The size of Ben Herskowitz’s slim volume Jewish & Israel Trivia is proof that good things come in small packages. The amount of enjoyment to be derived from the small book belies its size, as it provides fun and challenging questions for all one’s family and friends.
As such, it is the ideal Passover pocket entertainment that can be enjoyed around the table after meals, lounging on the sofa sipping tea and munching Passover treats, in the back of a car waiting in traffic, or on a patch of grass at a Passover picnic.
Readers will delight in discovering that they know the answers to some questions – and be excited to learn more.
If you want to know what Martin Luther King thought about Zionism, which professional US football players are Jewish, or which book in the Tanach was not discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls, this book provides the answers to those posers and more.
The book is dedicated to Michael Riback, Herskowitz’s “bright nephew,” who “tragically fell in battle during his reserve service on May 22, 2023.”
The trivia questions to puzzle readers
The questions, the author writes in his introduction, had to be “challenging enough to stump” Michael, who was a “regular and enthusiastic participant” in the Herskowitz family’s Shabbat trivia tradition. They are accompanied by hints that the author suggests only be examined after first attempting to come up with the answer – which appears under the question in gray lettering on a gray background, so as not to draw immediate attention.
The best way to use this book is in a group – and the person reading should not be the one answering. But it is also a delight to read through alone and see how much you know and how much there is to learn.
While all the questions have at least some connection to Jewish or Israel content, many are also farther-reaching and provide information about the wider world, such as a question in the opening section about the name of one of the spouses of King Henry VIII of England (famous for having six wives, whose fates were, in chronological order: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived).
Another piece of general trivia involves matching up John Lennon tribute songs with their singers. And one of the answers draws a parallel between medieval philosopher Rabbi Moses Maimonides and French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, who was also a Jew.
The way that the questions are presented often provides extra information, which in turn becomes the jumping-off point for further questions and answers and deeper debate.
If you haven’t picked up a copy before the Seder, I strongly suggest you grab one as soon as you can. This trivia booklet is bound to sell like hotcakes.
- JEWISH & ISRAEL TRIVIA
- By Ben Herskowitz
- Gefen Publishing House
- 126 pages; $14