Stumpers and Challenges

A week ago yesterday, I introduced an optional incentive program to my Edot students. It's called the "Stumper/Challenge" program, which evolved over some two and a half decades from my frustration at not having enough class time to share as much of our Jewish world with my students as I would have liked.

Very simply, I am offering my students a chance to earn as many $10.00 Toys 'R Us gift certificates as they can; they receive one certificate for every 20 stickers earned. (Yes, I know the company has just declared bankruptcy, but I checked and they are still honoring the certificates!)

How can the students earn the stickers? There are 3 ways:
1)  For every stumper they answer, they earn one sticker.
2)  For every challenge they do, they earn 5 stickers.
3)  For each book report they write, they earn 10 stickers (with a limit of 4 reports allowed).
And, of course, they can earn the stickers through a combination of the above.

The stumpers are questions written on sentence strips, relating to information the students can learn from newspaper articles hanging near the sentence strip containing the question, or relating to holiday questions, the answers to which can be found in a book on the window sill in our classroom called "Jewish Holidays and Customs." (It was a Bat Mitzvah gift I received over half a century ago!). The questions and challenges belong to the following categories: Jewish World, Jewish History, Jewish Values, Jewish  Holidays, Israel, Tana'ch (the Hebrew Bible), and Biblical Archaeology. They all hang on the bulletin boards at the rear of the classroom, or, when I run out of space (as I often do), on other walls in the room. The challenges are also written on sentence strips and relate to the above categories.

Here are some of the stumpers hanging on the Jewish History bulletin board...

...and a few hanging on the Jewish World bulletin board. As you can see, there is some crossover between categories, since the above two questions relate to the Ethiopian Jewish community we're about to start studying.

Since we don't have much free time during our Sunday and weekday sessions, I've told the students that they can e-mail me or call me with the answers to stumpers, or take home worksheets on our holiday board to do at home (if you don't have my e-mail address or phone number, just call the JQuest office and they'll be happy to give one or both to you). If any of the students can come early to class on Sunday or during the weekday session, and if I'm in my classroom then (which I usually am), they're welcome to join me and I'll be happy to listen to their answers.  Since challenges often involve memorization, they have to do the challenge in class in front of me.

Since the stumpers and challenges often have something to do with what we'll be learning in class or with an upcoming holiday, I usually change them every 3-6 weeks. But I'll be putting all the stumpers and challenges in posts on this blog, so even after I take them down, the students have been told they can always answer them until the end of the school year.

One final note. By accepting the stickers from me, the students agree that they will become teachers of the information. So anytime another student comes up to them and asks if they know the answer to the stumper, they have to share the information they've learned with the other student. (It's my sneaky way of "spreading the news," so to speak.)

Here are the stumpers and challenges hanging on the walls at this writing:

Jewish Holidays:
Challenge:  Memorize the 12 Hebrew months in order, beginning with Tishrei. (See Jewish Calendar poster hanging on wall)
Stumpers:
1.  The Talmud says, "Intelligence, no work." What does this have to do with blowing a shofar?
2.  Why are we not allowed to blow the shofar on Shabbat?
3.  How might you not fulfill the mitzvah of hearing the shofar?
4.  When and why did "Kol Nidre" come to have a greater and deeper meaning for Jews?
5.  Name the major Jewish holidays which fall in each Hebrew month.

Jewish History:
Challenge:  Name 3 Mesopotamian events or innovations which had a direct influence on the Jewish culture in ancient times.(See chart on bulletin board to find answers)
Stumpers:
1.  What did Prof. Hershkowitz consider to be "treasures," and where did he find them?
2.   In which city did God contact Abraham for the first time?

Jewish Values: 
1.   How did 9 Temple Isaiah young people connect to their Jewish homeland, heritage and community?
2.   What question does Judge Weinstein ask Judge Scheindlin when he sees her?
3.   What did Simone Veil survive, and how did it affect how she treated society's weakest people?

Jewish World:
1.   Who are the "Falash Mura"?
2.   Which is the oldest congregation of Jews in the U.S., and which is the oldest synagogue building in the U.S.?
3.   What is a "Ques" and why won't Israel's Rabbis accept them?

Israel:
1.   Why have so many great empires wanted to conquer Israel/Canaan/Judea? (such a little country!)
2.   Who are the peoples who live within Israel's borders with the Jews? (What other nationalities live in Israel?)
3.   Who is Israel's Prime Minister? Who is Israel's President?
4.   What is the Knesset?
5.   How many Nobel prizes have been won by Israeli citizens?
6.   What is "Birthright Israel" and why is it so important?

TANA'CH: (Hebrew Bible)
Challenge:  Name all 13 tribes of Israel. (You can take a copy of the Tribal Map hanging next to the sentence strip.) (Yes, 13! Joseph did not have a tribe named after him, but each of his 2 sons had a tribe named after them. Jacob had 12 sons; take away Joseph, it leaves 11. Add the 2 sons of Joseph, and you have 13 tribes.)
Stumpers:
1.   Which were the first 3 cities in Canaan attacked by the Israelites under Joshua?
2.   According to Ethiopian Christians, how did the Ark of the Covenant find its way to Ethiopia?
3.   What do the Arabs call the Queen of Sheba?
4.   Where is the "Lost Ark" being kept, according to some?

Parents, feel free to share any answers to stumpers you may know! Again, we're "spreading the news!"