After a three year hiatus, Debate for Peace returned to our favorite conference, Yale MUN! Seven top Model UN students from six schools and cities around Israel joined the delegation, which included three days in NYC, followed by 3.5 days at Yale College for YMUN 52, together with students from over 35 countries around the world.
This year’s delegation was hosted by families from Park Avenue Synagogue. They held briefings with the Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations, the Mission of Austria to the United Nations and the United States Mission to the UN, as well as meeting with Professor Mehnaz Afridi, Director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College. In the evenings, the group ran panels and workshops with youth at Park Avenue Synagogue and Central Synagogue, as well as meeting with Sheikh Musa Drammeh, and joining a simulation run by the International Association of Youth and Students for Peace together with the Women’s Federation for World Peace.. The group also found time to take in cultural highlights of NYC, including the tram to Roosevelt Island, Staten Island Ferry, 9/11 Memorial, Wall Street, Highline Park, Little Island, Times Square, Grand Central, the Lower East Side, Chinatown and Little Italy.
At Yale MUN, the students got to experience the unique opportunities of one of the world’s most prestigious MUN conferences, which featured nearly 2,000 students in 50 simultaneous committees. The Debate for Peace team included Daniel and Mohamed from the Hand in Hand School, Yonatan from Atid Raziel, Alon from Hadassim, Natalie from Sharet Netanya, Naomi from Studio Ankori, and Rula from the Terra Santa school, and the Ort Hilmie Shafie MUN club. They represented characters in seven diverse committees: Jumanji, 2001 Space Odyssey, Money Heist, Qing Imperial Court, Death Note; Yellowstone Explosion, and the Joint Cabinet Crisis: Blackfyre Rebellion. All of the students were congratulated for their hard work in preparing for the conference and contributing to their dynamic committees, and Naomi Gildor received an award for Best Position Paper in the Blackfyre Crisis committee.
In addition to the conference, the delegation participated in a peacebuilding simulation run by Yale University’s International Leadership Center, and visited the Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale for shabbat lunch. They also got to sample an East Coast winter experience, with two days of snow on Saturday and Sunday.
Debate for Peace expresses gratitude to the YMUN team for their tireless and unparalleled efforts to ensure a unique learning experience for every student, and for enabling our delegation to join, to the Park Avenue synagogue community for opening up their homes to our students and staff, and to all of the diplomats and academics who made time to meet with the delegation.
Debate for Peace 