This Jewish trivia quiz has 80 free questions with answers and covers the whole of Jewish life, not just the holidays. Fifty-four questions run through Shabbat, Passover, Hanukkah, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Purim and Sukkot; kosher rules and classic foods from bagels to hamantaschen; the Torah, Talmud, Hebrew alphabet and Yiddish; the bar mitzvah, the chuppah and sitting shiva; and history from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Masada to Herzl, Golda Meir and the founding of Israel, with a few famous Jews from Maimonides to Sandy Koufax. Easy questions ask what a menorah is or where a mezuzah goes; the hard ones want the four dreidel letters, which two biblical books never mention God, and how old the first kibbutz is. It works for a Hebrew school class, a synagogue social, a Hanukkah party or anyone curious about Jewish culture. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the holidays, texts, foods and people involved, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 80 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, falls on which day of the week?
Saturday
Because Jewish days run sunset to sunset, it actually begins on Friday evening.
Q 02How many nights does Hanukkah last?
Eight
It begins on the 25th of Kislev and remembers the Maccabees' rededication of the Second Temple.
Q 03A Hanukkah menorah has how many branches?
Nine
Eight hold the nightly lights and the ninth holds the shamash, the 'attendant' candle used to light the others.
Q 04Passover celebrates the Israelites' escape from slavery in which land?
Egypt
The story is retold at the Seder from the Haggadah, and leavened food is banned for the whole holiday.
Q 05Which unleavened flatbread is eaten during Passover?
Matzah
Kosher-for-Passover matzah in the Ashkenazi tradition is made from nothing but flour and water.
Q 06Which is the holiest day of the Jewish year, marked by a full fast?
Yom Kippur
It falls on the 10th of Tishrei and its name means 'Day of Atonement'.
Q 07Which instrument, made from a ram's horn, is blown on Rosh Hashanah?
Shofar
It is also blown at the end of the Day of Atonement and every weekday morning in the month of Elul.
Q 08Apples dipped in honey are eaten on Rosh Hashanah to symbolise what?
A sweet new year
The custom of symbolic sweet foods is ancient rabbinic; the apple-and-honey pairing itself is a medieval addition.
Q 09Purim celebrates Queen Esther saving the Jews from a plot by which Persian official?
Haman
The story is read from the Megillah, and the crowd drowns out the villain's name with noisemakers.
Q 10The triangular filled pastries eaten at Purim are called what?
Hamantaschen
The name means 'Haman pockets' in Yiddish; poppy seed and prune are the classic fillings.
Q 11During Sukkot, families eat their meals in a temporary hut called what?
A sukkah
The holiday is also called the Feast of Tabernacles and begins on the 15th of Tishrei.
Q 12Simchat Torah celebrates the completion of what yearly cycle?
Public scripture readings
Congregations dance with the Torah scrolls in circuits called hakafot, often spilling into the street.
Q 13Tu BiShvat is known as the new year for what?
Trees
It falls on the 15th of Shevat and is often marked today by planting trees in Israel.
Q 21In Orthodox communities, at what age does a boy become bar mitzvah?
13
Girls become bat mitzvah at 12 in Orthodox practice; most Reform and Conservative communities use 13 for everyone.
Q 22A Jewish couple stands under what during their wedding ceremony?
A chuppah
The canopy is a cloth stretched over four poles, sometimes a prayer shawl held up by friends.
Q 23The Jewish mourning period known as shiva lasts how long?
Seven days
The word itself means 'seven', and mourners are said to be 'sitting shiva'.
Q 24Which of these animals is forbidden under kosher dietary laws?
Q 14Shavuot marks the giving of the Torah at which mountain?
Mount Sinai
It comes exactly seven weeks after Passover, at the end of the Counting of the Omer.
Q 15The Torah consists of how many books?
Five
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, also called the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses.
Q 16According to rabbinic tradition, how many commandments are in the Torah?
613
The number breaks down traditionally into 248 positive commands and 365 prohibitions.
Q 17The Talmud is made up of the Mishnah and which commentary on it?
The Gemara
When people cite the text they usually mean the Babylonian version, not the earlier Jerusalem one.
Q 18A mezuzah is fixed to which part of a Jewish home?
The doorposts
The parchment inside carries verses from Deuteronomy that also form part of the Shema prayer.
Q 19The small brimless cap worn by Jewish men is called a kippah or what?
Yarmulke
It fulfils the custom that the head should be covered, especially during prayer.
Q 20The Star of David is geometrically what kind of shape?
A hexagram
Its Hebrew name, Magen David, means 'Shield of David'.
Pig
Shellfish and frogs are out too; locusts, oddly, are the one permitted invertebrate.
Q 25The braided bread eaten on Shabbat and holidays is called what?
Challah
It is skipped on Passover, when leavened bread is forbidden, and on the fast of the Day of Atonement, when nobody eats.
Q 26The bagel originated in the Jewish communities of which country?
Poland
It was first mentioned in 1610 in community rules in Kraków, and it is boiled before it is baked.
Q 27Latkes, the fried potato pancakes of Hanukkah, are cooked in oil to recall what?
The miracle of the Temple oil
The jelly doughnuts called sufganiyot are eaten for the same reason.
Q 28The four Hebrew letters on a dreidel are read as an acronym for what phrase?
A great miracle happened there
In Israel the last letter is swapped for pe, changing 'there' to 'here'.
Q 29How many letters are in the Hebrew alphabet?
22
It is an abjad, written right to left, in which the letters are consonants and vowels are shown by optional dots and dashes.
Q 30Who led the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language in the 19th century?
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
It is the only successful large-scale language revival in history, and Hebrew is now Israel's official language.