Students debate issues

They called themselves AP Calculus, but at the end of the day it looked like the four students from the Vancouver Talmud Torah high school (VTT) were better at debating than anything else.

Greg Lewis, Elysha Ames, Jackie Siegel and Daniel Katzin made up the AP Calculus team that won the senior division at the 11th Annual Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver School Debates, Feb. 13. The team defeated the National Congress of Synagogue Youth senior team of Josh Wenner, Rebecca Izen and Tara Topps.

AP Calculus successfully argued the pro side of the point, "Be it resolved that in view of the United Nations treatment of Israel that Israel should withdraw from all United Nations cultural organizations such as UNESCO and the WHO."

In the Grade 9 and 10 intermediate division, the Hebrew Academy team of Yoni Erlichman, Benjamin Bauer, Andrew Freedman and Philip Chamberlain emerged as the overall winner. They defeated one of the five teams that travelled across the boarder to represent Seattle's Northwest Yeshivah high school to participate in the debates.

The winning team in the Grade 8 junior division was the NCSY team represented by Aiden Fox, Eli Zbar, Joseph Tabenkin and Toby Samson. They were the only team entered in that category and thus were unopposed in making their argument.

The debates were presented by the Israel Affairs Department of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, in co-operation with the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, the Vancouver B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation, Vancouver Hadassah-WIZO and the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library.