Beloved Teacher Eric Rothschild Remembered at the White Plains Woman's Club
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“He expanded the envelope of opportunity for every student, he championed all of us, he was that special teacher who could light you up, he changed my life….”
Those were just of the few of the words of praise spoken for beloved teacher and community member Eric Rothschild at a memorial service at the Woman’s Club of White Plains on Monday November 26, 2018. Hundreds of former students, colleagues, school administrators, friends, admirers and devotees braved the elements to attend the service for Rothschild who passed away at the age of 81 on October 30, 2018.
Not many 81 year-olds could draw an audience of this size, but Rothschild was more than a teacher -- he was a mentor, a lifelong friend and a guru to everyone who was blessed to be in his circle.
Family friend Peter Weintraub credited Rothschild with inspiring him to become a teacher. He said, “Every time a student comes to thank me, I say “don’t thank me,” thank Eric Rothschild.” He said that Eric remembered every student he ever taught, including their siblings, their children’s names and where they live now.” Another devotee said, “In the days before Facebook, Eric was a one man social network.”
Weintraub read “ A Giant Pine,” a poem by Georgie Harkness:
A giant pine, magnificent and old,
Stood staunch against the sky and all around
Shed beauty, grace and power. Within its fold
Birds safely reared their young. The velvet ground
Beneath was gentle, and the cooling shade
Gave cheer to passers-by. Its towering arms
A landmark stood, erect and unafraid,
As if to say, “Fear naught from life's alarms.”
It fell one day. Where it had dauntless stood
Was loneliness and void now. But those who passed
Paid tribute and said, “To have known this tree in life was good,
It left its mark on me. Its work stands fast.”
And so it lives. Such life no bonds can hold–
This giant pine, so magnificent and bold.
Former SHS teacher Neil Ginsberg paid Rothschild the highest compliment, saying, “Our country would not be in this 
mess if everyone had the privilege of being taught by Eric Rothschild.” Both Ginsburg and teacher Maggie Favretti spoke of Rothschild’s role as a mentor for their teaching careers at Scarsdale High School. As an aspiring teacher Ginsberg was told to “go see the best social studies teacher in Westchester County” and he was thrilled when Rothschild agreed to be his mentor. Favretti said, “Eric loved everything about teaching because he loved the kids.” She said, “He encouraged us to be more, to go to school, to do research … and he observed my European history class because he wanted to learn more.” Ginsberg continued, “He challenged students to be curious. His passion for learning was contagious. He was in a class of his own.”
Rashid Silvera, another legendary teacher in the Social Studies department at SHS also credited Rothschild for bringing him to Scarsdale when he was employed at a neighboring district. He said, “Eric invited me to be a part of his dream team.” Silvera reviewed some of the pivotal civil rights events that occurred during Eric’s student years at Scarsdale High School and Harvard College and said he “paid attention” and “they got into system.” He called Eric the father of STEP (Scarsdale Student Transfer Education Program) which he founded in 1966 to “let people from somewhere else come here so that we could feel them and they could go back and bring with them what we thought was good and glorious and true.”
Silvera remembered that when his own grandmother passed away, Eric sent his son Adam to Roxbury to attend the funeral “and give me love.”
Vic Leviatin, a friend for 56 years said Eric introduced him to tennis and to author Michael Harrington who at the time had just written “The Other America.” He remembered summers at Camp Andrewscoggin where Rothschild was head counselor, and credited him with helping Vic to design the W.I.S.E. Program, a precursor to the Senior Options program at SHS that became a model for similar programs all over the country.
Family friend and former student Anne Rubin was so impacted by knowing Eric and taking his AP US History course that she decided to become a professor of history. She said he was “brimming with enthusiasm,” and with “sheaf’s of notes and overhead transparencies he brought history to life.” Rothschild taught “the power of music and humor – and that history did not have to be dry.” She said, “My shelves are lined with books that he gave me…. Eric had this relationship; intellectual mentor, friend, and father with so many former students. He went to dozens of graduations and weddings. He tickled our babies.” She added, “He had the kindest biggest heart that I have even known. He gave of himself unselfishly. He will live on in my heart and in all of our hearts.”
Peter Rothschild, Eric’s brother quoted Martin Luther King, saying, “I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.” Discussing his brother, he said “Eric’s passion gave his life meaning and vitality. Eric and teaching cannot be separated.
Teaching was everything … the joy of elevating interests and prospects of students was everything. He was that special teacher who could light you up. …I am so very proud of him.”
Addressing Eric’s many fans, eldest son Alan Rothschild said, “He took more pride in your success than his own.” Looking back on his life as Eric’s son, Alan remembered “seeing the man walk on the moon, summers at camp, hundreds of books, STEP picnics and visiting a family in Mississippi, family car trips to visit historical sites, his dad grading papers with a red felt pen and the ding of his typewriter.”
He said that his father had the first of several heart attacks when he was only 46, so when he got the diagnosis of Parkinson’s 13 years ago, he said, “Don’t worry, my heart will get me before Parkinson’s does!” Alan said his father met many challenges in the past 13 years, and the cognitive challenges of Parkinson’s scared him the most.
As he grew sicker Eric watched the NY Giants and said with increasing frequency, “The coaches are not listening to me. Take me down to the field so that I can talk to them.”
Adam Rothschild said, “Growing up as the son of Eric Rothschild was like having a very large family – I shared my Dad with all of you. It was great but there were some boundary issues. You hung out at our house… You cooked with us… You did research in our attic… You went to camp.”
He said the family had received many condolence letters since Eric passed away and called them “stunning and consistent.” He read one from a former student who is now a professor at the Air Force Academy who said, “Please know the impact he had on me.” He said he tells his own students, “I had a teacher who knocked it out of the park with every lesson. He opened our minds and challenged us to open them further.”
He ended with these words:
Death leaves a heartache no can heal
Love leaves a memory no one can steal.
People in the News: Frieman and Fishman
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Eric FriemanTwo SHS grads were noted for their success in the past weeks:
SHS graduate Eric Frieman has been named by Forbes to the 30 Under 30 list for Healthcare. When Eric Frieman's older brother came back from deployment in Iraq, Eric wanted to make sure he had help if he needed it. It was hard to find. Frieman cofounded Veteran & First Responder Healthcare in 2016 to provide intensive outpatient addiction and mental health treatment programs. The company has grown to more than 60 employees and a partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Rob Fishman, a 2004 graduate of SHS has been named to Hollywood Reporter's “Next Gen 2018: Hollywood’s Rising Executives 35 and Under.”
Here’s the entry from the Hollywood Reporter: After building and selling his first two startups — data company Kingfish Labs to BuzzFeed in 2012 and influencer marketing firm Niche to Twitter for $30 million in 2015 — Fishman is busy on his third. His Brat digital studio, which has raised more than $40 million from such investors as Anchorage Capital and Shari Redstone's Advancit Capital, produces teen-centric shortform video series for distribution on social media. The 1-year-old company found early success with its Chicken Girls drama and 
Rob Fishman (Photo credit Ramona Rosales)subsequent movie, which amassed more than 15 million YouTube views. (Bill Simmons' teenage daughter is a fan.) Since then, Brat — which Fishman runs with Niche co-founder Darren Lachtman — has grown to 50 employees and is filming shows nearly every day out of its Hollywood production facility. "We've had a great opportunity to insert ourselves into youth culture really quickly," says the Cornell alumnus, who got his master's degree in journalism from Columbia and spent more than two years running social media for The Huffington Post. After years away from writing, Brat has given him the opportunity to brush up on that skill: "Now I get to rewrite our scripts."
A Celebration of Life in Honor of Jedd Sereysky
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Jedd Benjamin Sereysky MD, PhD, 34, passed away on October 29th, 2018. Jedd was the son of Andrew and Joan Sereysky, brother of Brett Sereysky and husband of Jessica Nikitczuk Sereysky.
Jedd was born on July 18, 1984 in New York City and raised in Scarsdale. He graduated from Scarsdale High School in 2002 and then from the University of Rochester in 2006 with a BS and MS in Biomedical Engineering, with a focus on Biomechanics. He went on to earn his MD and PhD at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. He completed a General Surgery Residency at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, and had just begun training in the Harvard Combined Plastic Surgery Residency Program.
A Celebration of Life will be held at Goldwurm Auditorium of the Ichan Medical Institute, located at 1425 Madison Avenue, on Saturday, November 10th at 1:00PM. Jedd’s family and friends will be wearing bright colors and pastels to honor Jedd.
Jedd and Jessica’s first child, Benjamin, is due in January 2019. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked those who knew and loved Jedd to come together to support Benjamin’s education. For that reason, the JBS Memorial Scholarship has been created to ensure that Benjamin has every opportunity to pursue higher education in honor of his dad. Donations can be made here.
Emily Hirsch, Owner of Candy and Cards. Passes Away at 101
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Emily (Ethel) S. Hirsch, a longtime resident of Scarsdale, NY, passed away on October 25, 2018. Emily was born in Brooklyn on June 16, 1917 and was the daughter of Fanny (Saks) and Charles Shartless. She was 101 years old.
Emily was the owner of Scarsdale Candy ‘n Cards for 51 years, until her retirement in 2017.
Emily is survived by her two children, Jeffrey (Susan) Brown and JoAnn (Jay) Donzella; four grandchildren, Lisa (Scott) Kirshenbaum, Jill Lefkowitz, Amy (John Vignola) Brown, and Jason (Lisa) Brown; and six great-grandchildren.
The family will receive friends and relatives at Dorsey Funeral Home at 14 Emwilton Place, Ossining, NY on Monday, October 29, 2018 at 9:30 a.m., followed by a service at 10:00 a.m.
Interment will follow at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale, NY.
Donations can be made online in her name to the American Heart Association.
Raiders Fall Season Wrap Up
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As the fall season comes to a close, here’s a wrap-up of the Raider’s Varsity teams records:
The Raiders Girls Swim team completed their most successful season ever. Captains Mia Dell’Orto, Maggie Brew, Emma Cahaly and Mia Carrol led their team to an undefeated 9-0 record in their league, winning their conference. The team will compete next on Oct. 30th at Felix Festa Middle School. Additionally, for the second straight year SHS will be sending three divers to the NYS high school diving championships.
The number four ranked Raiders Field Hockey team continues to extend their post season with a semi final game against their rivals this Thursday at Mamaroneck who are ranked first. Scarsdale defeated White Plains and Clarkstown South in the first two playoff rounds. During the regular season, their record was 12-4, led by senior captains Julia Jamesley, Lizey Melhman, and Emma Schwartz. According to Sophia Franco, a junior and three year member of the team, “the entire team works really well together and we all support each other. It’s what helped us have such a successful season. Our new coaches, Coach Barton and Coach Marty, are amazing. They fit right in and are such positive influences on us”.
The Raiders Football team had a more difficult season. Despite being competitive in most games through the first half, the Raiders only managed to capture one win. Chris Saenger, a junior says, “ our record is 1-7, but we are much more than what our record shows. We’ve faced a lot of injuries which have slowed us down week to week, but we’ve still managed to play well against some of the better teams in the section. Unfortunately we did not make the playoffs, but we have a consolation game at Mahopac on Thursday”.
The Boys Soccer team finished the season with a record of 6 wins, 7 losses, and 1 tie. They defeated Fox Lane 2-1 during the first round of playoffs, but were eliminated by Ossining with a loss of 1-0 in the quarter finals. Dylan Cohn, Joao Pedro Demello, and Nicolas (Nico) Bernard were the captains. Captain Dylan Cohn said, “Although we fell short, it was overall a great year. Many kids grew on and off the field and the whole experience was worthwhile and enjoyable. I’m proud of the team and the run we made, and I thank all who made the season as worthwhile as it was.”
The Girls’ Volleyball team had a very strong season with a record of 12 wins and 4 losses finishing second place in their league. This record, is the same as the 2015 team who won the section. Senior captains, Mary Langford and Rena Li were both part of the 2015 team and are excited to see where the rest of the season takes them. Langford says, “I’m really excited moving into post season, I think we’ve been putting the work in and we’re really determined this year. Im also really proud of how much we’ve grown as individuals and as one unit since the beginning of the season. We’re not the same team we were 2 months ago and I think it’s really going to show once we get out there”. Girls begin playoffs at home on Friday at 4:30 pm as the number 3 seed against Ketcham, the number 14 seed.
Girls Soccer team Concludes Season with an Overtime Loss to Top Ranked Arlington
At the beginning of the 2018 high school soccer season in August, SHS Girls Varsity A soccer coach Mindy Genovese spoke with the team’s players about her expectations for the season. Coming off a successful 2017 with most of the veteran starters returning and three talented players from Development Academy joining the roster, the consensus was that the team had the potential to go far in the Section 1 playoffs in October. Coach Mindy avoided any predictions, however, and said that her expectations were for the players to have fun and grow together into a cohesive group that got the most out of their ability.
Fast forward two months and it’s clear that Coach Genovese’s expectations were met. After a slow start, the Raiders found their mojo and were undefeated in their last eight regular season games, winning their League championship. The team began its 2018 playoff run as underdogs against John Jay East Fishkill on Sunday, October 21. Playing in cold and blustery conditions with 30 mph winds, the game was tied 0-0 after the first half. But in one sense the Raiders won the half, as they were playing against the wind and managed to maintain possession consistently and keep the game scoreless. The second half was a different story, with Scarsdale taking advantage of the wind at their back and overwhelming John Jay with offensive rush after offensive rush. Ten minutes into the second half, senior forward Nayumi Parente-Ribeiro broke through with a touch down the left sideline and a cut to avoid a John Jay defender, placing the low shot just inside the right post for a 1-0 Scarsdale lead. From there, it was a dominant performance by Scarsdale, with junior forward Olivia Bryant receiving a long, wind-aided punt from goalie Christina Coco that led to a breakaway and a 2-0 Raiders lead. In the waning minutes, sophomore Anastasia Stefanou connected on a shot from 20 yards out, perfectly placing it in the top right corner of the goal beyond the reach of John Jay’s goalie for the final score in Scarsdale’s 3-0 victory. The win put the Raiders on a collision course in the quarterfinals on Tuesday with the top-ranked team in their Section, Arlington.
Coming into the quarterfinals game, the Admirals had a record of 14-0-1, with a number of lopsided wins against good teams. The 9-6-1 Raiders knew they were facing an undefeated opponent that had beaten them 3-1 early in the season. Nobody, except perhaps the Raiders’ players, parents and coaches, gave them a chance. During the first few minutes of the game, Arlington dominated possession in the Raiders’ half, but thereafter Scarsdale began to take control, with multiple rushes down the sideline by Parente-Ribeiro, Bryant, Elizabeth Elcik and Kelly Rutherford, resulting in crosses and good scoring opportunities. But the Raiders could not convert and after the first half, the game was deadlocked 0-0, with one excellent Admirals scoring chance having been thwarted on a diving save by senior goalie Christina Coco. As the second half began, there was concern that Arlington’s deep bench and frequent substitutions would enable its players to be more fresh than the Raiders, which had a smaller player rotation. As the half wore on, Arlington was successful in keeping most of the play in Scarsdale’s half. Senior mid-fielder Allison Stafford ran her usual in-game track meet, alternating between offensive rushes and defensive positioning up and down the field, winning 50-50 balls and marking the Admirals’ leading scorer. While the Admirals had the majority of the second half scoring opportunities, in each case Scarsdale’s defense, led by sophomore Tory Von Redden, was up to the task. Coco played throughout with confidence, frequently coming out of the goal mouth to cover the ball and thwarting the Admirals’ rushes. Scarsdale had minimal scoring opportunities in the second half, failing to convert on a couple of corner kicks late in the game. Regulation play ended with the score 0-0 and the teams headed to overtime. Under NYSPHSAA rules, after a tie in regulation the teams play two ten minute overtime periods. Five minutes into the first overtime period, the Admirals scored off a header in front of the Raiders’ goal. Undaunted, the Raiders immediately went on the attack, and when senior outside back Paige Barlow gathered the ball on the run in Arlington’s half past midfield and hit senior forward Riley Edlitz with a perfect pass in the middle of the box, Edlitz turned and was one-on-one with the Admirals’ goalie. She got off a hard shot but the goalie was up to the task and made a diving save to her right, deflecting the ball just outside the goal. From there, the Raiders stayed on the attack but were unable to muster any more serious scoring chances and, with the conclusion of the second ten minute overtime period, the horn sounded and the Admirals and their fans enthusiastically celebrated their narrow, hard fought victory.
Tuesday’s Arlington game, even though it ended in defeat, was one of the best SHS Girls Varsity A soccer performances in memory. Credit goes to Coach Genovese and her assistant coach, Kiera Fox, for the team’s improved play throughout the season and the closeness and purposefulness of the entire roster, from starters to reserves. While the Raiders did not achieve their ultimate goal of winning their first Section 1 championship since 2000, it was by most accounts a highly successful season for the team and one that the returning players can be expected to use as a springboard to 2019.
