Q 01/05

Which Persian king conquered Babylon and let the exiled Jews go home to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple?

A) Cyrus the Great

B) Darius the Great

C) Xerxes the Great

D) Cambyses II

Answer · why

A) Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great is the only non-Jew the Hebrew Bible calls a messiah, an anointed one, for ending the Babylonian exile.

Q 02/05

Which clifftop fortress above the Dead Sea did a Roman legion capture by building a massive siege ramp?

A) Betar

B) Herodium

C) Gamla

D) Masada

Answer · why

D) Masada

Masada fell in 73 or 74 CE, and an ancient account says nearly 1,000 defenders chose mass suicide over capture, a claim historians dispute.

Q 03/05

Which physicist was offered the largely ceremonial presidency of Israel in 1952 and turned it down?

A) Niels Bohr

B) Albert Einstein

C) Robert Oppenheimer

D) Enrico Fermi

Answer · why

B) Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein wrote that he was deeply moved by the offer, but saddened and ashamed that he could not accept it.

Q 04/05

The Dead Sea Scrolls were first found by Bedouin shepherds in caves beside which ancient desert site?

A) Jericho

B) Petra

C) Qumran

D) Ein Gedi

Answer · why

C) Qumran

Qumran's first cave held seven scrolls in jars; their Bedouin finders hung them from a tent pole while they decided what to do with them.

Q 05/05

Which ancient monument in Rome shows soldiers carrying off the golden menorah from the Jerusalem Temple?

A) Trajan's Column

B) Arch of Constantine

C) Arch of Titus

D) Column of Marcus Aurelius

Answer · why

C) Arch of Titus

The Arch of Titus carving later served as the model for the menorah on the emblem of the State of Israel.