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Published: 29 May 2013

Created: 29 May 2013

Last Updated: 11 June 2013

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Cantor Mia Fram Davidson of Westchester Reform Temple was at the park with her three-year-old daughter, Mikaela, when she got a call from a New York casting agent. He was looking for a female cantor to play the part of a cantor in the film version of Jonathan Tropper's novel turned screenplay, This is Where I Leave You, which would be filming in Westchester. A friend had given him Davidson's name and number. She would be needed on set for three days.

"I had to rearrange things at work, but they covered for me, and I was able to do it! I actually thought I was being punked until the moment that I showed up on set and it turned out that I was actually really in a movie. I wasn't sure it was really happening until I pulled up and saw the trailers, and then they started doing my hair and make up and I was seated in between Tina Fey and Jane Fonda."

As a journalist and a budding actress, I had to know: How awesome was that?

Pretty insane, Cantor Davidson agreed. "I was sitting in my chair thinking, wow, okay, this is really happening now."

This is Where I Leave You is about a Jewish family coming together for the first time in years, to mourn for their father, confront their problems, and, hopefully, make peace with one other during the weeklong shiva that follows the funeral. Judd Foxman, the main character, played by Jason Bateman, has recently split up with his wife, and has a tense relationship with his controlling sister Wendy, played by Tina Fey, and dysfunctional brothers Paul (Corey Stoll) and Phillip (Adam Driver).

One of the highlights was getting to teach Jane Fonda – who plays the matriarch of the Foxman clan – how to sing the song Hineh Ma Tov. "That first day we were shooting a Shabbat scene at KTI (Kneses Tifereth Israel) in Port Chester and I had to sing Hineh Ma Tov over and over and over again, for about a bazillion different takes. And then I taught it to Jane Fonda so that she could sing along with me appropriately, as if she knew it. They kept the two of us after, when everyone else was having lunch, and I sang a line and then she sang a line and they recorded her singing it so that they could work it into the audio of the film."

Davidson acted in three scenes, two that were shot at the synagogue in Port Chester and one set at the funeral, which begins the film. So, what were her lines, exactly? To answer the question, Davidson begins singing, "Heneh Ma Tov uma na'im...." And then adds that she also says the Sh'ma. "I was supposed to also perform El male rachamim, but it didn't make the cut," she added.

She said that she spent most of her time with Edgemont native Ben Schwartz (of Parks and Rec and House of Lies) who plays the rabbi in the film. "He's probably the funniest person I've ever met...and so nice," Davidson said. She told him the Jewish significance of what they were doing in the film – "and like how to put his tallit on correctly", and he told her why the cameras were moving and what kind of shots they were getting and what we were doing next, "helping me understand the filming aspects of the movie."

For the funeral, the cast spent a day and a half outside in the cold at a local cemetery. Tina Fey kept apologizing to Cantor Davidson about all the standing about they had to do in the bad weather, and for all the re-takes of the same scene.

"Half of acting is just pretending it's not cold when it's really cold outside," Fey explained.

"I assured her that it wasn't boring for me, and that I was totally fine and having a great time."

During the funeral scene, Fey, who plays the mother of three, has to hold a real baby, "and there were three different babies coming in and out, and they would be perfectly happy until she would hold them and then they would scream their heads off when she took them, and she would say, 'I'm here to torture you again!' and 'I swear I'm a good mom.'"

How can we not love Tina Fey?

Speaking of which, was Davidson star struck, or was she able to just chat comfortably with Tina, Jane, Jason and the gang? "It got better over the three days," she said. "I'm not naturally a shy person, I'm able to talk to anybody, but I wanted to respect their stardom and not go on and on and bore them with what I wanted to talk about." When the cast took breaks, Davidson says, they would sit together and talk about recent films and movie production, but she didn't feel a part of that conversation, not only because she's not in the business, but because as a young mom, she says that she hasn't really seen any movies in the last 6 years. "So I'd check my phone and email, and try not to be intrusive, but they were very welcoming and warm and happy to talk to me."

