80 Fun Facts About Jewish

Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, falls on which day of the week?

Because Jewish days run sunset to sunset, it actually begins on Friday evening.

How many nights does Hanukkah last?

It begins on the 25th of Kislev and remembers the Maccabees' rededication of the Second Temple.

A Hanukkah menorah has how many branches?

Eight hold the nightly lights and the ninth holds the shamash, the 'attendant' candle used to light the others.

Passover celebrates the Israelites' escape from slavery in which land?

The story is retold at the Seder from the Haggadah, and leavened food is banned for the whole holiday.

Which unleavened flatbread is eaten during Passover?

Kosher-for-Passover matzah in the Ashkenazi tradition is made from nothing but flour and water.

Which is the holiest day of the Jewish year, marked by a full fast?

It falls on the 10th of Tishrei and its name means 'Day of Atonement'.

Which instrument, made from a ram's horn, is blown on Rosh Hashanah?

It is also blown at the end of the Day of Atonement and every weekday morning in the month of Elul.

Apples dipped in honey are eaten on Rosh Hashanah to symbolise what?

The custom of symbolic sweet foods is ancient rabbinic; the apple-and-honey pairing itself is a medieval addition.

Purim celebrates Queen Esther saving the Jews from a plot by which Persian official?

The story is read from the Megillah, and the crowd drowns out the villain's name with noisemakers.

The triangular filled pastries eaten at Purim are called what?

The name means 'Haman pockets' in Yiddish; poppy seed and prune are the classic fillings.

During Sukkot, families eat their meals in a temporary hut called what?

The holiday is also called the Feast of Tabernacles and begins on the 15th of Tishrei.

Simchat Torah celebrates the completion of what yearly cycle?

Congregations dance with the Torah scrolls in circuits called hakafot, often spilling into the street.

Tu BiShvat is known as the new year for what?

It falls on the 15th of Shevat and is often marked today by planting trees in Israel.

Shavuot marks the giving of the Torah at which mountain?

It comes exactly seven weeks after Passover, at the end of the Counting of the Omer.

The Torah consists of how many books?

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, also called the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses.

According to rabbinic tradition, how many commandments are in the Torah?

The number breaks down traditionally into 248 positive commands and 365 prohibitions.

The Talmud is made up of the Mishnah and which commentary on it?

When people cite the text they usually mean the Babylonian version, not the earlier Jerusalem one.

A mezuzah is fixed to which part of a Jewish home?

The parchment inside carries verses from Deuteronomy that also form part of the Shema prayer.

The small brimless cap worn by Jewish men is called a kippah or what?

It fulfils the custom that the head should be covered, especially during prayer.

The Star of David is geometrically what kind of shape?

Its Hebrew name, Magen David, means 'Shield of David'.

In Orthodox communities, at what age does a boy become bar mitzvah?

Girls become bat mitzvah at 12 in Orthodox practice; most Reform and Conservative communities use 13 for everyone.

A Jewish couple stands under what during their wedding ceremony?

The canopy is a cloth stretched over four poles, sometimes a prayer shawl held up by friends.

The Jewish mourning period known as shiva lasts how long?

The word itself means 'seven', and mourners are said to be 'sitting shiva'.

Which of these animals is forbidden under kosher dietary laws?

Shellfish and frogs are out too; locusts, oddly, are the one permitted invertebrate.

The braided bread eaten on Shabbat and holidays is called what?

It is skipped on Passover, when leavened bread is forbidden, and on the fast of the Day of Atonement, when nobody eats.

The bagel originated in the Jewish communities of which country?

It was first mentioned in 1610 in community rules in Kraków, and it is boiled before it is baked.

Latkes, the fried potato pancakes of Hanukkah, are cooked in oil to recall what?

The jelly doughnuts called sufganiyot are eaten for the same reason.

The four Hebrew letters on a dreidel are read as an acronym for what phrase?

In Israel the last letter is swapped for pe, changing 'there' to 'here'.

How many letters are in the Hebrew alphabet?

