It’s academic as yeshivas compete in trivia meet
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It’s academic as yeshivas compete in trivia meet

By Debra Rubin March 23, 2010, 12:00 am Edit
College Bowl teams from the New Jersey division of the Yeshiva College Bowl League competed March 16 in South River during the last meet of the year.
College Bowl teams from the New Jersey division of the Yeshiva College Bowl League competed March 16 in South River during the last meet of the year.

Under which president did William Miller serve as attorney general? (Hint: John Crittenden served in the same position under this president’s grandfather.)

What do the letters “HR” stand for in astronomy?

Who were Phidias, Praxiteles, and Myron?

Featuring questions like those, New Jersey’s Yeshiva College Bowl League wrapped up its season March 16 with the six teams competing at the South River offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County.

Undefeated Torah Academy of Bergen County in Teaneck took the division championship. Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston remains in contention for the wild-card spot at the New York regional championships, which will take place April 29 at Yeshivah of Flatbush in Brooklyn.

Both Kushner and Hillel Yeshiva High School in Ocean came into the final round with two losses each, but Kushner topped the Monmouth County school in head-to-head competition. Kushner adviser Jeff Reiss said a wild card playoff round will be held before the April 29 finals.

The NJ schools will compete against teams from New York City/Westchester and Long Island. The College Bowl is held under the auspices of the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York.

For several hours on March 16, students sat at tables set up in hallways, meeting rooms, and even the back doorway foyer, hands perched on red buzzers, as they listened to questions challenging their math skills and scientific, literary, and historical knowledge. Between rounds, other students lounged around a television watching soccer or munched on sandwiches and French fries.

The team from Moshe Aaron Yeshiva High School in South River served as host. Also competing were the Frisch School in Paramus, Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls in Teaneck, and the Rav Teitz Mesivta Academy from Elizabeth.

“My family has a vast knowledge of trivia,” said Kushner team captain Lilah Zohar, a senior from Livingston. “I was born to be here.”

“I live for College Bowl,” said Kushner senior Zach Sandman of Springfield. “I get to utilize my knowledge of random information.”

By the way, William Miller served under Benjamin Harrison; “HR” stands for a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (a measure of a star’s luminosity and temperature); and Phidias, Praxiteles, and Myron were sculptors and among the most famous artists in ancient Greece.

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