The debaters represent a range of academic disciplines. Some of the entries are described below: • Ted Cohen concluded an analysis of how correct philosophical reasoning would lead one to the latke by explaining, "A world without hamantashen would be a wretched world. A world without hamantashen might be unbearable. But a world without latkes is unthinkable." •
Hanna Gray discussed the silence of
Machiavelli on the subject; noting that "The silence of a wise man is always meaningful", she comes to the conclusion that Machiavelli was Jewish, and like all wise people, for the latke. • An entry by economist
Milton Friedman discussed "The Latke and the Hamantash at the Fifty-Yard Line". • Criminal lawyer and Professor
Alan Dershowitz, during a debate at Harvard University, accused the latke of increasing the United States' dependence on oil. • In the 2011 debate at
MIT, particle physicist Allan Adams presented preliminary data from the
LHC—the Latke Hamantash Collider—allegedly providing evidence for Latke Theory. • In 2005, when he was President of Princeton University,
Harold Tafler Shapiro argued the hamantaschen's superiority by pointing out the
epicurean significance of the "edible triangle" by arguing that Freud confused the hamantasch for the "Oedipal triangle". • In a memorable debate in the early 1970s at the
Clanton Park Synagogue Purim Party in Toronto, Canada, attorneys Aaron Weinstock and Meyer Feldman - debating in their formal legal robes and wigs - debated with much hilarity. The result was a draw. • In debates concerning law, participants have quoted from the majority opinion of
Justice Blackmun in the case
County of Allegheny v. ACLU, which said: "It is also a custom to serve potato pancakes or other fried foods on Chanukah because the oil in which they are fried is, by tradition, a reminder of the miracle of Chanukah." The Supreme Court has given no such recognition to the hamantash. • The 2014
University of Chicago debate featured Chemistry professor Aaron Dinner, who argued from a standpoint of energy efficiency, that the latke is eight times more fuel efficient than the hamantash. •
Yiddishist and professor of
computer science Raphael Finkel has pointed out that in the rabbinic literature there are extensive hallachic discussions concerning latkes but almost no mention of hamantashen. • Because of the proximity to
Passover of the date of the 2012 debate at
St. Mary's College of Maryland, Professor Josh Grossman initially adopted a third side in the debate:
matzo. Upon further consideration, he promptly conceded. ==Debates at other institutions==