“You can open a sefer. You can master it. You can make it yours.”
Those are the words printed on the front of this year’s international High School Chidon brochures. These brochures were distributed in 18 schools across the United States, Canada, England and Australia. What started out as a small tri-state competition with just 5 schools and 20 students participating, has now exploded into an international program with hundreds of students. This year is the 9th year since the Chidon started and 275 students (the largest number yet) have signed up to be a part of it.
“High School is when these girls are in their prime, ready to take on new challenges,” says Hadassah Shemtov, director of Batsheva Learning Center, the organization that runs the Chidon. “It’s a time when they are just starting to form their identity and their assumptions about themselves. Joining the Chidon can create a real shift where they start to see themselves as capable and excited about learning. Torah becomes something that belongs to them.”
The 10-12th graders who join the program spend 5 months studying and mastering an entire sefer. The students are given a study guide and an English translation to help them study, but for the tests, they can only use their Hebrew sefer for reference. The multiple choice tests are known to be challenging, assessing not only their mastery of the ideas, but their ability to look up quotes and references from the sefer and understand them in context.
Students with a passing average on all five tests are eligible to join a weekend retreat in the Catskills at the conclusion of the program. The Shabbaton is an opportunity for the students to reflect on their experience, celebrate their accomplishments and bond with like-minded peers. On Sunday night, students with the top ten highest averages on all five tests compete in a grand championship in Crown Heights.
The Chidon fills a gap for teenage girls who are looking to challenge themselves in their learning beyond their regular high school curriculum and develop skills for learning on their own. Students who joined the Chidon in the past saw a huge shift in their skills and confidence after completing the Chidon.
“Chidon not only changed the way I view Rambam, it changed the way I view learning in general,” said one Chidon alumna. “Chidon empowered me and showed me that I can sit down after school, take a sefer off the shelf and learn it.”
“Chidon has really made me feel like Torah is mine now,” another alumna shared. “I have the ability to open up a sefer and understand it on my own. It’s such an incredible gift.”
With the first test coming up in under a month, 27 high school girls across the globe are already getting started on studying. For each of them, it is just the beginning of a journey that can change their relationship to Torah learning for the rest of their lives.