Israeli high school students cramming for their Bible matriculation exams must have skimmed over some key commandments, including “thou shalt not lie” and “thou shalt not steal.”
Israeli police this week detained a government printing office employee, who is suspected of giving his teen-age daughter a copy of this year’s exam in Bible, in the hopes of helping her get a better grade.
His daughter allegedly passed the test questions on to a friend, and from there copies of the test were believed to have been purchased or obtained by more than 150 high school seniors from Herzliya.
Police were investigating whether students also obtained copies of the exams in mathematics, grammar and civics.
The Education Ministry ordered an inquiry into the matter.
Rather than cancel the exams, ministry officials decided to wait until the Bible exam results are issued. Students who did suspiciously well will be asked to take the test again.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.