The Inside Press

By Sarah Ellen Rindsberg

When composing articles on current developments in town, this reporter finds herself turning again and again to Town Historian Gray Williams for the authoritative historical perspective. Williams is a veritable treasure trove of information about the town of New Castle. A significant portion of the story of the hamlet is reflected in his life.

Williams’s keen insight and sense of humor shine through in a recent contribution to the New Castle Historical Society’s newsletter, an article entitled “Mr. Greeley Fights Flooding.” He is also particularly skilled in showing history’s relevance to the present day as shown in this passage:

“As we recover from the effects of the recent storm, we can perhaps be thankful for one thing. This time we were spared from another destructive force that has often plagued our community in the past–disastrous flooding. Downtown Chappaqua in particular has suffered periodically from floods, especially in the fall, following heavy, storm-generated rains.”

This problem also tormented the town’s celebrated ancestor, Horace Greeley, who viewed the southern portion of his 78-acre property (site of the present day Bell school playing fields) as a “muddy, oozy fen.”  Williams explained that this was due in part to Greeley’s desire for a summer home in close proximity to the train station. “Now, railroad trains are not good at climbing hills…,” Williams wrote. “So the route chosen for the line ran through the Saw Mill River valley, and a whole new village sprang up where Quaker Road crossed the tracks.”

Greeley employed his financial resources to hire George Waring, an engineer who had worked on Central Park, to supervise the installation of drainage ditches. The flooding continued and it was not until the 1970s that the Army Corp of Engineers begin lowering the bed of the Saw Mill River in a renewed effort. When recounting anecdotes about Greeley’s life in Chappaqua, Williams gazed wistfully.  “I would have liked to have known him,” he said. “He was known among his political enemies as Chappaquack, with the emphasis on quack.”

In Tune with Greeley

Williams shares several key characteristics with Greeley: curiosity about the past, a predilection for burial grounds and prominence in Chappaqua. “He had an interest in history too,” Williams noted.  Greeley is believed to have been the first president of Fair Ridge cemetery and Williams has done research there and at numerous graveyards throughout the county. This modest contemporary doyen of the town also noted that Greeley was “the leading citizen [of his day].”

Betsy Towl, Director of the Society described Williams’s valuable contributions to the town.  “People move to this community because of the history of the homes,” she observed. “His interest in old homes and their inhabitants” renders him extremely capable of “assisting  members of the community who purchase these homes and would like to begin restoring their old homes.”  One of his chief assets is “his wealth of knowledge,”Towl concluded.

Al Hutin, a close friend and colleague of Williams’s at the Society and on the Landmarks Advisory Committee, highlighted additional attributes. “Not only is he the Town Historian but he’s also lived in Chappaqua (as I have) for most of his life and he has a darn good memory!” Hutin exclaimed. He also mentioned the importance of documenting the history of the hamlet for future generations and Williams’s role therein. Williams has written “Picturing our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County” and co-authored New Castle: Chappaqua and Millwood (Images of America).

Williams’s school years tell a sizable portion of the story of our revered schools. In the fall of 1937 he entered kindergarten at the Kipp School, located on the land where the art center is today. For first and second grades, Williams often walked from Begg Drive to the station with his father and then “trundled up the hill” to the King Street School, the site of the present day Talbot’s.  Although the bus was always available,Williams, like many contemporary students, preferred alternate methods of transportation.

Next stop, Horace Greeley School or HGS as it is emblazoned on the facade of the Bell School. Recent conditions harken back to the past at this location.  Williams recalls extremely crowded conditions which resulted in the addition of a “ramshackle temporary building”  known as the “chicken coop.”  Changing classes was quite chaotic, necessitating the presence of student monitors from the Service Club on each landing.

Williams traces his interest in history back to a seminal project assigned by his seventh grade social studies teacher, Edith Sliker. The project had several “units radiating outward:  myself, my town, my county and my state,” he said. Due to its location “right up the road” and his attendance at the Sunday School at the Quaker Meeting House, Williams studied the Quaker graveyard for the “my town” section and a passion was born.

