Nihar Janga and Jairam Hathwar became co-champions of the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee last week by correctly spelling the words “gesellschaft” and “Feldenkrais,” respectively. In 2013, Arvind Mahankali spelled the winning word, “knaidel,” which led to much controversy in the Jewish and Yiddish-speaking world as to whether that was the correct spelling. What sentence did the judge read when Arvind asked to hear the word “knaidel” in a sentence?
National Spelling Bee by Stacey Huggins is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
A. Hannah and Esther argued every year at Passover as to whether the knaidel should be a floater or a sinker.
B. Max hoped to find at least one more knaidel in his soup bowl but all he discovered was his missing lower denture.
C. Grandma’s soup was delicious, but the knaidel was so hard that her grandson Davey thought he was biting a bagel.
D. Offering to help her mother serve the matzah ball soup at their seder, little Melissa said, “Mommy, I’ll be glad to ladle the knaidel.”
E. The famous motorcycle daredevil’s most amazing feat was riding his bike with his girlfriend in his lap, while kissing her, as they jumped over the Israeli Parliament building while studying Jewish texts, eating matzah ball soup, and spinning a top, in what was billed as the “Evel Knievel Kabbalah Knaidel and Dreidel Knesset Canoodle.”