It is an abjad, written right to left, in which the letters are consonants and vowels are shown by optional dots and dashes.

Who led the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language in the 19th century?

It is the only successful large-scale language revival in history, and Hebrew is now Israel's official language.

Yiddish, the historic language of Ashkenazi Jews, is based on which language?

It is written in Hebrew letters and mixes in Hebrew, Aramaic and Slavic words.

Sephardic Jews trace their roots to communities expelled in 1492 from which country?

Portugal followed with its own expulsion order in 1496; the word Sepharad is Hebrew for Spain.

Ashkenazi Jewish communities first consolidated in the 10th century in which region?

They spread east across Central and Eastern Europe over the following centuries, taking Yiddish with them.

The Western Wall in Jerusalem was originally a retaining wall of what?

Its whole length runs 488 metres, though only a short stretch is used for prayer.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in caves near which site?

Found between 1946 and 1956, they include the oldest surviving manuscripts of whole biblical books.

Masada was the last rebel holdout in which conflict against Rome?

Josephus wrote that nearly 1,000 defenders chose death over capture when the walls fell in 73 or 74 AD.

The Twelve Tribes of Israel descend from the twelve sons of which patriarch?

Jacob was later renamed Israel, which is where the tribes and the nation get their name.

Which two books of the Hebrew Bible never mention God explicitly?

Esther is nonetheless read aloud every Purim.

Maimonides, the medieval scholar known as the Rambam, served as personal physician to which ruler?

His fourteen-volume Mishneh Torah is still a central code of Jewish law.

Theodor Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress in 1897 in which city?

His pamphlet Der Judenstaat, published the year before, laid out the case for a Jewish homeland.

Israel declared its independence in which year?

The declaration came on 14 May as the British Mandate ended, and neighbouring Arab states invaded the next day.

Golda Meir, Israel's only woman prime minister, grew up in which American city?

Born in Kiev, she emigrated with her family in 1906 and trained as a teacher.

What was the name of the first kibbutz, founded in 1910?

Its members, mostly from the Second Aliyah, set out to farm the land of Ottoman Palestine collectively.

Israel's parliament is called what?

It is elected by proportional representation under Israel's Basic Laws.

Anne Frank's family hid from the Nazis in a secret annex in which city?

Her diary covers 1942 until the family's arrest in 1944.

The Jewish calendar is lunisolar; roughly how many days do its 12 regular months add up to?

An extra month is slipped in every two or three years to keep the holidays in their seasons.

The Hebrew word 'chai', meaning life, has what numerical value, often used for gifts?

Giving money in multiples of 18 is a common custom at weddings and bar mitzvahs.

Which Dodgers pitcher refused to pitch Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur?

He came back to win Games 5 and 7 and the series MVP.

Fiddler on the Roof follows Tevye, a milkman in which fictional village?

The musical is based on the Tevye the Dairyman stories by Sholem Aleichem.

The Jewish folk song 'Hava Nagila' has a title meaning what?

Its melody is credited to the Sadigura Hasidim of what is now Ukraine.

Klezmer is the traditional instrumental music of which Jewish community?

It was played at weddings and revived in America in the late 1970s.

The Mourner's Kaddish is recited for how many Hebrew months after the death of a parent?

It is a prayer of praise, not of grief, recited to show that the mourner still exalts God despite the loss.

The blue-jeans pioneer Levi Strauss was born to a Jewish family in which country?

He was born in Bavaria in 1829 and set up his San Francisco business in 1853.

'Mazel tov' literally means what?

It is used to say congratulations at weddings, births and bar mitzvahs.

The Yiddish word 'chutzpah', now used admiringly in business English, originally meant what?

In Hebrew it is still used indignantly, for someone who has overstepped the bounds of acceptable behaviour.

Which classic Jewish comfort food is nicknamed 'Jewish penicillin'?

Matzo balls or lokshen noodles usually float in it, and it is a Friday-night staple.

The Catskills resort region famous for Jewish comedians was nicknamed the Borscht Belt and also what?

