HOW TO ORGANIZE A JEWISH TRIVIA CONTEST

   Many Jewish organizations – synagogues, JCCs, youth groups, havurot, etc. – organize all sorts of fun events for their members, ranging from film screenings and cooking classes to mah jongg tournaments, cigar nights, game nights, quilting circles, and Scotch tastings (or in some cases, slivovitz tastings). With the popularity of pub trivia contests (I participate with a team consisting of fellow members at my synagogue), I created for my synagogue last year a Jewish trivia contest that drew a huge crowd, and has become a regular event at my synagogue. You’d think that organizing a Jewish trivia contest would be like organizing any other trivia contest – but you’d be wrong. I found there were a number of rules to tailor the event for a Jewish crowd to make it fun for everyone. Here are the rules I discovered:

Organize in teams: Teams are likelier to do better, since team members usually have different areas of knowledge to improve their chances, so it’s less frustrating than playing as an individual. Also, it makes the event more social and more fun. Finally, having to score dozens of individual answer sheets after each round will be burdensome. To form teams, suggest that people register in advance, and organize themselves in teams with their friends in advance. If people register as individuals or show up individually at the door, just form them into teams. Teams should pick names so they can be identified if they win, preferably funny (e.g., The Lost Tribe, The Kvetchers, We're Just Here for the Beer, The Winners - We Should Live So Long).

Multiple choice or open-ended questions? Generally, trivia contests are open-ended, i.e., contestants must answer the question that’s been asked. This of course favors teams that are more knowledgeable and can prove frustrating for the teams that aren’t (or are prone to senior moments). You can level the playing field a bit by having multiple-choice questions, to give the less adept teams a helping hand.

If you’re going with multiple-choice questions, you can also insert one or two funny answers that people can rule out to make the event more fun. For example: Where was Abraham born: Hebron, Harran, Ur, or New Rochelle?

Or, you can just have a funny answer: (1) What is the correct term for the period from Friday at sunset to Saturday at nightfall – Shabbes or Shabbat? Answer: Depends on who you ask. (2) In which Jewish-themed Hollywood epic was Charlton Heston’s performance worse – “The Ten Commandments” or “Ben Hur”? Answer: Hard to tell.

If you’re going with open-ended questions, make them fun and not impossible. E.g., “Name four flavors of Manischewitz wine,” not “Name all nine flavors of Manischewitz wine” (unless you're giving one point for each correct answer).

You can also have some trick questions for extra fun, such as: (1) How many times has an Israeli film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film? For extra credit: 1 extra point for each correct title. Answer: Zero. (2) Which of the following artists is or was Jewish: Camille Pisarro, Amedeo Modigliani, Roy Lichtenstein, Louise Nevelson, or Mark Rothko? Answer: They all are.

Give everyone a chance: Have questions in lots of different categories, so people who are more knowledgeable in one area but not in others won’t be frustrated that all the questions relate to one aspect of Judaism with which they’re not familiar. So have questions aimed at younger people, older people, Israelis, the more scholarly, the less scholarly, sports fans, movie aficionados, etc. Sample categories to spread your questions among are: Jewish history, religion (Torah, Tanach, prayers, rituals, commentators, etc.), Israel, Jewish holidays, language (Hebrew and Yiddish), music, literature, art, geography, politics, film and television, popular culture, and sports.

Resources: If you’re stuck for creating questions, you can check out various websites for material to base questions on, such as https://www.jinfo.org/, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/, https://www.myjewishlearning.com/, https://www.jewornotjew.com/, and many, many others. 

Know your audience: Have questions that are appropriate to your audience. For example, some groups might find the following question funny, while others might find it offensive or inappropriate (especially if children will be present): Is Mercaz (a) a Moroccan sausage, (b) a Jewish organization, (c) the barrier dividing men and women at an Orthodox service, or (d) an Israeli porn cable channel?

Award prizes: Generally, these are given to the teams that won first, second, and third place. But you can instead make the categories fun – e.g., the wittiest team, the noisiest team, the most well-behaved team, the most spirited team, etc. The prizes can be ones from the organization itself that cost the organization little or nothing (e.g., a free annual membership, a reserved space in the parking lot, a gift certificate to the organization’s gift shop, a copy of the organization’s cookbook, etc.), or just be general Jewish gift items (e.g., a book, a subscription to a Jewish publication, a decorative kipah, a gift certificate to a local Jewish market or bakery, etc.).

Have food and beverages: A Jewish event without at least a nosh? A shanda! Decide whether you’ll just offer snacks (pretzels, chips, nuts, etc.) or a proper nosh (humus, pita, veggies, rugelach, bourekas, babka, etc.), depending on what your budget allows and whether you’re going to charge admission. An open bar is highly recommended to add to the festivities.

General rules and equipment: Of course, general trivia rules apply: no checking things out on your cellphone; no phoning friends … well, that’s about it. You'll also need an answer sheet for each team, a pen or pencil for each person, and a microphone for the person reading the questions. If you’re going to want to project complicated questions or an image that players have to identify on a screen, set up a screen and laptop for that purpose. If you want to play a song (Israeli, holiday, etc.) and ask players to identify it, you'll need a sound system.

Sample Questions: To get you started, here are some sample questions:

Multiple Choice Questions:

What was Rashi’s principal occupation: physician, silversmith, financier or winemaker? Answer: Winemaker.

Which of the following is not an ingredient in kishke: matzah meal, grated carrots, beaten egg, schmaltz? Answer: Beaten egg.

Which actor from the following list did not appear in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 film epic, “The Ten Commandments”: Yul Brynner, Vincent Price, Tony Curtis, Edward G. Robinson? Answer: Tony Curtis.

Where was Abraham born: Hebron, Ur, Pumbedita, Assur. Answer: Ur.

Open-Ended Questions:

Name four flavors of Manischewitz wine (or: name the nine flavors of Manischewitz wine - one point for each correct answer). Answer: : Concord grape, blackberry, cherry, extra heavy Malaga, elderberry, medium dry Concord, cream white Concord, cream red Concord, cream peach.

According to folklore, the citizens of what Polish town are thought to be incredible fools? Answer: Chelm.

What is the seventh of the Ten Commandments? Answer: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”

Name six of the ten countries with the largest Jewish populations (or: name the ten countries with the largest Jewish populations - one point for each correct answer). Answer: Israel, U.S., France, Canada, U.K., Russia, Argentina, Germany, Australia, Brazil.

What is the last line of “Hatikvah”? Answer: (Lih’yot am chofshi b’artzeinu) Eretz Tziyon yerushalayim.

Now go have fun!