? He is also the father of Isaac and Jacob.

Answer 36

ABRAHAM

Question 37

What Jewish festival commemorates the Exodus, the liberation of the Israelite slaves from Egypt?

Answer 37

PASSOVER or PESACH

Question 38

What Jewish holy day includes a reading of the entire Book of Jonah and concludes with the Ne'ilah service?

Answer 38

YOM KIPPUR

Question 39

What is the holiest site in Judaism?

Answer 39

THE TEMPLE MOUNT (which includes the Western Wall)

Question 40

What is the name given to the five books of Moses of the Hebrew Bible?

Answer 40

(WRITTEN) TORAH (accept PENTATEUCH)

Question 41

During which Jewish festival can Jews not eat or even own chametz and have to eat matzo instead?

Answer 41

PASSOVER or PESACH (chametz is leavened bread)

Question 42

What Jewish holy day is the Day of Atonement?

Answer 42

YOM KIPPUR

Question 43

The last day of what Jewish festival commemorates the Splitting of the Red Sea?

Answer 43

PASSOVER or PESACH

Question 44

What Jewish festival is also known as the Festival of Unleavened Bread, as it celebrates the Israelites leaving Egypt so quickly that their bread did not have enough time to rise?

Answer 44

PASSOVER or PESACH

Question 45

What seven-day Jewish festival commemorates the years that the Jews spent in the desert on their way to the Promised Land?

Answer 45

SUKKOT

Question 46

What Jewish festival starts on the the 25th day of Kislev and lasts for eight nights and days?

Answer 46

HANUKKAH

Question 47

On which Jewish holy day did Egyptian forces invade the Sinai peninsula, inciting 1973 Arab-Israeli War?

Answer 47

YOM KIPPUR

Question 48

What is the political movement securing the Jewish return to the land of Israel?

Answer 48

ZIONISM

Question 49

What Jewish festival is also known as the Festival of Lights?

Answer 49

HANUKKAH

Question 50

What is the name of the candle on the menorah that is used to light the others?

Answer 50

SHAMASH

Question 51

What term refers to Jews of Central and Eastern European origin?

Answer 51

ASHKENAZI(M) or ASHKENAZIC

Question 52

Who was the royal vizier to King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I of Persia) who planned to kill all the Jews in the empire but was foiled by Mordecai and Esther?

Answer 52

HAMAN

Question 53

What Jewish holy day commemorates the day that creation of the world was completed?

Answer 53

ROSH HASHANAH

Question 54

Who do Jews believe will be sent by God to lead the world into an age of peace and understanding?

Answer 54

THE MESSIAH

Question 55

In the Jewish tradition, what term refers to the seven days of intense mourning following the burial of a close relation?

Answer 55

SHIVA

Question 56

What enriched bread is eaten particularly on Shabbat and during Jewish festivals?

Answer 56

CHALLAH

Question 57

How many candles are there on a menorah?

Answer 57

NINE

Question 58

What religious rite is performed by a qualified mohel on all Jewish boys, usually on the eighth day after birth?

Answer 58

CIRCUMCISION or BRIT MILAH

Question 59

What medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher, one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars, was also a preeminent astronomer and the personal physician of Saladin?

Answer 59

MAIMONIDES (my-MON-i-deez) or MOSES BEN MAIMON

Question 60

For how many nights and days does the Jewish festival of Hanukkah last?

Answer 60

EIGHT