Guests also called it 'Solomon County', a joke on the real Sullivan County.

Which comedian first performed 'The Chanukah Song', listing Jewish celebrities, on SNL in 1994?

He co-wrote it with Norm Macdonald and later added new verses; O. J. Simpson is famously declared 'not a Jew'.

Festivus, with its aluminium pole and 'airing of grievances', comes from which sitcom?

Writer Dan O'Keefe's father actually invented it, and the family had celebrated it since 1966.

The Yiddish insult 'schmuck' literally refers to what?

Because it is a genuine vulgarity in Yiddish, English speakers softened it into 'schmoe'.

What does the exclamation 'oy vey' translate to?

Its Hebrew equivalent is 'oy vavoy', and for extra despair it can be stretched to 'oy yoi yoi'.

Which Rat Pack entertainer converted to Judaism in 1960?

Raised Catholic, he said he saw common ground between the oppression of African Americans and Jewish Americans.

Which Jewish comedy legend, born Melvin Kaminsky, wrote 'Springtime for Hitler' for The Producers?

He is one of the few EGOT winners, and the Broadway version of The Producers won 12 Tony Awards.

Which psychoanalyst argued Jewish humour is unique for mocking the in-group, not outsiders?

He made the case in Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, though he noted the jokes also contain sly self-praise.

The name of the baked noodle casserole 'kugel' comes from a German word meaning what?

The original dishes were round and puffed up; today it is usually baked in a square pan anyway.

Latkes are eaten at Hanukkah because they are fried in oil, but what are they made of?

They commemorate the Temple oil that lasted eight days, which is why doughnuts are on the menu too.

Gefilte fish, the love-it-or-hate-it Shabbat starter, is traditionally topped with a slice of what?

The name means 'stuffed fish' because the mixture was once stuffed back into the fish's skin.

Bagels were first mentioned in 1610 in community ordinances of which Polish city?

The city's baker's guild had been making a similar boiled-then-baked ring, the obwarzanek, since the 13th century.

Which comedian co-created the 1990s NBC 'show about nothing' and later starred in Curb Your Enthusiasm?

He and Jerry built the show out of Jerry's stand-up and the minutiae of daily life.

In Orthodox communities, at what age does a girl become bat mitzvah?

In most Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative communities the milestone is 13 for everyone.

What does "bat mitzvah" literally translate to?

Bar is Aramaic for son and bat is Hebrew for daughter; in rabbinic usage the phrase means one who is subject to the law.

Which American rabbi held the first modern public bat mitzvah, for his daughter, in March 1922?

Earlier girls' rites had been recorded in 19th-century Italy and Iraq, but Kaplan's Society for the Advancement of Judaism ceremony set the modern pattern.

On which day is a bar or bat mitzvah ceremony usually held?

Some families delay the party for travel or scheduling, but the new responsibilities begin strictly with the birthday.

At what age do some Jews celebrate a second bar or bat mitzvah?

The logic is that the Bible sets a lifespan at 70, so an 83-year-old is 13 all over again.

Which religious articles does a boy start putting on one to three months before his bar mitzvah?

The idea is that he already knows how to fulfil the commandment properly by the time he is obligated.

Which ceremony did many early Reform congregations prefer instead of bar and bat mitzvah?

Rabbi Mark Washofsky writes that the ceremony was once on the verge of extinction in Reform synagogues before its enduring popularity won out.

Where does the term "bar mitzvah" first appear, in the sense of one who is subject to the law?

As a term for a specific age it cannot be traced earlier than the 14th century.

Rabbi Joseph Karo's Shulchan Aruch, a key code of Jewish law, has a title meaning what?

Orthodox Jews generally treat commentaries on this condensed codification of halakha as authoritative.

The Samaritan community is centred on which mountain in the West Bank?

Samaritans regard themselves as descendants of the Iron Age kingdom of Israel and follow only the written Torah.

Which movement holds that Jewish identity is passed only through the father?

Rabbinic Judaism, by contrast, defines a Jew as anyone born of a Jewish mother or converted under halakha.