Girl Wins, Gives Away Prize

By COLlive reporter

Chaya Mushka Gopin of Lugansk, Ukraine, was declared the winner of the competition “Jerusalem – the center of the Jewish nation,” sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli Ministry of Education.

Hundreds of students from 40 Jewish schools across the Former Soviet Union took part in the learning marathon that had them compete to be a finalist in their school, then participating in a national test.

12 students from Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and the Baltic states made it to the 3 hour final round which was held in Kiev, where they were challenged once more to show their knowledge of Jerusalem’s rich history and meaning.

After rigorous testing with oral and written questions, the judges announced Gopin as the first place winner. She is a student of Jewish Day School Beit Menachem – Or Avner Chabad in Lugansk, run by her parents, Shluchim Rabbi Shalom and Chana Gopin.

But the young Shlucha amazed the judges and audience even further when she gave up her prize – a flight ticket to Israel – to the runner-up, a Jewish girl from Odessa who had never been to the Holy land.