The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

The Inside Press

Fundraiser for a New Scooter for Street Artist Michael Bailey

by

On October 14, supporters of street artist Michael Bailey gathered to enjoy a delicious lunch and meet Michael (aka ‘Zebra’) at Tesoro D’Italia in Pleasantville. Michael paints prints of sports figures and sells them outside of Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The event was helped to (successfully!) raise money for a new scooter for Michael, who is disabled. Each donation of $25 was earmarked toward its purchase. At the same time, those gathered enjoyed an afternoon of good food and good company. Original paintings by Michael were also available for viewing and/or for purchase. The event was supported by Roslyn Costabile, Dr. J. Loren Russell, Jeff Gilbert and John Sabaljia, and the many Rotary Clubs under the guidance of Rev. Dr. J. Loren Russell.

ShopMS Pop-Up Shop a Great Success

by

Irene Unger offered a thumbs up for the community’s efforts.

Cooler temps and rain did not deter area residents and visitors alike from attending this popular annual event at Briarcliff Congregational Church.

Held on March 25th, the event featured 20 vendors, and raised over $5000. It was organized by Briarcliff Manor’s Irene Unger, who has been living with MS for 24 years and organizes this fundraiser each year to raise money to help find a cure for multiple sclerosis.

HHREC Announces Summer Educator’s Study Tour of Holocaust Museums and Historic Sites March

by

The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) will host teachers and others interested in learning about the history of the Holocaust at the HHREC National Educators’ Trip to Germany & Poland June 24-July 9, 2023.

HHREC Director of Education Steve Goldberg and professional tour guide Gerrit Book will lead a two-week series of educational seminars from June 24th to July 9th. This program is designed to offer insight into the history of the Jewish Community in Germany and Poland, trace the origins of the Holocaust, and tour monuments and memorial sites. The tour will include stops at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former Warsaw Ghetto, and Sachsenhausen, a former concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany.

“Our sponsorship of this educational mission enables our teachers to enhance their understanding of this dark period in human history by literally ‘walking the walk’ where the Holocaust was conceived and implemented.” said Steve Goldberg, HHREC Director of Education. “They also can see how the perpetrators have memorialized their victims through unique monuments. This life-changing experience will impact their teaching in the years to come.”

For more information, contact Steve Goldberg sgoldberg@HHRECNY.org or visit the HHREC website hhrecny.org.

News courtesy of the HHREC.

Bret Stephens to Offer Keynote on October 27 at the HHREC Annual Benefit Honoring Dennis Mehiel

by

Survivor Hannah Deutsch, Millie Jasper, Survivor Alan Moskin, Christa Moskin

The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) will honor Westchester County Business Executive Dennis Mehiel and feature Pulitzer-Prize Winning Journalist Bret Stephens as Keynote Speaker at their annual Benefit on Thursday, October 27th starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York.

Dennis Mehiel

Dennis Mehiel, formerly a twenty-year Westchester County resident, is the Managing Member of Four M Investments, LLC, headquartered in White Plains.  Four M is a Private Investment Firm that manages only family funds, focused on early-stage technology, food service and corrugated packaging.  He is the Chairman and CEO of Delmarva Corrugated Packaging, Inc. 

Mr. Mehiel is the former Chairman, CEO and Principal Shareholder of Box USA, which he founded in 1966. When sold to International Paper Box USA was then the Nation’s largest independent producer of corrugated shipping containers operating 22 corrugated packaging facilities and two containerboard mills, all located within the continental United States.   Mr. Mehiel is also the former Chairman, CEO, and Principal Shareholder of Sweetheart Cup Company, which was then North America’s largest producer of disposable tabletop products for the away-from-home dining market.  Sweetheart was rescued from insolvency when acquired by Mr. Mehiel in 1998, and was divested to its principal competitor, Solo Cup Company in 2004.  More recently, Mr. Mehiel has begun development of a small number of large capacity capital intensive “Alpha” Corrugated Manufacturing Facilities, the first of which began operations in late 2021 at Dover, Delaware.  

Mr. Mehiel has long been active in New York State political and civic life.  He served for 12 years as a member of the Democratic National Committee, is a former Chairman of the Westchester County Democratic Committee, was an Officer and Director of the New York League of Conservation Voters. He was the Democratic Nominee for Lt. Governor in 2002 and was the New York State Chair of the Kerry Presidential Campaign in 2004.  From 2012 until 2017 Mr. Mehiel served as Chairman and C.E.O. of The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), which operates a 92 Acre property at the south end of Manhattan created when the World Trade Center was constructed 40 years ago.  

Mr. Mehiel is a former Member of the Board of The Milano School for Management and Urban Policy at the New School, a Member of Business Executives for National Security and a former Trustee of the Westchester Medical Center.   From 1989 until 1993 he was a Trustee of the Windward School in White Plains, one of the region’s premier providers of education for learning disabled children.  He also served for ten years as a Trustee of the Purnell School in Pottersville, N.J., an independent high school for girls who have not succeeded in a traditional competitive academic setting.  Mr. Mehiel was the first person not of the Jewish faith ever elected to the Board of Governors of Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work where he served from 1989 until 1996. 

