On Sunday, May 4, hundreds of students, teachers and proud families piled into the auditorium of SAR in Riverdale, New York to watch the final round of the Dr. Shimshon Isseroff Chidon HaTanach. With every seat filled, and even more audience members sitting in the aisles or standing in the back, the room boomed with excitement as competitors from across the country nailed question after question of biblical text. With a palpable spirit and cheers of joy, it’s clear that the Chidon is not just a competition—it’s a life-changing experience.

“The mastery of this material is no small feat,” 2018 Chidon HaTanach national champion Yechiel Shulman told the room on Sunday. “It’s not just an accomplishment, but an acquisition, a ‘kinyan’ of knowledge that touches every aspect of life.”

Shulman shared his experience as both a Chidon competitor and an IDF soldier. For him—like many others who have participated in the Chidon HaTanach in years past—the Torah he has learned while preparing for the competition has followed him everywhere. “Tanach infuses our lives with meaning … the Chidon infuses Tanach in our lives.”

The finalists called on stage during Sunday’s ceremony had just completed a full day of written exams, while parents and teachers participated in shiurim, joining back together around lunchtime for chavruta-style learning ahead of the final exams. The closing ceremony then began with prayers for Israel and the IDF and the “Siyum Chidon HaTanach,” an original text celebrating the completion of the biblical texts that the competitors studied over the course of their Chidon preparation.

Rabbi Dovi Nadel, coordinator of the USA Chidon HaTanach, began the awards with “Top Coach,” something which has not been done before. Rabbi Nadel produced a prize for Naomi Suberi-Bursany, who has been coaching Chidon contestants for 41 years at the Yeshivah of Flatbush. Suberi-Bursany received a well-deserved standing ovation for her decades of service as her current students roared in support of their beloved teacher.

The finalists for the sixth-grade division, a relatively new category of competitors at the Chidon HaTanach, were invited on stage to receive their prizes. “Watch out for these guys,” Rabbi Nadel told the crowd. “They’re going to be dominating the competition in just a few years.”

The top eight scorers in the middle school division then sat down for their final exams. Then—an annual mainstay and highlight of the closing ceremony—Rabbi Nadel kicked off the nationwide Kahoot quiz, featuring questions with the theme of “40” in honor of coach Suberi-Bursany, as well as “10” in honor of Rabbi Nadel’s 10th year running the Chidon competition.

The four judges—Avi Shaver, Davida Kollmar, Rabbi Dr. Mark Licht and Caleb Gitlitz—graded the final exams for the middle school division while the top three of the 12th-grade division were called up to receive their prizes. Notably, the 12th-grade division was created last year at the request of many former Chidon participants who were aging out of the national competition, but still wanted a chance to showcase their Tanach knowledge and learn in the same engaging setting. This year, Ayelet Poupko of Ma’ayanot High School for Girls and Ephraim Fisher of The Frisch School proudly received second and third place, respectively, closely trailing the first-place winner, Aliza Shyovitz of Ida Crown in Chicago.

As the high school division finalists took the stage, Rabbi Nadel explained that while the top three scorers will be competing at the international level, all finalists will receive a book written by Dr. Moshe Avital, who coordinated the USA Chidon for 12 years and passed away in 2021. For the first time, his daughter, Sheara Arbit, spoke to the audience about her father’s legacy and why the Chidon was so integral to him.

“Tanach kept my father alive through six concentration camps,” she said. “One and a half million children perished in the Holocaust—he truly believed that every child born after the Shoah was a miracle.”

One thing that embodied Dr. Avital’s spirit, and something evident throughout this year’s national Chidon, was “m’shoah le’tkumah,” meaning, “from the Shoah to the resurrection [of Israel].” Dr. Avital’s vision was that generations following the Holocaust would feel a calling to their ancestral homeland, and use Tanach as a source of strength and inspiration, just as he had. It was no surprise then, that the final exam for the high school division was redemption, as well as the biblical sources for the powerful words of “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem.

In preparation for their attendance at the international Chidon HaTanach, the top three scorers of the high school division—Akiva Shrier of YULA, Hadassah Esther Ritch of Bruriah High School and Joshua Appelbaum of Berman Hebrew Academy—returned to the stage for an oral quiz. Each student wowed the crowd with quick answers, and after the scores were tallied, Shrier claimed his spot in first place, with Ritch and Appelbaum tying for second.

