PASSOVER JEOPARDY
I was inspired by my friend Ruth Kraut to make a Passover Jeopardy game in 2017. You can find several versions of the game below. This has been a great addition to my family's Passover Seders and is a hit across generations. You can pick a year and play the game or mix and match your favorite categories. There is a new feature for 2026. My son Eli has programmed an online version of the game. Link to the online version here.
My son, like thousands of other recently minted programmers, is out here hustling in the face of AI taking all the permanent entry-level jobs. I would be remiss as a Jewish mother if I didn't give you a nudge to tip Eli if you use his programmed version of Passover Jeopardy. Tip jar here.
(I would love to know if you use this Passover Jeopardy game. You can email me at [email protected].)
Passover Jeopardy (2026 version). Click here for the answer key.
Category: FOODS OF THE SEDER:
100: While a great bagel needs at least 24 hours for the dough to ferment, this can not ferment for more than eighteen minutes.
200: This dish is often referred to as Jewish penicillin.
300: A Bloody Mary just wouldn’t taste right without this.
400: This Cincinnati rabbi, in 1888, founded a company that cornered the Passover food market.
500: Food historians claim this food first showed up either in a convent in France in 791 or in Italian monasteries around the 9th century.
Category: STORIES IN THE HAGGADAH
100: Vermin infestation and losing drinkable water were not enough for this man to decide that hating people who are different from him had too high a cost.
200: You can set all the extra cups of wine as you want on the table; this man will not be joining your Seder.
300: “If he had saved us from our pursuers but had not fed us manna in the desert.” Although this is not a sentiment I have ever expressed, it is the core part of this song.
400: If not for these two women outwitting Pharaoh’s order to kill all the Hebrew baby boys, there would be no Moses.
500: You can be off the grid, minding your own business, staying off social media, perhaps tending a flock of sheep, when the demands of the moment will come and find you. This is what it took to bring Moses back.
Category: TEN PLAGUES
100: Whether it is pea-sized, quarter-sized or golf ball-sized, you don’t want this hitting your window.
200: Every single member of the Trump administration has this all over their hands.
300: For a hundred dollars an hour plus travel fees, a trained professional will come to your home to remove these.
400: This is the common way to describe Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, caused by the protein molecule prion.
500: If the Egyptians just used a hot compress or turmeric powder, they could have gotten rid of this.
Category: ACTIVISTS AND REBELS
100: Born into slavery, this journalist led an anti-lynching campaign.
200: Collectively, they are fighting for the soul of our country.
300: There is a legend that the Red Sea did not split until someone named Nachshon did something very brave.
400: Who said this– “For many of us, the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips, and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.”
500: This is where Arthur Liu (Alysa Liu’s father) was part of the protest that made him a political refugee.
PASSOVER RHYMES
100: Inside the Egyptian ruler’s bones.
200: This is the spell a magician says to pull bugs out of a hat.
300: A mosaic of a great river.
400: These pups came out of the womb with a score to settle.
500: When you like your in-laws' Passover dinner better than your mom’s.
Passover Jeopardy (2025 version) Click here for the answer key.
Category: THE PASSOVER TABLE:
100: This food is sometimes referred to as Jewish penicillin.
200: In Yiddish, it means stuffed.
300: Once upon a time, this was one of the cheapest cuts of meat, but its BBQ popularity changed that.
400: Early Greeks used this as a rub for lower back pain and an aphrodisiac.
500: Sammy Davis Jr was referring to what when he sat at his piano for a television ad and told us to “try some after dinner tonight.”
Category: AS SEEN IN THE HAGGADAH:
100: This person was not excited to be asked repeatedly to be a leader. Went as far as asking, “Please…make someone else your agent.”
200: This person never takes the advice of their mother.
300: Pictures of this would be enough to turn anyone vegan.
400 She is an iconic older sister who could keep a good beat.
500: He has ghosted us every year.
Category: PASSOVER RHYMES:
100: This popular amphibian had enough with Facebook and moved its writing over to Substack.
200: The briss had to be postponed because he was afflicted by this plague.
300: If only his cards showed temperance and justice and not death.
400: This infected hair follicle has a tantrum when it doesn’t get its way.
