On Sunday, May 19, the Yeshiva League held its second annual Model United Nations, and for the second year MTA students took home many awards. Led by their captain, Amir Gross ’25 and rookie Matis Kahn ’27, who earned the gavel for Best Delegate in their respective committees, three other delegates were also awarded as honorable mention (second place) in their committees: Akiva Cohn ’26, Meir Kaller ’25, and Binyamin Sheinfeld ’25.

The one-day event, held this year at Central (YUHSG), is designed to help prepare students for YU’s National Model UN (YUNMUN), held annually over three days in February. As opposed to YUNMUN, which is run by YU students, here the committee chairs and secretariat were all graduating seniors who had been delegates to multiple Model UNs and knew the rules well. Because the student participants in Model UN tend to be top students in their respective schools who often enroll in AP courses, the event is scheduled for the first Sunday after APs.

The Model UN consisted of two committee sessions, one sandwiched between Shacharis and lunch and a second between lunch and Mincha, each for around two hours. Delegates, representing a variety of countries, were expected to have sufficiently studied their country, committee, and issues to properly act as a delegate at the actual United Nations would. The students who were awarded were the ones whose preparation and performance came closest to this ideal.

Thanks go to HAFTR’s Alex Libkind and Central’s Chevi Friedman, who organized and hosted the event, and to the committee chairs, who demonstrated maturity beyond their years and superbly handled their committees.

MTA’s team, composed entirely of underclassmen, sees this event as an important step forward in asserting themselves on the bigger stage next year, and is enthusiastic to build on this success as it works hard to prepare for YUNMUN ’25. Like anything else, Model UN practice makes perfect, and the results from this competition can only be heartening.