As with every year, the ceremony concluded with a recitation of “Hatikvah,” and many enthusiastic congratulations were exchanged by attendees.

”I really can’t wait to learn more Torah,” said second-place winner Ritch, who is currently an 11th-grader at Bruriah after switching from public school. “If you study hard and you don’t give up, you can make it.” Her mother, Avigail, chimed in: “We are so proud of Hadassah, and so is her brother, Yehuda. All of us.”

Davida Kollmar, a Chidon HaTanach volunteer and judge for seven years and counting, shared that there is “nothing better” than “seeing so many kids in a room who are just here because they love Torah.”

“My favorite part [of the Chidon] is seeing the students and how motivated they are,” Rabbi Licht added.

Rabbi Nadel reflected on something he’s noticed after 10 years of coordinating the competition: the growing community. “Each year, we see familiar faces. It feels like we’ve created a community of both teachers and students, people who continue to come back to the Chidon HaTanach year after year.” He recalled a time when the national finals took place in the back of the gym at Manhattan Day School—and how much the Chidon has expanded since then. “One of my biggest pride points is that when I first started, we only had enough high schoolers to fill a single classroom [during the written exams] … and today, we filled six.”

As both the divisions and number of participants continue to expand, the profound impact of the Chidon has become abundantly clear to Rabbi Nadel. “We’ve built a movement that is propelling itself, and we have lots of dreams as to how to continue to build this community as
something that continues to exist throughout the year, and that touches more and more students over time. We’re at a point in time where there are multiple generations of Chidon participants—grandparents and parents who once competed—and now the Chidon itself has turned into its own form of mesorah.”

That generational aspect of the competition has continued to motivate Rabbi Nadel throughout the past decade of his work. “It’s so important to me to keep the legacies of Dr. Shimshon Isseroff and Dr. Moshe Avital, these individuals who gave their hearts to Am Yisrael, within the forum. Shira [Dr. Avital’s daughter] painted the long arc: that the Chidon HaTanach was a response to the Holocaust, and now we are also responding to Oct. 7th by showing what it means for Jews to be proud of what they stand for.”

Congratulations to the top scoring competitors in this year’s USA Chidon HaTanach!

Sixth Grade Division:

Yosef Nadler, Farber Hebrew Day School

Dafna Shrier, Yeshivat Yavneh Los Angeles (tie)

Abe Twersky, Kohelet Yeshiva (tie)

Ilan Exler, SAR Academy

Belle Setton, Barkai Yeshivah

Jacob Cohen, Yeshivat Noam

Eli Dauber, Beit Rabban Day School

David Cohen, Barkai Yeshivah (tie)

Avriel Kalman, Kohelet Yeshiva (tie)

Middle School Division (7th and 8th)

Rivka Saadia, Yeshivah of Flatbush

Zachary Hidary, Barkai Yeshivah

Shua Ornstein, Fuchs Mizrachi

Tali Ray, Yeshivat Noam

Gabriell Mincer, Yavneh Academy

Ariella Martin Shafrir, Hillel Torah

Haviv Saadia,Yeshivah of Flatbush

Noam Bach, Kohelet Yeshiva

Rayut Weiser-Rosenbaum, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School

Ziv Brody, Denver Jewish Day School (tie)

Margaret Dayan, Yeshivah of Flatbush (tie)

Eitan Errera, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (tie)

High School Division
(9th through 11th grades):

Akiva Shrier, YULA

Hadassah Esther Ritch, Bruriah High School (tie)

Joshua Appelbaum, Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy

Rafi Shrier, YULA

Moshe Lewin, Beth Tfiloh

Mali Osofsky, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (tie)

Ayelet Pollak, Shulamit (tie)

Emily Adler, Ida Crown Jewish Academy

Ariella Orlian, TAG

Penina Benjamin, Ida Crown Jewish Academy (tie)

Yakir Helfgot, private registrant (tie)

12th Grade Division:

Aliza Shyovitz, Ida Crown Jewish
Academy

Ayelet Poupko, Ma’ayanot

Ephraim Fisher, The Frisch School

Batsheva Berger, TAG (tie)

Levi Polsky, Ida Crown Jewish Academy (tie)

Michael Shields, Yeshiva of Greater Washington—Boys Division (tie)

Adiv Shudofsky, Yeshiva of Greater Washington—Boys Division (tie)

Daniel Stadtmauer, SAR High School

Channa Fischer is digital editor of The Jewish Link. She resides in Washington Heights.