500: It follows every spicy hot trend.
Category: THE TEN PLAGUES:
100: Doge cuts to the Dept of Agriculture could lead to the spread of this food hazard.
200: Now that the measles are making a comeback, in RFK’s vaccine free version of the U.S., we might all end up with these on our skin.
300: This plague best represents the mood of everyone who believes in science, democracy and our shared humanity.
400: When Trump released water it didn’t help Los Angeles but the flooding might have created a habitat for these.
500: And to poorly paraphrase a yiddish curse. "May every member of Trump's cabinet own a hundred houses with a hundred kitchens in each house, and the finest, most expensive foods, and be served breakfast fit for a king/queen each morning in a different kitchen in a different house, prepared for you special by a hundred different chefs, and as you swallow your coffee may you realize too late it is filled with this. And when you open your mouth to eat your omelet may a swarm of these enter your mouth. And when you can’t stop choking may you get into a different car, driven by a different chauffeur who should drive you to a different doctor…and not one doctor should know why you choke on every bite."
Category: Activists and Rebels:
100: What dynamic duo is traveling across the country, spearheading the “Fight Oligarchy’ tour?
200: They are showing up at every Tesla dealership across the country to protest Musk.
300: In 1970, Arthur Waskow introduced the Freedom Seder in honor of this person.
400: One of the largest public spaces in the world, student led pro-democracy protests that captured the attention of the world - were held here.
500: When she spoke to the U.N in 2017 about their inaction on the climate crises, she asked the world leader, “How Dare You.”
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Passover Jeopardy (2024 version). Click here for the answer key.
Category: TEN PLAGUES:
100: In the 1600s you might be given a drink of cheese whey and some vinegar as a remedy for getting rid of this plague.
200: According to the Blue Book, it could cost more than $1,000 to get your car windshield repaired when damaged by this plague.
300: In some countries, you might find these in a kebab, a biryani, or covered in chocolate.
400: Bruce Springsteen had a big hit singing about dancing in this.
500: Sometimes known as a furuncle, this bacteria can be carried on skin or from the inside of someone's nose.
Category: PASSOVER FOODS
100: Not only can this Seder plate regular help with bad breath, but it also has some enzymes that can help with digestion. (Something most Jews of Ashkenazi descent could use.)
200: Similar to our family, this Passover food is originally from Russia.
300: In 1888 this company began its empire and started mass producing matzah.
400: The earliest known recipe for this almost always unsatisfying dessert was found in the 1615 The English Huswife book.
500: Found in a cow’s front breast, this tasty food is kosher for Passover.
Category: VENGEANCE
100: Enacted a series of plagues that harms humans and animals and ultimately killed the first born Egyptian sons.
200: A core election promise is to seek revenge and vengeance on his enemies.
300: Who famously said, "If we do an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, we will be a blind and toothless nation."
400: In what blockbuster of a movie, does the main character said, "You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance going to bring your son back to you? Or my boy to me?"
500: This legend wrote a song about taking revenge on her ex-partner while they were both in Fleetwood Mac. The song was a big hit and he had to perform it over and over in concert while she sang the revenge lyrics to a cheering crowd.
Category: STORIES IN THE HAGGADAH
100: This person never takes the advice of their mother.
200: ‘It would have sufficed’ This word has the most Yiddish energy in the entire Seder.
300: This person never lives up to his promises of coming to visit.
400: The Haggadah tells this story of thousands of Israelites rebelling.
500: They outwitted Pharaoh's order to kill all the Hebrew baby boys.
Passover Jeopardy (2023 version) Click here for the answer key.
Category: TEN PLAGUES:
100: It is best to treat this collection of pus with a warm compress.
200: This is Simon and Garfunkel's old friend.
300: After you donate about a pint of this, you are given a snack and a drink as you recover.
400: If you have the skill, you can charge $200 an hour to remove its eggs.
500: In Arnold Lobel’s world of these two best friends, this one is the enthusiastic and effusively positive one.
Category: FREEDOM (in song)
100: He wants us to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery.
200: This iconic song often sung at Passover has its roots the Book of Exodus.
300: Formed in 1921, this men’s chorus was formed in exile.
