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Friday, December 7, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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Craig Terkowitz
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Ben Ziv demonstrates his new trivia game.
At last,
a board game
used on
ewish trivia
en Ziv's pursuit for excel-
lence in Jewish education is hardly
trivial. In fact he's so serious about - it
that he invented and designed a board
game, a "Trivial Pursuit"-like game
called "Jewish Brain Teaser."
The idea actually came to Ziv, a
clinical psychologist and former
Jewish day school principal from Cal-
gary, Alberta, Canada, while he was
playing a game of "Trivial Pursuit."
In "Jewish Brain Teaser" the
players have to fill a plastic menorah
with seven different colored candles.
Each hole in the menorah is filled
when a player answers a category lo-
cated in special triangles, or when the
player accumulates 15 correct answers
of any or all categories. After the
menorah is filled with six candles, the
remaining players decide on a cate-
gory about which they ask a question.
If the player answers the question cor-
rectly, he puts a white candle in the
middle hole and is declared the game
winner.
The game contains over 5,000
questions divided into six categories
that include: history, Bible, text and
biography, customs and laws, litera-
ture and culture and geography.
Card sets come in either adult
level or children's questions. The adult
set is also divided into beginner and
advanced questions.
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BY PHIL JACOBS
Special to The Jewish News
An example of an adult level ad-
vanced question would be: In the
Diaspora, how many days are there
between Passover and Shavuot?" Who
doesn't know that the answer to that is
42?
A beginner adult might be asked:
"For how much money did Joseph's
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brothers sell him?" This reporter, who
had trouble getting through Hebrew
school, guessed $19.99 complete with a
ginsu steak knife set.
The children's questions also
aren't that easy. For example, "to
which prayer does the verse v-ne'emar,
y'hava, Adonai belong?" We were ask-
ing this the other day of our 10-
month-old daughter. She smiled and
bit her father on the nose. The answer
is the Alenu.
Ziv, a soft-spoken man with sort of
a French-Israeli accent, designed the
board and researched all of the ques-
tions. All 2,500 of the game's first
printing were bought in four months,
mostly in.Canada. Ziv, who was born
in Israel, and moved to Montreal to
work in a Jewish day school in 1971,
said he had no previous experience
with art design or marketing. It only
took him four months to come out with
the first product.
"I think you have to have a good
knowledge of Judaism to win at this
game," he said. "But even if you don't
there are questions that the basic be-
ginner can play with."
The game coast $29.95 for the
adult version and $26.95 for the chil-
dren's version. It can be ordered from
M.D.G. Israeli Imports, 51 Woodbrook
Way S.W. Calgary, Alberta, Canada
T2W 4E7. The company will pay for
postage and handling as a special in-
troductory offer.
"I think it's the kind of game that
youth groups and schools can use," Ziv
commented. "It doesn't just have to be
for private home use."
ZiV said he couldn't offer any piece
of advice on how to win at "Jewish
Brain Teaser." But one piece of advice
is obvious. Don't play Ziv.
Just in case you think you know it
all, here are a few more trivia ques-
tions found in the game:
• Who was the chief prosecutor in
the trial of Adolf Eichmann?
• Before becoming Israel's
president, what diplomatic position
was held by Chaim Herzog?
• Which of Jacob's sons was corn-
pared to a donkey?
• How long were the Israelites in
Egypt?
Answers:
• Gideon Hausner
• Israel's Ambassador to the
United Nations
• Issachar
• 430 years