Mr. Mehiel is a member of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in New York City.  Until recently he served as the Chairman of Friends of St. Nicholas, charged with managing the construction of The Saint Nicholas National Shrine, which replaces the only House of Worship lost during the attack on September 11, 2001.  The Shrine was Consecrated July 4, 2022.   He is a former member of the Archdiocesan Council, the Lay Leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Americas.  He is an Archon of The Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle, the world’s oldest Lay Religious Organization and a recipient of the Medal of St. Paul, the Highest Honor a lay person may receive from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. 

Mr. Mehiel Resides in New York City with his wife Karen.

Bret Stephens is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and columnist with the New York Times, and the honoree is Dennis Mehiel, Principal Shareholder and Chairman of U.S. Corrugated, Inc.  Stephens joined The New York Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2017. Mr. Stephens came to The Times after a long career with The Wall Street Journal, where he was most recently deputy editorial page editor in charge of international opinion and, for 11 years, the paper’s principal foreign-affairs columnist. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. At The Post he oversaw the paper’s news, editorial, digital and international operations, and also wrote a weekly column. He has reported from around the world and interviewed scores of world leaders.

Bret Stephens

Mr. Stephens is the author of “America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder,” released in November 2014. He is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including three honorary doctorates, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. In 2022, the government of Russia banned him for life from visiting that country. He was raised in Mexico City and holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an MSc. from the London School of Economics. He and his wife, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, a music critic and entrepreneur, live near New York City and have three children.

To register for this event, or for more information including sponsorship opportunities visit the HHREC website hhrecny.org, email benefit@hhrecny.org or call 914.696.0738.

The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) will hold their annual Benefit on Thursday evening, October 27 starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York. The Keynote Speaker is Bret Stephens, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and columnist with the New York Times, and the honoree is Dennis Mehiel, Principal Shareholder and Chairman of U.S. Corrugated, Inc.

To reserve your place or for more information, including sponsorship opportunities visit the events page at hhrecny.org, or email benefit@hhrecny.org or call 914.696.0738.

Survivor Betty Knoop with Ruth Nyavira
Liberator Alan Moskin and Survivor Sami Steigmann

Cookie Cutter Doesn’t Cut it at Harvey

by

Rugby match at the Harvey School on April 5, 2022. (photo by Gabe PalacioOpen House at Harvey this year is Saturday, October 22, 2022 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Open House: Saturday, October 22, 2022 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

https://www.harveyschool.org/admissions/upcoming-events/2022openhouse

The Harvey School will hold its annual Fall Open House Saturday, Oct. 22 featuring a special panel discussion on “How to Find the Right Independent School for Your Child.”

The open house, starting at 9 a.m. and ending at noon, will offer campus visitors opportunities to take student-led tours, speak to current school parents, and meet faculty and administrators who will be on hand to answer questions about such topics as the academics, athletics and student life at Harvey, an independent college-preparatory school for students in grades 6-12.

Tours will traverse Harvey’s bucolic hilltop 125-acre campus on Route 22 in Katonah which features multi-sports athletic fields, the iconic Evarts Ice Rink, the state-of-the-art Walker Center for the Arts and Fenstermacher Athletic Center, the Upper School complex, and the middle school housed separately on the lower campus.

The special panel discussion will be held from 11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. The school leaders on the panel will include Harvey’s Head of School William Knauer, Head of Middle School Dr. Brendan Byrne, Director of the Performing Arts, Vinny Alexander, Director of Athletics Ray Lacen, English Department Chair Virginia Holmes, and School Counselor Jacquie Butera. Among the topics to be discussed will be how to find a school that fits the needs of your child, how to help your child find their voice, and the importance of understanding your child’s learning profile – recognizing their strengths and interests and what their optimum learning environment would be.

The Harvey School personalizes an educational journey for students in grades 6-12 to be as unique as each individual student. Students don’t conform to a singular “portrait of a graduate.” They have unlimited opportunity to unlock their potential and chase what fulfills them, instilling a desire for greater knowledge, broader perspectives, and cultural awareness. At Harvey, helping students become their best self has everything to do with trust. When students connect with their teachers, they dream big, try new things, and move out of their comfort zone. The result: extraordinary personal and intellectual growth. Harvey equips students with everything they need to live meaningfully, happily, and successfully. Because joy matters.

“The opportunities we get at Harvey are just so diverse. In the fall, you can do the musical, and be a baseball player in the spring. You’re not stuck with one sort of stereotypical group. You don’t have to just be an athlete, or the theater kid, or in robotics. You can do all of them.” – Amanda ‘22

Harvey’s diverse, inclusive, and welcoming community includes students from over 100 communities in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, and international students from seven countries including Sweden, Japan, Germany, Spain, China, and Lithuania.

Located on a beautiful 125-acre hilltop campus in Katonah, New York, Harvey provides a college-preparatory program that cultivates academic excellence, artistic exploration, athletic achievement, and service to others, with 5-day boarding in grades 9-12. There’s nothing more powerful than a student who believes they can make a difference.