Overall, it sounds like Davidson had a blast. "They were the most fun three days of my whole life!" Davidson says, then adjusting her enthusiasm to balance it out with more meaningful life events, she adds, "Well, let's call this a close second to my wedding day and the days my two daughters were born!" Why? "I expected to be an extra in the film, but they treated me like a movie star...touching up my makeup, putting me on the cast list for the day, and asking me if I wanted coffee...it was the opposite of being a mom. I came home to "Mommy, make me blah blah blah...'so it was a fun escape from the reality."
After the experience, is Davidson ready to give up being a cantor in real life to play one on TV?

"Would I want to give up my cantoring to do that? No. I feel like what I do is very meaningful, and I enjoy my work a lot. But it was fun to have an escape for three days and be treated like a movie star. For three days. And I would certainly do it again...for three days."

Amen to that.

Columnist and blogger Julie Gerstenblatt writes with humor and candor about her life in Scarsdale, her friends and family, and the particular demands of motherhood and wifedom in modern-day suburbia. Read about her new book Lauren Takes Leave and keep up with the latest from Julie Gerstenblatt at http://juliegerstenblatt.com.

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Published: 05 June 2013

Created: 05 June 2013

Last Updated: 06 June 2013

Hits: 11383

A 45-year-old Saxon Woods Road mother is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after agents raided a Queens warehouse on May 20 and discovered a "sophisticated operation to grow and process marijuana with state-of-the-art lighting, irrigation and ventilation systems." The Drug Enforcement Agency seized 2,800 marijuana plants and large quantities of dried marijuana and charged Scarsdale's Andrea Sanderlin with narcotics trafficking, a felony that carries a minimum 10-year prison term.

At the same time as the warehouse raid, additional agents were parked outside Sanderlin's home in Scarsdale and saw a woman and young child leaving the house in a cab. They followed the cab to a shopping center where the woman dropped off the child and then returned to the house. Police caught the woman leaving the home with a bag filled with $7,900 in bundled cash. She explained that Victor Garcia, Sanderlin's boyfriend and the father of the three-year-old child, had instructed her to go to the house, take as much cash as possible from a closet and take a cab to a bookstore in Yonkers to meet him. Agents then searched the house on Saxon Woods Road and found $6,000 in cash and books on laundering money and growing marijuana.

Agents were tipped off to Sanderlin's activities after the arrest of five men in April for their alleged roles in a marijuana grow business operating from two New York City warehouses. Agents allege that the ring was headed by another Scarsdale resident, 50-year-old Stephen Haberstroh. Haberstroh and Sanderlin were longtime friends who had previously lived together in Queens and Manhattan. Between May 20 and May 27 agents trailed Sanderlin, driving her 2010 Mercedes-Benz SUV to and from the warehouse located at 58-15 57th Drive in Queens on numerous occasions. They were also tipped off to the marijuana plant by Con Edison bills for the facility which were running around $9,000 a month.

Sanderlin is twice divorced, and the mother of a 27-year-old son as well as two daughters, ages 13 and 3. According to the complaint, she previously rented a home at 96 Morris Lane in Scarsdale, a 6,917 square foot house on 2.35 acres that sold in July, 2012 for $4,855,000. It is believed that she also rents her current home at 193 Saxon Woods Road.  Pictured here, it was built in 2009.

Little is known about Sanderlin in Scarsdale. In addition to her business interests she was an avid horseman and a YouTube video of her competiting in an equestrian competition remains online. 

It is interesting to note that in Colorado retail pot stores will soon be legal, so if Sanderlin lived in Denver, rather than Scarsdale, she would not be facing the prospect of ten years behind bars.

Sanderlin is being represented by attorney Joel Winograd who also defended Steve Madden and Gambino crime-family soldier Michael "Roc" Roccaforte.

The story was broken on TheSmokingGun.com and quickly republished on scores of news websites and picked up on local television channels. Comparisons are being drawn between Sanderlin and the drug-dealing suburban mother played by Mary Louise Parker on the television series Weeds.

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Written by Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 23 May 2013

Created: 23 May 2013

Last Updated: 16 September 2021

Hits: 11488

Scarsdale had more water on the brain this week when a team from the KOS Building Group appeared before the Planning Board on May 22 to seek approval to build six new homes on an 8.4-acre tract that runs along Garden and Cushman Roads. These homes would replace two homes on Garden Road, one on Cushman and another on Woodlands Place. Sixty trees would be removed to clear and grade the property. An application would be filed to the Village Board to remove Woodlands Place, a paper street off Cushman Road, from the Village map. The group has been attempting for years to prove that the property's high water table should not prevent it from being developed and last went before the Planning Board on October 24, 2012.

