On Wednesday, our MTA Model Congress team traveled to the Young Israel of Woodmere for the annual competition hosted by HAFTR. The morning began with a lecture by the keynote speaker Phil Goldfeder, an assemblyman for the Five Towns and Far Rockaway area. He spoke about his life and his role as a Jew in the public sphere and relayed some life lessons to all of us. After this, we broke up into the various committees for a couple hours of intense debate, as each delegate presented his bill and defended it against the other delegates in the committee. There was then a lunch break, during which we were able to discuss how things were going in each committee, and we also had an opportunity to interact with students from other schools and other committees. We then had a final hour of legislative time, allowing every delegate to present a bill. Finally, all of the students gathered together for Mincha and the awards ceremony. Each committee had one "Best Delegate" and two "Honorable Mentions". Seven of the eleven MTA delegates received awards. Congratulations to Akiva Schiff ('13), Devir Kahan ('13), and Shai Cohen ('14) on winning "Best Delegate"; and to Nachi Penn ('13), CJ Glicksman ('16), Meir Barg ('16), and Tsahi Halyo ('16) on receiving "Honorable Mention". After the competition, we took the bus back to school where the team captaincy was passed from Akiva Schiff to Shai Cohen. This was the best that MTA has done in recent years at Model Congress and we are very proud of our victories. Thank you to Rabbi Green for helping coordinate this program and to Mr. Toporovsky for being our chaperone.