Nothing to Argue About - Yavneh Debate Team has great Opening Meet

The Yavneh Middle School Debate Team, led by Marcia Caspe, Alice Pachon and Barbara Rubin, proudly hosted the 1st debate of the 2009-2010 season. The UJA of Paramus was generous in allowing us use of their facility, as we hosted teams from EZRA Academy, Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway, Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, North Shore Hebrew Academy, Yeshiva of Central Queens , and Joseph Kushner Middle School. We welcomed our guests at 11:30, relaxed over lunch and snacks (catered by Terry) and then participated in two rounds of heated debate. All of the teams were well prepared with affirmative and negative arguments. The topic, regarding the CDC mandating vaccination for the flu, was timely and relevant.

The day was an exercise in research and oral presentations. All of the students impressed the judges. Our results were calculated efficiently and accurately thanks to Tova Burack who joined us at the meet and pored over the computer to ascertain the placements. What a day it was for Yavneh! We won or placed in the following categories:

Individual Speaker: 1st Place – Ori Putterman; 3rd Place - Shoshana Edelman; Daniel Nagar

Team: 1st Place - Ori Putterman and Elisha Penn; 2nd Place – Shoshana Edelman and Daniel Nagar

School: 2nd Place – Yavneh Academy.

Yasher Koach to our Debate Team – Ben Atwood, Josh Birnbaum, Shoshana Edelman, Alex Feldman, Justin Hod, Daniel Nagar, Elisha Penn and Ori Putterman,


Kudos to our 14 timekeepers who ensured the timing of our debates – Hannah Ash, Talia Bardash, Corey Berman, Isabelle Berman, Shimon Cohen, Ben Elias, Ayelet Golubtchik, Ilana Karp, Noah Katz, Tamar Liberman, Miriam Lichtenberg, Eli Scharlat, Jono Weitschner and Yehoshua Zirman.