Amihai Bannett, Director of the World Bible Contest at the Jewish agency, explains about this year’s exciting contest.
“The Jewish Agency brought 45 participants from 20 Jewish communities around the world,” Bannett tells Israel National News. “We’re all very excited for the contest."
He adds: "They’ve been touring Israel for two weeks in a special Bible camp organized by the Ministry of Education. They’ve already been to tourist attractions such as Masada and the Judean desert following in the footsteps of King David. They were at Mount Herzl and they also visited the prime minister’s office yesterday and today they are at the president’s residence. They are all very excited to meet each other and to meet like-minded people who love the Bible.”
This year there are participants (Jewish youth age 14-18) from many communities around the world, including communities that have not participated in the past.
“We have participants from many strong communities who are going to be on this stage on Independence Day but we also have people from smaller communities around the world. For example, this year is the first time we have a representative from Montenegro. So it’s Jewish youth from the entire spectrum of Judaism. We have people from Muncie, New York. We have people from England, and we also have people from smaller communities such as Croatia.”
They are all looking forward to the main events on Independence Day. It’s especially exciting for the participants who get to be on television and to meet the prime minister and the president, who is participating this year.
“The president is connected personally to the contest since his mother was one of the people who founded the contest 60 years ago. We welcome everybody to watch,” Bannett says.