The three winners of the Beit Shemesh Bible Quiz win in South Africa as well!!!

As part of the regional Bible Quiz in Beit Shemesh organized by the Beit Shemesh-Yehuda Plains-Washington-South Africa Partnership of the Jewish Agency together with the Israel Center in South Africa, the three winners traveled to South Africa for the final round of the Quiz which took place in October. The winners from Israel stayed with the South African winners in Johannesburg for a week and went on several outings together in order to get to know one another.

The youth toured the beautiful city of Johannesburg and visited its tourist sites. They even enjoyed a real South African experience - rain and hail in the summer! Between each outing, and even between each play, the competitors continued to learn for the final round of the Quiz. During the visit to South Africa, the competitors met with youth of their own age who attend the regional Jewish high school. The encounter helped the Israelis understand the world of Jewish youth in the Diaspora and this served as a starting point for the bonds between them.

One of the most emotional parts of the visit was Shabbat, which the Israeli competitors got to experience in a Jewish Diaspora community. During the Shabbat, there were a number of serious and in-depth conversations between the youth and the families in which they were able to learn first hand about Diaspora Jewry and the problem of making aliyah to Israel.

The high point was of course the final round of the Quiz in which our representatives competed with those from South Africa. The Quiz took place on Sunday at the Israel Center in Johannesburg. The competitors consisted of 9 youth - 3 from Israel and 6 from South Africa. Before the public part of the Quiz, there was a written exam in which the competitors accumulated points.

The public quiz included three stages during which most of the South Africans were eliminated. After some tough wrangling with the questions (which were written by Neria Pinhas, a past winner of the World Bible Quiz and the moderator of the Quiz in Beit Shemesh-Yehuda Plains), the three Israeli competitors won the first three places!!! Hadas Pinchuk won first place, Yoav Katan won second and Aviella Kaminer won third!

The three finalists were accompanied to South Africa by Pnina Shapira who is a graduate of the Partnership's Student Leadership project. She did a wonderful job escorting the delegation. This is the first quiz of its type that has involved both the Beit Shemesh-Yehuda Plains community and the South African community. The delegation represented the Region with honor and helped strengthen the ties between the two communities. Partnership 2000 hopes to make this project a tradition and even to expand it to more general topics in the coming year.