Two high school students from the Jewish Educational Center are ranked among the top three high cumulative scorers in the international Chidon HaTanach. With the rankings released this week, Shana Erblich, a Bruriah sophomore from Hillside, and Noah Pascher, a freshman in the RTMA boys mesivta division, of Elizabeth, will be heading to the national finals in Manhattan on May 14.

Advancing through three levels of rigorous testing, an additional four JEC students representing the Rav Teitz Mesivta Academy (RTMA) and Bruriah have also qualified for the finals. Among them are Bruriah’s 10th grader Mili Chizik, of Highland Park, and seventh grader Shana Schwartz, of Hillside; and RTMA’s ninth grader Ben Tziyon Kapustin of West Orange and eighth grader Dovid Pascher of Elizabeth.

Hosted by Manhattan Day School, the final round of testing will incorporate the entire Chidon HaTanach syllabus for this year that includes selections from Sefer Devarim, Sefer Melachim Aleph and Beit, Sefer Iyov, the entire Megillat Rut, and for the high school students, selections from Sefer Yirmiyahu.

Some of the students expressed how they were following in their parents’ footsteps with the competition. “My father also did Chidon when he was growing up in Canada,” said Kapustin.

“Nothing makes us more proud than students who are going #AbovetheCode and spending whatever free time they have in mastering more of the Sifrei HaTanach,” enthused RTMA principal Rabbi Ami Neuman. “These students demonstrate how essential that learning is in our lives and they do so with real enthusiasm and energy. It is exceptionally rewarding to count them among our students.”