This is perhaps the twentieth time that I have
accompanied students from the MHA to Yeshiva University’s Model UN. I still have vivid memories of Howie Knopf
representing Iraq in the Security Council when a fabricated crisis in February
of 1990 had Iraq invading a neighboring state, a very prescient fabrication
indeed. This year 10 students, 5 high
school boys and 5 high school girls have accompanied me to the twenty-fifth
National Model UN conference. The
students represent Mexico and New Zealand and are placed on 10 different
committees helping to resolve some of the world’s most serious crises. They
have researched, written about, and now are speaking about their plans
for the resolution of these major problems. It is a wonderful intellectual
activity. In so many ways, it gets to
the heart of what twenty-first century learning is all about – comprehending the
issues, collaborating, being able to communicate ideas in multiple venues,
carrying out independent research. More
than that, it allows the students to do all of this in an Orthodox atmosphere
where davening and benching, are just as important as writing a resolution,
where there are opportunities to attend shiurim and to learn from outstanding
international personalities, where there are 450 Orthodox young men and women
from North America, South Africa and Brazil.
All of the participants had the very special opportunity
to hear a speech by Rabbi Saul Berman, who seamlessly connected a d’var Torah
about the attributes of Moshe Rabbeinu and chapter 3 of the Rambam's Moreh Nevuchim to his own personal experiences during
the Civil Rights movement in Selma, Alabama. In Selma, Rabbi Berman was arrested twice in one week. He was first arrested on T’aanit
Esther, and found himself reading Megillat Esther in prison, Because of his refusal to ride a bus
on Shabbat, he unexpectedly found himself the leader of his own march of 350 people, all of whom marched with him in
solidarity with his observance of Shabbat, from prison to a meeting room,
through the heart of a White racist neighborhood bent on violence toward Civil Rights activists. He left all
of us with the inspiring and uplifting message that like Moshe Rabbeinu,
sometimes we have to stand up and fight; sometimes we have to intervene in a
tough situation in order to iron things out; and sometimes we have to be an
upstander, not just for klal Yisroel, but for others.
