“Thank you! Tali had a blast today,” exclaimed Andrea Weiss, a parent of a Hillel Torah 6th grader.
“As always, this program really generated a lot of excitement in and out of the school building, and the participants each had the ability to shine. Thank you!!!,” said Rabbi Menachem Kirshner, assistant principal of Arie Crown Hebrew Day School.
The energy was palpable and the Torah learning was soaring throughout the 2019 ATT Citywide Torah Bowl!
For the third year in a row, the Associated Talmud Torahs of Chicago (ATT) embarked on an ambitious endeavor: To increase knowledge of “Yedios Klaliyos” (general Jewish knowledge) among 5th-8th graders in a way that would engage as many students as possible.
With the involvement and collaboration of school principals, ATT Curriculum Consultant Rabbi Yitzchak Lurie made individual presentations to the classrooms in participating schools. Students were given a study guide filled with over 400 questions and answers on Torah and wide-ranging Jewish topics. Students were then invited to take a written test, from which the top 32 boys and 32 girls were selected to advance to a special Game Day on Sunday, March 24th.
The Game Day consisted of 4 rounds of a fast-paced, high energy Torah knowledge game bowl with buzzers and an interactive game board display. Now it was getting really exciting! Players could watch their scores grow as they answered different questions from different categories with different point values. Throughout the first 3 rounds, there were 8 simultaneous game rooms up and running, followed by a final round of the top 4 players.
This program was met with great success. At the written test on Sunday, March 17th, nearly 200 students participated, representing elementary day schools in the ATT school system – Arie Crown, Cheder Lubavitch (boys and girls), Hillel Torah, Joan Dachs Bais Yaakov, Yeshivas Tiferes Tzvi, and Yeshiva Ohr Boruch/The Veitzener Cheder.
In addition to the limud Torah and the fun of it all, students were playing to win a Grand Prize, a trip for two anywhere in the continental United States! (One awarded for the boys’ program, and one awarded for the girls’.) Furthermore, students with written test scores over 70% selected prizes from a special prize store – including gift cards for pizza, donuts, and games. All 64 students at the Game Day additionally received tickets to enter into an exciting Chinese Auction with valued prizes that included seforim, bicycles, quadcopter drones, digital cameras, and a variety of gift cards to their favorite restaurants and stores! All students who participated also walked away with a special surprise giveaway, a set of headphones with the Torah Bowl logo emblazoned on the front of the case.
SPECIAL CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS OF THE 2019 ATT CITYWIDE TORAH BOWL!
GIRLS’ DIVISION
Grand Prize – Chaya Liba Neiman, Joan Dachs Bais Yaakov
2nd Place – Liba Posner, Philip and Rebecca Esformes Cheder Lubavitch Girls School
3rd Place – Deena Weil, Arie Crown Hebrew Day School
4th Place – Cheved Morgenstern, Joan Dachs Bais Yaakov
BOYS’ DIVISION
Grand Prize – Akiva Leibtag, Arie Crown Hebrew Day School
2nd Place – Shmuli Singer, Yeshiva Ohr Boruch/The Veitzener Cheder
3rd Place – Nochum Raices, Seymour J. Abrams Cheder Lubavitch Hebrew Day School
4th Place – Simcha Turin, Yeshivas Tiferes Tzvi
Tremendous thanks goes to the Bassman Family Foundation who sponsored the 2019 ATT Citywide Torah Bowl in memory of Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch and Frieda Yuta Bassman z”l.