400: She wants freedom to cut her loose?
500: ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ when this singer was turned away from being able to stay the night at a hotel in Louisiana.
Category: RANDOM PASSOVER FACTS:
100: He was the first President to bring matzah into the white house.
200: This number is featured throughout the Seder.
300: He is the religious zealot that we hope will come to our Seder table each year.
400: You can choose between concord grape, blackberry, elderberry, cherry, extra heavy malaga and medium dry concord.
500: He was assassinated during Passover and when the word spread, instead of Passover melodies, many congregations chanted Yom Kippur hymns.
Category: FOOD OF PASSOVER
100: This can grow to the size of two feet and can eliminate bad breath.
200: In 2009, Chef Anthony Sylvestry made one that measured 22.9” wide and weighed 267 lbs.
300: This is not just for dipping eggs, it can be used to suck carbon dioxide out of the air.
400: Rich in calcium, fiber, potassium, magnesium, Vitamin C this Seder staple dates back to the time of antiquity.
500: Early fossil records show that this inhabited Earth around 600 million years ago and now can be found in a sugary form on our Seder table.
Passover Jeopardy (2022 version) Click here for the answer key.
Category: TEN PLAGUES:
100: This is Simon and Garfunkel’s old friend.
200: This could shut down a summer camp just by existing.
300: A couple of these on your face could ruin a school picture.
400: Pictures of this would be enough to turn anyone vegan.
500: During a house oversight committee on global warming and national security, AOC said that by neglecting these threats Congress had what was on its hands.
Category: PASSOVER RHYMES:
100: Kermit shares his weekly wisdom.
200: Flowers for the liberators.
300: Too much unleavened bread.
400: The briss had to be postponed because he was afflicted by this plague.
500: An incantation to banish this plague infestation.
Category: FREEDOM
100: As a teenager this person crossed over the mountains to lead his country in exile.
200: Milton House (in Wisconsin) was a stop on this path to freedom?
300: This person won’t let her “freedom rot in hell.”
400: Who asked us in song to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery? (bonus chocolate if you know whose words they were originally.)
500: If we followed the advice of Lynyrd Skynyrd's magnum opus, none of these animals would be kept in a cage.
Category: FOOD OF PASSOVER
200: If you don't like the neti pot you could use this to clear out your sinuses.
100: You can't spend more than 1080 seconds making this.
300: Fish love it, and plants hate it.
400: This can be eaten as a dessert or used to wipe off the table.
500: Jewish mothers never lie - if you eat this every day, you will never get sick.
Passover Jeopardy (2021 version) Click here for the answer key.
Category: FOODS OF THE SEDER
100: According to studies, in 2019 we ate an average of 293 of these per person.
200: In 1888 a Lithuanian immigrant opened the first factory of its kind in Cincinnati.
300: Ancient Greeks believed that this sprung from the blood of the hero Archimedes after he slayed a dragon.
400: In the American South, this was rubbed on foreheads to relieve headaches.
500: If Ali Yeganeh, who owned a restaurant in the TV show Seinfeld prepared our Seder meal, there is one part of the Seder meal he would refuse to serve.
Bonus points: What was his catchphrase?
Category: FREEDOM (arts and music themed)
100: This documentary shows how mass incarceration policies have taken the freedom away from millions of Black people in this country.
200: This person won’t let her “freedom rot in hell.”
300: Who gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.”
400: The collaboration of the civil rights anthem, ‘We Shall Overcome’, happened here.
500: If we followed the advice of Lynyrd Skynyrd's magnum opus, none of these animals would be kept in a cage.
Category: THE TEN PLAGUES
100: The females of this species can lay up to 8 eggs per day.
200: The world record for the heaviest one of these was set in 1986, in Bangladesh, weighing 2.25 pounds.
300: In 2020 in Kenya swarms of these were so large they traveled in clouds the size of football fields.
400: This species sheds its skin about once a week.
500: If Egyptians used a hot compress they could have got ridden of this?
Category: PASSOVER RIDDLES:
100: God brought forth a sickness--but it is really hard to define.
200: The briss had to be postponed because he was afflicted by plague number 7.
300: That toned bone on the Seder plate must do a lot of these.
