The laurels were shared among pupils from four Jewish schools at the third Ivrit spelling bee on Tuesday, the competition launched to encourage the learning of modern Hebrew.

The 58 participants from nine primary schools who entered this year’s contest were four times as many as the 14 at the inaugural challenge.

In this week’s final, students were tested on 120 words they had been given to learn over the previous weeks and asked to spell as many as they could within a minute.
Given the word in English, they had to translate it into Ivrit with accurate pronunciation and then spell it.

In the newcomers’ category, Noa Pell from Immanuel College Preparatory school clinched the award, while last year’s newcomers’ champion, Rebekah-Jo Goldman, from King David in Manchester, enjoyed success again as winner in the returners’ section.

In the Hebrew speakers’ contest, Choshen Galon of Nancy Reuben was the star speller, while in the fourth category  - for Ivrit speakers who moved to the UK in the past year - the honours went to Yehudit Greenhaus, of Broughton Jewish Cassel Fox in Manchester.

The Ivrit speakers had a different group of words to master.

The competition was staged by Pajes, the Jewish Leadership Council’s schools network, together with Sarah Schechter, director of Routes into Languages East.
Some contestants had given up their break time at lunch to practise their words twice a week, said Dalia Wittenberg, Ivrit primary adviser for Pajes.

“I know that you have been working very hard for the last few months practising spelling of 120 words,” she told the finalists,  “but I also hope that this has been an enjoyable learning experience and I am sure it helped not only your spelling but your memory skills, vocabulary and pronunciation.”

Organisers predict the event will continue to grow in future years and the finals may have to be moved to a bigger venue than the Pajes office on the campus of the London School for Jewish Studies.