“I found all these names that I knew,” he reminisced. “Quinbys–there was a Rachel Quinby in my class…Kipps, Haights,” families whose names live on as street names. History has consequences, it lasts. These were the people that gave their names to places.”

“Surprising Insight”

For those who take the stellar reputation of Horace Greeley High School for granted,  Williams provided a surprising insight. When he attended high school in Chappaqua, very few pupils went on to attend elite institutions. The father of one of Williams’s dear friends, Monty Furth, spearheaded the effort to include a college preparatory program. “Upon Monty’s nonadmission to Yale, his father became a driving force to upgrade the curriculum,” Williams recalled.

When Williams and his wife Marion were looking for the ideal place to raise their girls, they gravitated back to Chappaqua. Williams’s parents were living in town at the time and told him about a house on Gray Rock Lane–no relation.  The name of the road refers to the massive piece of Fordham gneiss on the corner of Route 120. They neglected to mention that it needed a tremendous amount of work.  Undaunted, the couple purchased the historic home and embarked on its transformation.

Williams plays a pivotal role in preserving the local heritage and revels in working with interested students. One of his fondest endeavors is his work with local boy scouts on, you guessed it, local burial grounds. He is very proud of the census and mapping work done by Michael Martinez of the Quaker graveyard and the updated and corrected census completed by the Biggar brothers, Charles and Nicholas, of Fair Ridge cemetery.

Additionally, Williams served on the library board in the early seventies and was instrumental in finding the site for its present incarnation.He cites the auditorium as a one of his major contributions as a board member, remembering that this contemporary mainstay was considered a “frill” at the time. Williams was also an active member in the local men’s club, the former counterpart to the League of Women Voters.

When asked whether local lore includes a ghost story or two, Williams laughed and declared, “If we have any ghosts, they’re benign because they’re Quakers!”

Sarah Ellen Rindsberg, being slightly fearful of ghosts, did not conduct this interview in the presence of the dearly departed.

By Ronni Diamondstein

It’s always been about music for Dana Anesi, Senior Cantor of Chappaqua’s Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester. From growing up on the 1960’s folk music of Joan Baez and Peter, Paul, and Mary and the contemporary tunes she heard at Jewish summer camp to the Israeli songs, Anesi developed a deep connection to Judaism and Israel through music. On any given Friday evening you can hear her, guitar in hand, in full mezzo soprano voice leading the congregation in melodic song and prayer. Anesi came to Temple Beth El in 1982 as a part-time Cantor excited about the prospect of working with the renowned Rabbi Chaim Stern. She has now spent more than three decades nurturing this Jewish community and incorporating lots of music into the services and the life of the synagogue–from directing the High Holiday choir, bringing in well-known Jewish musical performers like Danny Maseng to her weekly mellifluous Shabbat melodies.

In addition to singing, Anesi’s greatest joy is working with the children who are studying to become bat/bar mitzvah. “There are many negative stereotypes out there about 6th and 7th graders but these kids are just great,” says Anesi. “I am in awe of what they’re able to accomplish both for the momentous rite of passage with us, and in their lives in general.” Anesi can relate to how many of the students feel too. “I was a very reluctant Hebrew School student, and ironically had to have my arm twisted to become a bat mitzvah.” Anesi says that her very open-minded rabbi allowed her to put together and lead a “creative service” so she consented.” That experience in 1970 was fairly revolutionary,” says Anesi. She played her guitar and sang in public for the very first time.

“We clergy have the extraordinary privilege of regularly being invited into people’s private lives: for joyous events like weddings and b’nei mitvah, but often too at extremely difficult moments like the death of a family member,” says Anesi. Her devotion to the Jewish community and her students motivated Anesi to further her Jewish education. In 2010 Anesi was awarded a Doctor of Ministry degree from Hebrew Union College. It is no surprise that her thesis project was “Deepening the Experience: the Potential for Spiritual, Moral & Psychological Growth of B’nei Mitzvah.” Continuing to be the consummate mentor, in July, Anesi took on a very part-time position, on her day off from the temple, to become Director of Student Placement for the cantorial students at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City.

