An official tour of the UN building followed. The lobby is decorated with portraits and objects of art. The class was fortunate to be in the General Assembly room while a session was actually taking place. Students then viewed a display of the results of violence. Some of the highlights included: Chernobyl, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Holocaust. The official UN guide did not mention the Holocaust exhibition, but did stop at the exhibition titled “Palestine,” which gained a veneer of legitimacy by being part of the official UN tour, But some of the factual inconsistencies were pointed out to the students by Book. Although the Security Council is under renovation, a temporary Council was set up and this was where our tour concluded.

Mock trial team advances

HAFTR’s Mock Trial team advanced to the final four. As a result of persistence and hours of hard work, the Mock Trial team won again. When the team arrived at the court in Mineola, they went into a room much smaller than the general courtroom since there were fewer teams. In this round, HAFTR competed against Massapequa High School. The HAFTR lawyers included Michael Sosnick, Matthew Goldstein, and Adam Lifshitz. The witnesses were Sarah Fuchs, Tara Seidel, and Elliot Fuchs.

The Massapequa team seemed very well prepared and intimidating. They were definitely dressed for success; all the lawyers were wearing the same outfits, and their hair was parted in exactly the same way. However, the team did not live up to its expectations. They did not broach pertinent points and the HAFTR team caught the opposing team in a blatant lie, which may have been the ultimate reason that Massapequa did not win the case.

When it was announced that HAFTR won, the entire HAFTR team was very happy and proud to have made it this far. Whoever wins this round advances to the final two, and from there the next round is in Suffolk. If the team makes it to the finals, we go to Albany. This year the team was especially well prepared and very motivated. This is a magnificent accomplishment for the team, and the entire school is ecstatic.