400: How long until we get to eat? I don’t want to sing the four questions. Do we have to do the second night? How would you describe this person?
500: If he only had this garden implement when god burned the bush.
Passover Jeopardy (2020 version) Click here for the answer key.
(Only 4 categories in this version because the game might start to feel long over a zoom Seder)
Category: BASIC PASSOVER FACTS
100: This number is featured throughout the Seder.
200: The salt water in which we dip our parsley reminds us of this bodily secretion.
300: This country hosts the world's largest seder.
400: In 2010 the current world record of 426 pounds was set for the largest one of this Passover staple.
500: During Passover, the Coca-Cola bottling company of New York uses this instead of corn syrup to make coke for observant Jews.
Category: THE PLAGUE OF DONALD TRUMP
100: During the 2016 Republican primary, Trump, referring to a debate moderator, said you could see this coming out of her eyes, coming out of her wherever.”
200: As part of his immigration policy, Trump separated children from their parents at this location.
300: In 2018 Trump ordered the shutdown of this National Security unit.
400: After a unite-the-right rally in Charlotte, Virginia, Trump had this to say about the white supremacists after the rally turned violent.
500: This occurrence illuminated the combination of the Trump administration’s incompetence, cruelty, self-interest, and disbelief in science – with catastrophic implications for the world.
Category: PASSOVER RHYMES
100: You buy large amounts of this to prepare for 8 days of Pesach.
200: Amphibian sandals.
300: Adding this leafy green makes this plague healthy.
400: This is the world’s best and most important seasoning to add to food.
500: God brought down some problems that caused some type of trouble in Egypt.
Category: ACTIVISTS AND REBELS
100: She has a plan for that.
200: This supreme court justice co-authored an essay on women in the Seder.
300: This man awoke to injustice when he saw an overseer beating a slave.
400: This man was a former slave who escaped, wrote an autobiography of his experience and became a powerful anti-slavery orator.
500: In describing his experience marching in the civil rights movement, this man said, “I prayed with my feet."
Passover Jeopardy (The original version Ruth shared with me) Click here for the answer key.
Category: SIGNS OF SPRING
100: You might use parsley, potatoes or celery for this part of the Seder.
200: This ovoid object is a sign of birth.
300: We use this at the Seder, but in some parts of the world it gets into groundwater and kills plants.
400: This root vegetable, good for clearing the sinuses, can be found on your seder plate.
500: This is another name for Passover.
Category: PLAGUES
100: You need this inside you, but don’t want to drink it.
200: This plague affects kids in school these days.
300: This eighth plague is one of the few kosher insects.
400: Firstborn people often fast the day before Passover to remember this horrible plague.
500: The first four plagues affected two peoples.
Category: MULTIPLES OF FOUR
100: One of these did not know how to ask - - but you do!
200: After the Exodus, the Israelites spent this long wandering in the desert.
300: There are 4 of these in the Haggadah, but more than 4 of these in Jeopardy.
400: According to tradition, the Israelites spent approximately this much time in Egypt.
500: If this actually occurred, it happened not quite 4000 years ago.
Category: WOMEN OF THE HAGGADAH
100: This girl saved her brother first, and then saved the Israelites with her well of water in the desert.
200: Her royal highness pulled Moses out of the water.
300: She had this special baby, gave him away, and then became his nanny and wet nurse.
400: These smart women outwitted Pharoah’s order to kill all the Hebrew baby boys.
500: Joseph had 11 brothers, but only one sister.
Category: ACTIVISTS AND REBELS
100: The Haggadah tells the story of thousands of Israelites rebelling.
200: This man awoke to injustice when he saw an overseer beating a slave.
300: This rebellion during the Holocaust was planned for, and took place during, Passover.
400: The Haggadah says 5 rabbis spent all night studying the Exodus story, but actually they were doing something else.
500: There is a legend that the Red Sea did not split until someone name Nachshon did something very brave.
Passover Jeopardy (2017 version) Click here for the answer key.
Category: GLOBAL WARMING (10 plague version)
100: The disease-causing chytrid fungus is deadly for which thin skinned Amphibian.
