This past Friday, MTA hosted their first-ever Middle School 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament. The program began with davening, and continued with breakfast and a fantastic shiur from MTA 9th grade Maggid Shiur Rabbi Jonathan Kessel. As part of his shiur, Rabbi Kessel encouraged the over 50 seventh and eighth graders from seven different middle schools to capitalize on the opportunity to make new friends from different communities. MTA, with its centralized location, is a community of communities, attracting students from all over the tri-state area and—thanks to its residence hall—from all over the world (including San Francisco, Miami, Ukraine, Chile, Peru and more). This diversity amongst the student body helps the school produce well rounded students and helps provide a warm, cosmopolitan feel.

After the shiur, the tournament began and incredible basketball was played for two hours. Ultimately, only one team would survive. Congratulations to the winning team of Noam Kinderlehrer (Yeshivat Noam), Shai Friedman (RYNJ) and Yosef Zakon (ASHAR). Kudos also to the second place team of Coby Mandel (RYNJ), Arthur Rosen (Moriah) and Shlomo Jacob (RYNJ).