Hanukkah Jeopardy

The Maccabees, the menorah, latkes and sufganiyot, the dreidel, Hebrew words and the eight nights, for a December class. Free to copy, with phone buzzers.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

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The Story

$200
According to tradition, a one-day supply of this lasted eight days in the rededicated Temple.
What is oil?
$400
Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple in this city.
What is Jerusalem?
$600
Judah, who led the revolt against the Seleucid Greeks, was known by this nickname, later used for his whole family.
What is Maccabee?
$800
Judah's father, this elderly priest from the town of Modiin, began the revolt.
Who is Mattathias?
$1,000
This Seleucid king banned Jewish practice and set up an altar to Zeus in the Temple, sparking the revolt.
Who is Antiochus IV?

The Menorah

$200
A Hanukkah menorah holds this many candles, counting the helper candle.
What is nine?
$400
The helper candle used to light the others has this Hebrew name.
What is the shamash?
$600
This Hebrew word is used for the nine-branched Hanukkah menorah, to tell it apart from the Temple's seven-branched one.
What is a hanukkiah?
$800
To publicize the miracle, many families place the lit menorah here, facing the street.
What is a window?
$1,000
Counting the shamash each night, a family lighting one menorah for all eight nights uses this many candles.
What is 44?

Festival Foods

$200
These fried potato pancakes are often served with applesauce or sour cream.
What are latkes?
$400
Jelly-filled doughnuts eaten on Hanukkah, especially in Israel, go by this Hebrew name.
What are sufganiyot?
$600
Many families also eat this dairy food on Hanukkah, recalling the heroine Judith.
What is cheese?
$800
In Modern Hebrew, potato pancakes are called this rather than the Yiddish latkes.
What are levivot?
$1,000
Potato latkes are a fairly recent custom, since potatoes only reached Europe from this continent in the 1500s.
What is South America?

Dreidel and Gelt

$200
Children play a game of chance with this four-sided spinning top.
What is a dreidel?
$400
Chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil, often used as dreidel stakes, are called this.
What is gelt?
$600
Landing on the letter gimel means you take this much of the pot.
What is all of it?
$800
Outside Israel, a dreidel's four letters stand for the Hebrew words meaning this.
What is a great miracle happened there?
$1,000
In Israel, the dreidel's last letter is pe instead of shin, changing there to this word.
What is here?

Words to Know

$200
The Hebrew word Hanukkah means this.
What is dedication?
$400
Hanukkah is also known as the Festival of these.
What are Lights?
$600
Hanukkah begins on the 25th day of this Hebrew month.
What is Kislev?
$800
Judah's nickname is often said to come from the Hebrew word for this tool.
What is a hammer?
$1,000
This is the Hebrew word for a dreidel.
What is a sevivon?

Eight Nights

$200
Hanukkah lasts for this many nights.
What is eight?
$400
Because it follows the Hebrew calendar, Hanukkah usually begins in this month of the everyday calendar.
What is December?
$600
Candles go into the menorah from right to left but are lit in this direction, newest first.
What is left to right?
$800
Unlike most Jewish holidays, Hanukkah's story does not appear in this collection of Jewish scripture.
What is the Hebrew Bible?
$1,000
The Hanukkah story is told in these two books, found in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles.
What are 1 and 2 Maccabees?

Final Jeopardy — An Ancient Debate

The Talmud records that Hillel's school said to light one candle on the first night and add one each night, while this rival school said to start with eight and count down.

What is the House of Shammai?

How to run this board

Hanukkah is often squeezed into a single slide of a December holidays unit, and this board gives it a full class period. Categories cover the story of the Maccabees and the rededicated Temple, the menorah and how it is lit, festival foods fried in oil, the dreidel and gelt, the Hebrew words worth knowing, and the customs of the eight nights.

The Dreidel and Gelt column plays well with a real dreidel on the desk: spin once before each clue in that column and let the letter decide who reads it. The Final asks about a two-thousand-year-old argument over how to light the candles, which is a good way to show students that traditions have reasons behind them.

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