Courtesy of Shelanu.
Submitted by Shelanu
Four students from Shelanu, Cincinnati Supplementary School took First Place in the Cardozo Division of the 2025 Maimonides Moot Court Competition held in Tarrytown, New York this spring. Avi Schneider, a senior at Wyoming High School and a member of Valley Temple, Ariana Wright, a junior who is home schooled and a member of Rockdale Temple, Miles Spieler, a senior at Walnut Hills High School and a member of Valley Temple and Mitchell Mazer, a junior at Sycamore High School and a member of Isaac Mayer Wise Temple, competed against both Jewish day school teams and a national team fielded by BBYO.
This year, 315 students from the United States, Canada, Argentina and Israel attended a four day Shabbaton which concluded with the competition. Their issue was the “Ethics of Gambling.” The Shelanu team successfully argued that a community can build a casino and tax partial proceeds from this activity to benefit underprivileged children in need of educational programs if they are diligent in addressing Jewish legal concerns drawn from the Mishnah and Gemara, the Shulchan Aruch and the teachings of Maimonides.
This is the tenth year that Cincinnati has participated in this competition, first as part of Mercaz, and now under the auspices of Shelanu. They have been led over these ten years by Lowell Lustig, their teacher and advisor, who trained as a high school social studies teacher and holds graduate degrees in social sciences and law and has a background in Jewish learning from Hunter College, the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, IL and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Shelanu, is the only supplemental high school program for Jewish teens in Cincinnati and is the only school to send a team to this competition from the State of Ohio. Shelanu is led by Nina Loftspring, a seasoned Jewish educator, who has developed an array of engaging Jewish learning experiences for Jewish teens in Cincinnati. Without the support of Ms. Loftspring, and her board, Cincinnati Jewish teens with no background in Jewish law would not be able to hold up a First-Place trophy!
The Maimonides Moot Court Competition takes place under the auspices of Hadar in New York City. It is one of the most innovative pluralistic Jewish educational institutes on the world Jewish stage today. They have taken the Maimonides Moot Court Competition to new levels and describe the program as follows, “We offer students an empowering look at the inner workings of Jewish legal tradition…Jewish scholarship has always involved vigorous minds engaged in lively debate. We model this dynamic process on an international stage, demonstrating to students how Jewish wisdom can span cultures, geography, and time, to offer unique insight into the most complex questions of today. Through a deep engagement with the sources, we aim to inspire the development of ethical leadership skills rooted in the timeless wisdom of Jewish texts.”