At the end of this June, Anesi will leave her position as Temple Beth El’s Senior Cantor. Rabbi Joshua Davidson says that Anesi’s contributions to the temple cannot be quantified in the extraordinary number of students she has tutored, couples she has married or troubled souls she has comforted. “For our congregation, she has been a loving and inspiring presence to young and old and everyone in between,” says Davidson. “And for me she has been a wonderful colleague, teacher and friend.”

Like her own very inventive Bat Mitzvah, Dana Anesi’s legacy will reflect the innovation she has brought in her tenure at Temple Beth El. When she came to the temple they’d had only student cantors and didn’t know what having a full-time cantor could mean for the congregation. “I believe they now understand how much a cantor brings, not only to the singing of liturgy but to the breadth of synagogue life, ” says Anesi. Clearly she has strengthened a connection to Judaism for the congregants and enriched the lives of so many.

Anesi is not quite sure yet what she’ll be doing professionally, but spending time with her family is pretty high on the list. “We clergy miss an awful lot in our personal lives, because we often work long hours, including weekends, tending to congregational needs,” says Anesi and she adds “I’m going to be a grandmother in the spring, and I look forward to being a real presence in my grandchild’s life!”

Ronni Diamondstein, owner of Maggie Mae Pup Reporter is a Chappaqua based freelance writer, PR consultant, award-winning photographer and a School Library Media Specialist and teacher who has worked in the US and abroad.

By Susan Youngwood

When a hearing-impaired patient goes to Westchester dentist Sabrina Magid, the treatment is not lost in translation.

Dr. Magid and her staff know sign language and use an innovative computer program to communicate to the hearing-impaired. “It’s a niche that I’ve created that I enjoy doing,” Dr. Magid said. “I’m providing comfort and care for patients who wouldn’t ordinarily get that, or who would avoid care all together.”

Dr. Magid started taking American Sign Language in high school, going to classes with a close friend who had a health condition that could lead to hearing loss. That friendly gesture started a lifelong interest.

She started an ASL club in high school (she grew up in Westchester), and taught a class on ASL and deaf culture as a college student at Duke University. At dental school at University of Pennsylvania she started a sign language club and taught classmates basic sign language. Deaf patients were assigned to her for treatment.

“From what I’ve found, a lot of dentists see underserved patients, but I haven’t found many dealing with the deaf population,” she said. She soon learned the challenges that deaf patients have at the dentist. She came up with procedures that she now uses in her family practice in Harrison with her father, Dr. Kenneth Magid.

Because dental practitioners wear face masks, hearing-impaired patients can’t read their lips. More sensitive to vibration, many deaf patients find dental treatment with drills to be particularly unpleasant. Clues that hearing patients use to understand their treatment –like hearing the sound of the drill –are lost on the hearing impaired.

Dr. Magid said she understands the importance of using other forms of communication with her patients. She takes photos before and during procedures. She uses email and texts to set up appointments.

“It starts with our front desk,” she said. “Our front desk understands something as simple as making their face visible, which is helpful for lip reading. We have a hygienist who knows sign language, as I do.”

And she uses a computer program that converts speech to text on a monitor overhead.

“That’s especially useful when I have my hands full and my face is in a mask,” she said.

She avoids the drill when possible, using air abrasion and lasers. And she will tap her patients on the shoulder to alert them that treatment is about to begin.

“To my knowledge, there is no one in our area or even far away that is doing this,” Dr. Magid said. She says she has been contacted by dental practices in other states on how to replicate her services. “I have patients who e-mailed me from hours away who want to come and do all the work in one weekend,” she said.

Dr. Magid would like to take her approach to treating the hearing-impaired to a wider audience, training other dentists in her techniques. “That’s my future goal,” she said.