Rosh Hashana
Sephardic and Mizrahim Jews have a full Rosh Hashana Seder.
True
Challenge: Although not all Jews celebrate a Rosh Hashana seder, it's customary for most Jews to have a Passover seder. Sing us a song your family sings during the Passover seder
At the end of your last meal before you begin fasting on Yom Kippur, you’re supposed to eat something sweet to help signify a sweet new year to come.
False
Challenge: Go find something sweet in your house and eat it.
All Jews follow the same Torah trope, meaning they all sing the same notes when reading Torah out loud and it will sound the same in any synagogue.
False
There are many variations of tropes in different Jewish communities
Challenge: Sing your favorite song in a new tune
Many Sephardic Jews will eat rice and legumes over Passover
True
Challenge: Do the nutter butter challenge- Eat a spoonful of any type of butter (preferably nut, but you do you) and then with the food still in your mouth, say the following phrases and see if people can understand you.
"Chag Sameach"
"Shana Tova"
"G'mar Chatima Tova"
People of Ashkenazi descent typically have ancestors from the Americas
False
“Ashkenazim” refers to Jews of Germany, but the term has come to refer more broadly to Jews from Central and Eastern Europe.
Challenge: Want to visit some of these places? Check out the USY Eastern Europe Israel Pilgrimage summer trip!
Before eating onions at the Rosh Hashana seder, many Jews say the blessing "Thank you Gd for allowing me to cry tears from my eyes"
False
Although there are many symbolic foods at the Rosh Hashana seder, an onion is not one of them
Challenge: If you had to choose a food to symbolize a prayer, what would your food be and what would your prayer be?
All Jews have a similar tradition of breaking the fast with bagels but what goes on the bagel varies if different communities
False
Moroccan Jews customarily break the fast with chicken couscous and harira, a thick soup brimming with stewing meat, fava beans and lentils. A Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews is a sweet-and-sour fish.
During Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur when Aleinu is recited, instead of bowing, it is common to kneel to the ground.
True
Challenge: Do 10 lunges
Round challah is made by Jewish households all over the world to observe the high holidays.
False
Round-shaped breads are served in Jewish households all over the world on Rosh Hashanah but their names and recipes vary, be it the Ethiopian dabo, the Ashkenazi challah, the Sephardi bolo, or the Yemenite sabaya.
Challenge: Pick 3 friends and sing Row Row Row Your Boat in rounds
In a Sephardic home, the Mezzuzah is typically hung straight up and down
True
Challenge: Stay in a planking position for 30 seconds
On the second night of Rosh Hashanah, it is common to eat a new fruit– a fruit that participants have not tasted for a long time.
True
Challenge: For every letter of your name, name a fruit that starts with that letter. No repeating fruit.
In order to make less noise and not disrupt the service, rabbis typically wear quieter shoes on Yom Kippur
False
Challenge: Tie the shoelaces together of someone else who lives in your home. Be sneaky.
Sim Shalom is always the last blessing of the Amidah in Sephardic Synagogues
True
Challenge: Your team must sing Debbie Friedman's Shalom Rav
Moroccan Jews celebrate a holiday that signifies the end of Passover
True
The holiday is called Mimouna and during this holiday they eat Moufleta which is a stacked cake
Challenge: Walk a straight line with as many hats stacked on your head as you possibly can
Jews have their own variation of Valentine's Day
True
It is called Tu B'av. It is associated with happy events in Jewish history. Daughters in Israel would dress in white and dance in the vineyards while unmarried men would follow them until they found a bride.
Challenge: Finish this poem- "Roses are red, violets are blue..."
At the Rosh Hashanah seder all the foods also become vessels for meaning. Each food symbolizes a good wish for the coming year, and before each food is consumed there is a special blessing to recite, many of which result from puns on the food’s Hebrew or Aramaic name.
True
Foods include: fat, juicy, red-skinned pomegranates; glossy, sticky-sweet dates; savory pumpkin; pungent leeks; scallions or chives; foot-long green beans; deep-green spinach; and crisp apples. Some families use beet leaves instead of spinach, quince instead of apples, and other varieties of beans and gourds.
Challenge: Make your own food related pun
It is traditional for Mizrahim Jews to fast for 18 hours because of the significance of the number 18, which signifies life or "chai"
False
All Jews are expected to fast for 25 hours on Yom Kippur if they are able.
Challenge: Tell us, what do you plan to break your fast on?
All synagogue's keep their Torah behind a velvet mantle in an ark.
False
Ashkenazi Jews typically keep the synagogue's Torah in an Ark behind a velvet curtain. In many communities (mostly Mizrahi) the Torah scroll is kept in a tiq (wooden or metal case) instead of a velvet mantle.
Challenge: Perform your best "Tiq"Tok dance
It is traditional for Hungarian Jews eat cabbage strudel on Shmini Atseret
True
Challenge: Describe your ideal cabbage. We will not take "none" for an answer.
Ethiopian Jews celebrate a holiday that no other Jews typically celebrate
True
Ethiopian Jews celebrate a holiday called Sigd. It is 50 days after Passover and the community marks the renewal of the covenant between the Jewish people. On Sigd, Ethiopian Jews pray to God and plead to return to Zion. The community also holds communal introspection because, according to tradition, in order to be worthy to return to Jerusalem from exile, the public must engage in communal introspection and repentance.
Challenge: Take a moment to yourself for some introspection. Close your eyes and be mindful for a minute