Rabbi Yihye Alshekh, Israel’s Bible champion, won the world Bible championship at the second International Bible Contest which ended early this morning.
Rabbi Alshekh and Mrs. Yolanda DeSilva of Brazil were tied with perfect scores and were each given an additional question to decide a single winner. Rabbi Alshekhtock the title with a total score of 65 out of a perfect score of 65. Mrs. DeSilva took second place with 63 points and Tuvia Goldman, the United States Bible champion, was third place winner.
Runners-up were Jacobus Johannes Combrinck of South Africa and Edmund Read of New Zealand. Thirteen other competitors had been eliminated in earlier rounds when they obtained less than 20 points. They included contestants from Austria, Belgium, Wales, Malta, France, Canada, Uruguay, Argentina, Holland, Finland, Chile, Switzerland and the Ivory Coast.
More than 3,000 spectators jammed the National Convention Center for the contest, Many, including President Izhak Ben-Zvi and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, sat with Bibles in hand, checking replies of the contestants, who occupied the full width of the stage. Translators sat above the contestants and behind them was the panel of judges headed by Supreme Court Justice Haim Cohen.
Other judges were Father Louis Semkowski, director of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Hans Kosmola, director of the Swedish Theological Institute, Yehuda Elitzur, Bible lecturer at Bar-Han University, and Menachem Haran, Bible lecturer at the Hebrew University. There was also a panel of advisors headed by Zalman Shazar, member of the Jewish Agency executive.
The event was opened with brief addresses of greeting to the contestants by President Ben-Zvi. Prime Minister Ben-Gurion, members of Parliament and other dignitaries, including members of the diplomatic corps, and members of the clergy, occupied the front rows. The spectators sat through six hours of questions and answers until the early morning hours.
The Prime Minister handed the winners their prizes, a gold medal to Rabbi Alshekh, a silver medal to Mrs. De Silva and a bronze medal to Mr. Goldman, Mrs. DeSilva also got a hug and a kiss from the Prime Minister as the audience cheered. As each winner received his prize, his country’s flag was raised and his national anthem was played. The Prime Minister handed special medals to all of the other finalists.
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