At Wednesday's meeting a lawyer, engineer and landscape architect representing KOS came before the Planning Board to review documentation to show that their storm water retention plan could handle all of the site's runoff and would not impact neighbors on either side or downstream.

The lawyer drew a chuckle from the crowd in the room when she claimed that the "Scarsdale Village Comprehensive Plan shows that this is not a flood basin." She said that KOS had met all requirements and submitted a storm water plan, an erosion and sediment control plan, followed five steps to get a DEC permit, incorporated green technology, submitted a tree removal plan and provided for a maintenance bond to ensure that the Cultec retention system would be properly maintained in the future.

The Planning Board retained an engineer from D&B to review the KOS building and storm water plan. He testified that given the ground water level numbers he was provided the proposed system should capture water in retention basins and have it infiltrate into the soil. The developers claimed that the ground water is 6 ½ feet below ground, and if so, during rainfalls, the ground water would have to rise by three feet before it reached the Cultec basins.

However Robert Falk who lives at 3 Willow Lane, directly downstream from the property, questioned these water level measurements. Appearing with an engineer and a lawyer, his team asserted that "the property is a very sensitive area and that "the conclusions of the study were not meaningful if the underlying assumptions were faulty." They believe that the seasonal high water measurements may be higher than those submitted by the developer and asked the Planning Board to require a "deep hole water test" to assess historic water levels. Falk even agreed to pay for the test provided that it found that the ground water level was accurately reported by KOS's engineers. He wanted the testing done so that he could be assured that high ground water would not fill the Cultec system and prevent it from taking up space for storm water retention.

His team also asserted that the analysis was done during a period of rainfall deficit and that groundwater levels are far lower now than they were in 2007 when Scarsdale experienced 63 inches of rain as compared to just 27 inches in 2010-11.

Bob Reiffel, Chairman of the Middle Heathcote Water Committee, who lives downstream from the property also appeared at the meeting and said, "We have suffered damage because of the Village's inability to handle the water. Whenever there is construction it results in additional runoff. This is a wetlands. The measure of groundwater during a time of low rainfall does not give an adequate measure of the need for protection. The Village is struggling with a $2 million project to stop water from running into the bathtub in which our home exists. Until the Village has taken the necessary actions to alleviate flooding in our area you cannot let additional water get into the system."

Lika Levi of 21 Lockwood Road said, "Tonight I am sad that I have to appear in front of this board. I am sad that a property that is already wetlands is considered for more damage. We cannot let developers develop anymore. We cannot consider additional homes on wetlands."

Mona Longman of Varian Lane, across the street from the proposed development said, "I take offense at the idea that this is not a flood prone area. In 2004, 2007 and 2011 our cul de sac became a lake. Water came up and seeped into our homes. The infrastructure in this area is already beyond capacity -- I don't know how you can allow development in this area. If the groundwater rises to a certain level, the system will not function."

Jim Mittenthal from 104 Garden Road agreed with Longman, saying, "I take exception to the idea that this is not a flood zone. My home was damaged by Hurricane Floyd in 1999, by a storm on April 15, 2007 and by Hurricane Irene. The applicant has already clear cut areas adjacent to our home and it has impacted my property."

A lawyer for Allen and Barbara Bachrach of 99 Cushman came forth to ask for conditions be placed on this development that would preclude further development on the remaining seven acres. He said, "I ask that these plans be disclosed now. I don't know if they have further plans but this would be the time to share them."

Another resident of upper Garden Road said, "Our sump pumps overwhelmed often. I question whether water is a few feet below the surface. In my yard the water level is at the ground surface. My yard is a wet sponge. On Garden Road, we feel we are in a flood zone."

David Menashi at 111 Cushman Road said, "My property abuts the property. About once or twice each winter we have 6-8 inches of water above ground that creates a lake in our yard that takes about 72 hours to drain. This area is wet.

Planning Board Chairman Seth Ross gave all the attendees additional time to speak and then closed discussion on the matter. The Board's decision will be posted on the Village website.