200: Coral reefs around the world are dying - but the warm temperatures in this body of water is protecting its reefs from death.
300: This process is making our water undrinkable.
400: Heavy rain and high temperatures have triggered an increase of their invasion in desert areas.
500: There are two major classes of these - endemic and exotic. Infectious bovine tuberculosis is an example.
Category: FOOD OF THE SEDER
100: You might use parsley, potatoes or celery for this part of the Seder.
200: This ovoid object is a sign of birth.
300: We use this at the Seder, but in some parts of the world it gets into groundwater and kills plants.
400: This root vegetable, good for clearing the sinuses, can be found on your seder plate.
500: Jewish mothers never lie - if you eat this every day you will never get sick.
Category: JEWISH ACTIVISTS & REBELS
100: The Haggadah tells the story of thousands of Israelites rebelling
200: If she couldn’t dance, she didn’t want to be part of your revolution.
300: This Rabbi said “I felt as if my legs were praying.” After marching in Selma.
400: After the rest of their family was murdered in 1941, these brothers escaped to the forest and with a growing membership ambushed German patrols and survived the war.
500: There is a legend that the Red Sea did not split until someone name Nachshon did something very brave.
Category: BLACK LIVES MATTER
100: 50 years ago Martin Luther King Jr went to Tennessee in support of these workers.
200: After escaping slavery he became a leader in the abolitionist movement.
300: No need to have a ticket to stay at these basements, cellars and hidden compartments.
400: Alicia Garcia, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi created the black lives matters hashtag as a call to action after the murder of Trayvon Martin.
Category: PASSOVER RHYMES
100: A disgusting river.
200: Good grape juice.
300: Amphibian sandals.
400: Flowers for the liberators.
500: Too much unleavened bread.
Passover Jeopardy (2019 version) Click here for the answer key.
Category: GLOBAL WARMING (10 plague version)
100: Without permeable skin, this amphibian is less able to adapt to new climate and is at greater risk of extinction.
200: Resulting from dramatic temperature shifts, a decrease in Dry Matter Intake, increased thermal stress, Reduction in thyroid hormone section and milk production, are examples of this.
300: Sea level rising, shrinking mountain glaciers, strained municipal sewer systems, etc. will create a shortage of this critical part of daily life.
400: An increase in this has led to warming air and warming ocean temperatures – which has led to extreme weather like floods which increases the population of mosquito and ticks.
500: During a House Oversight Committee hearing on global warming and national security, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used this phrase to describe Congress neglecting to address these threats.
Category: FOOD AT THE SEDER
100: Jewish mothers never lie - if you eat this every day you will never get sick.
200: This can be eaten as a dessert or used to wipe off the table.
300: We use this at the Seder, but in some parts of the world it gets into groundwater and kills plants.
400: This can grow to the size of two feet and can eliminate bad breath.
500: Intended to look like mud, this name derives from a Hebrew word that means clay.
Category: ACTIVISTS & REBELS
100: After escaping slavery, she rescued approximately seventy enslaved people, family and friends.
200: He founded the Youth International Party (YIPPIE) running a pig for the 1968 Presidential race and was part of the Chicago Eight.
300: These 3 young men were murdered when they tried to register Southern African Americans to vote during the Freedom Summer.
400: The Jews in this city made a final stand against the Nazi’s. Using pistols, a few rifles, 1 machine gun and homemade bombs they held off the Nazis for 28 days – before all were killed or sent to concentration camps and the city was burned.
500: One of the largest public spaces in the world, student led pro-democracy protests that captured the attention of the world - were held here.
Category: WOMEN OF THE HAGGADAH
100: This girl saved her brother first, and then saved the Israelites with her well of
water in the desert.
200: Her royal highness pulled Moses out of the water.
300: She gave birth to a boy, gave him away, and then became his nanny and wet
nurse.
400: These smart women outwitted Pharoah’s order to kill all the Hebrew baby boys.
500: Joseph had 11 brothers, but only one sister.
Category: PASSOVER RHYMES
100: A disgusting river.
200: The opposite of Manischewitz:
300: Amphibian sandals.
400: The foolish child who resents Passover starts a new hashtag with these two words:
500: Inside the Egyptian ruler’s bones: