Holocaust Survivors Celebrate Sukkot
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- Written by: Joanne Wallenstein
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More than 50 Holocaust Survivors, along with their relatives and caregivers, gathered on Thursday October 9th to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot at Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale.
The luncheon, hosted by Westchester Jewish Community Services, was attended by Congressman George Latimer, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, State Senator Shelley B. Mayer, and Michael Elkin, CFO of the Claims Conference (Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany). They. WJCS CEO Seth Diamond, and Allison Danzig, Coordinator of WJCS Holocaust Survivor Services, spoke to the guests, which also included many WJCS Board members, about the joy of Sukkot and how special and inspiring it is to celebrate the holiday with survivors, who have overcome a horrific past and build productive lives that are models of strength and resilience.
The luncheon, catered by Seasons of Scarsdale, was co-hosted by partners UJA-Federation of New York, the Claims Conference, and Wolfensohn Family Foundation.
Class of '53 Returns to SHS: How Old Are They? Do the Math!
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As Scarsdale High School’s class of 2026 cheered on the Raiders at their last high school homecoming game on Friday September 26th, over at the Royal Sonesta in White Plains another generation of graduates happily toasted to a reunion of classmates turned life-long friends.
Coming from as far away as New Mexico and Texas, members of SHS’s class of 1953 not only celebrated a reunion of their peers, but a special milestone birthday as they collectively turn ninety this year!
Before the cocktail party, the alumni were treated to a meet and greet with SHS’s current Principal Mr. Ken Bonamo and Assistant Principal Andrea O’Gorman. Though it was a busy, celebratory day with a pep rally and evening homecoming festivities, the duo happily met with their esteemed guests to reminisce about Scarsdale High School in the yesteryears.
As the group came together in the Little Theater (formerly the school library), they met each other with delighted enthusiasm, happy to reconnect and to discuss all the changes that have taken place since 1953.
After an engaging Q and A session with Principal Bonamo, the alumni were then treated to a private tour of the high school led by current SHS students. As the group wandered the halls, it quickly became a walk down memory lane with one former student describing how Scarsdale High School prepared her to attend college in Ohio after graduation.
Another alumni who traveled all the way from California, noted the importance of how inclusive and accepting Scarsdale High School is and that he was impressed by the huge advances in technology available to current students.
While touring the contemporary library, another alum shared that he was the former editor of the Maroon (the SHS student-run newspaper). He went on to describe his time as president of the Harvard Crimson and how he is now writing a memoir about his rich and storied life.
The organizer of the reunion, Karl Panthen, felt that though he organized a get-together every five years, this year’s reunion was particularly special considering that the group was turning ninety. He also expressed his appreciation for his peers traveling from all over the nation to come together to share their memories and to honor those who are no longer with us.
The class of 1953’s reunion at Scarsdale High School was a powerful reminder that SHS has long produced thoughtful, curious, kind, and generous graduates. May their enthusiasm carry on as the class of 2026 prepares to take their next steps into the bigger world.
Author Talk: Why School Boards Matter
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Sign up for this special event hosted by the Scarsdale Adult School at Scarsdale High School on Tuesday September 30 at 7 pm.
School boards used to be perceived as mundane entities that conducted routine district business, an afterthought in the education reform movement.
However, more recently, not a week goes by without another battle in a school boardroom somewhere in America. Across blue, purple, and red states, school boards have become the epicenter of contentious debates, reflecting society’s deep divisions. In Why School Boards Matter, Levy explains that school boards are uniquely positioned to strengthen our public education system and our overall democracy. Drawing on history, research, and his personal journey from Wall Street to a school board seat, Levy makes the case that school boards have transformational power even as polarization and social media trends make governing more difficult. A call to action for board members, administrators, teachers, parents, students, and policymakers, Levy returns boards to the center of our education governance ecosystem. Board governance can be messy, but airing differences in a public forum is quintessentially American. Board meetings require us to make tough decisions with transparency and encourage us to engage in civil discourse and listen to our neighbors who do not always think as we do. As policymakers debate the federal government’s role in K-12 and states pursue sharply divergent policies, Levy reminds us of the essential role school boards play in shaping education and our country.
Author Scott R. Levy is an Adjunct Lecturer and former Visiting Research Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He hasbeen elected four times to the Byram Hills school board in Westchester County and has served as president of the Westchester Putnam School Boards Association, an organization with 54 member school districts. He also represented 74 school districts as a steering committee member of the Lower Hudson Education Coalition, and sits on the New York State School Boards Association Investment Advisory Committee. Levy was recently appointed by the NYS Board of Regents to become a trustee of the NYS Teachers’ Retirement System. Over the years, Levy has spoken at many events for school board members, superintendents, and teachers across the country and has published articles in Education Next, The Washington Post, and EdSurge. He has also served as Chairman of Blythedale Children’s Hospital and Executive Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. He spent two decades as an investment banker advising corporate boards and senior executives.
Author Visit: Scott R. Levy
Why School Boards Matter (2025)
Tuesday, September 30 • 7:00pm-8:30pm •
Scarsdale High School • Course 13515 • $30
Sign up here:
A Community within a Community in Scarsdale
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Photo Credit: Levi LitmanResidents of Sherbrooke Park came together Friday evening for a neighborhood social that brought out empty-nesters, young families and those in the thick of school and travel sports.
“We have heard folklore of previous block parties in Sherbrooke Park, and we're bringing them back to create stories of our own,” said the Sherbrooke Park Executive Committee.
The evening blended nostalgia with new traditions— part 80s-style neighborhood fun, part modern-day Scarsdale energy. Neighborhood children played lawn games led by the teenagers while the adults enjoyed a structured ‘blind’ wine tasting.
Special thanks to Kristie of Scarsdale Wine Merchants for sponsoring the tasting, and to SLICE of Scarsdale for fueling the night with pizza, both cherished Village staples.
National Merit Announces Semifinalists
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National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) announced the names of more than 16,000 Semifinalists in the 71st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.
Over 1.3 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools entered the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.
To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT® or ACT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation. All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of Finalists. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2026. Every Finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit® $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.
Here are the names of the Semifinalists from Scarsdale and Edgemont:
Scarsdale High School
Hana Coulson
Ryan DeDianous
Victor Dyakin
Jacob Friedland
Hayden Fung
Kate Hubell
Derrick Kuo
Peter Lin
Joyce Liu
Anish Mehta
Daniel Pantchev
Leonardo Pettinelli
Mateo Polak
Jalyn Ryu
Alexander Sharp
Katherine Simpson
Neil Sriram
Gavin Tieng
Manuel Trelles
Santiago Trelles
Adrian Wang
Grace Wu
Benjamin Xiao
Isabel Xie
Sonja Xie
Alina Yang
Sergey Yanovsky
ShuYue Zhang
Daniel Zhu
Edgemont High School
Leah Chan
Tamsin Coulthard
Seren Fowler
Maxwell Ho
Ryan Im
Siddanth Karthik
Serena Ke
Sophia Kumar
Lauren Lee
Eleanor Li
Dylan Ma
Hannah Manasse
Vedika Mandava
Madeline Margulis-Ohnuma
Rohan Patel
Megan Qu
Brinda Roy
Kiera Setness
Ananya Shah
Nia Sun
Sophie Xie
