Grace Bennett

Enjoy Our Debut Edition

March 8, 2019 by Grace Bennett

Grace’s cut and blow dry by Lisa Koebbe Bevan, owner and Master colorist at BELIEVE Beauty Lounge, a full service salon on 95 Manville Road in Pleasantville, believebeautysalon.com Makeup (and photo!) by Kara Delfino, karadelfino.com.

Please know that a lot of heart and soul went into producing this first issue of Inside Pleasantville! If you have lived in the area long enough, many of you may already have seen an Inside Press publication in a neighbor’s home, or perhaps at a real estate office–where the magazines make a giant impression (I’m told!) with area visitors considering a move here.

I’ve been publishing for 16 years after launching the first edition of Inside Chappaqua, The Magazine for New Castle and Beyond in April 2003. Five years ago, following that success, I decided to get two Castle pubs underway and produced our first Inside Armonk. And now here we are delighted to be covering your vibrant Mount Pleasant communities too with this first edition of an Inside Pleasantville!

I’m always grateful to my Inside Press team, including Caroline Rosengarden who lives ‘Inside Pleasantville’ with her beautiful family. She is positively a most enthusiastic proponent for the community.

Also, enjoy the work here by Lisa Samkoff, our consummate professional designer who brings a special flair to every page. Wonderful Stacey Pfeffer edits our Chappaqua and Armonk editions from which you may see some relevant articles appearing here too. First and foremost, as a publisher, I understand no community’s residents live in a bubble, so I do share from other communities, and will continue to as much as I can.

I also so appreciate Ryan Smith and Rick Waters, who designed and maintain our site theinsidepress.com. You can find all the stories here online too, a downloadable edition, along with other ‘in between postings,’ all as much as time and energy permit! Behind the scenes, we have Analia Boltuch, our invaluable account manager, and always a rotating group of talented ‘regular’ freelance writers and photographers. This issue’s cover work plus the photos for the Pleasantville Music Festival, for example, are from Pleasantville’s very own Lynda Shenkman, who shot many of my first Inside editions too.

Ultimately, this pub comes to you after 22 years of happy Westchester living, having raised two terrific children: my daughter, Anna, 26, and son Ari, 22, both living in the city. I also visit my dad a lot in Yonkers. He’s going on 97 and still in good health at a senior residence. Being empty nest, and having this amazing Inside Press team in place, I’m expanding our publishing efforts.

Chappaqua’s also is just a hop, skip and jump to Pleasantville. In fact, when I think of ‘fun times’ in Westchester, Pleasantville elicits those feelings enormously, whether it’s at gorgeous Rockefeller Preserve, or enjoying countless movies at the incomparable Jacob Burns Film Center, or even acting classes I discovered with Rachel Jones at the Howard Meyer Acting Studio/Axial Theater! In the meantime I can live vicariously enjoying others performing in stellar shows such as those at Arc Stages, or setting aside a day to dance or sing along with the mega talented musicians at the Pleasantville Music Festival.

All these places and institutions and more – don’t miss a terrific story on Cycle for Survival! – are covered in this debut edition, which I hope you will treasure and keep as a collector’s item. We will be ‘back again’ with a back to school September/October 2019 edition arriving in your home by late August too. Remember, you can read us online too at theinsidepress.com and follow our assorted musings primarily on Facebook and Instagram.

I am aiming for at least four editions in 2020, so stay tuned for more fun and meaningful coverage in which we will keep on ‘Sharing the Heart of Your Community.” And I’d be remiss if I didn’t also communicate a resounding THANK YOU to all the generous sponsors and contributors who made this edition and future ones possible. ENJOY!

Grace Bennett
Inside Press Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

Grace Bennett and Paul Elliot Honored at HHREC Gala

December 1, 2017 by Stacey Pfeffer

(Left to right): HHREC chair Valerie O’Keeffe; Kevin Plunkett, Deputy County Executive; HHREC honoree Paul Elliot; Mitch Ostrove; Grace; County Legislator Mike Kaplowitz; and HHREC Executive Director Millie Jasper

The White Plains-based Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) held their annual gala on October 26th. The room at the Mamaroneck Beach and Yacht Club was packed with supporters dedicated to the HHREC’s mission of “learning from the past, protecting the future.” Grace Bennett, publisher of both Inside Chappaqua and Inside Armonk magazines and Paul Elliot, the Founder & CEO of ELCO Management, a portfolio management company were the evening’s honorees. Also in attendance at the event were Congresswoman Nita Lowey, Westchester County Legislator Michael B. Kaplowitz, Deputy County Executive Kevin J. Plunkett, County Clerk Tim Idoni and New Castle Town Supervisor Rob Greenstein.

Bennett first became involved with HHREC after writing about her father, Jacob Breitstein, a Holocaust survivor in her “Just Between Us” editor’s column in Inside Chappaqua. A reader of the magazine introduced her to the non-profit and she has been an active leader in the organization ever since.

Grace received the Bernard J. Rosenshein Courage to Care Award. She joined HHREC’s Advisory Board in 2004. For the past 13 years, she has made innumerable contributions in her roles on the Board of Directors, the Advisory Board and GenerationsForward. As the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Grace has a passion for Holocaust remembrance and has been instrumental in guiding our educational programs,” noted Millie Jasper, HHREC’s Executive Director. She has frequently profiled and highlighted HHREC’s achievements and programming through her magazines and via social media.

Elliot, who is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) has used his business acumen to help several non-profits including the Rabbinical Pension Fund, the Community Synagogue in Rye and the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase. He joined the Board of HHREC almost two decades ago.

“Paul was awarded the Eugene M. & Emily Grant Spirit of Humanity Award. He has been an active member of the Board of Directors for 19 years and has shown unwavering support for our programs and events. Most recently he spearheaded the creation of the Endowment Fund, which has seen considerable growth since its inception,” commented Japser.

The HHREC offers several workshops, traveling exhibits and subsidized trips for educators. The Holocaust Survivor Legacy Education Project, an interactive database of the oral history of Westchester survivors is used by teachers to educate their students about the Holocaust. The organization also created a Human Rights Institute (involving approximately 30 schools each year), which helps shape student leaders to fight hate and bigotry in all its forms by introducing the concept of being an ‘upstander’. In addition, the HHREC’s Speakers Bureau helps put a human face on the Holocaust by having survivors and/or liberators tell their stories. Each year the speakers reach more than 25,000 students and adults.

The evening concluded with a moving speech by Ellen Kaidanow, a GenerationsForward member who told the story of her mother-in-law also named Ellen Kaidanow, who was only 5-years-old when her mother, father and two sisters were all forced to move from their beautiful home in the Ukraine to a walled Jewish ghetto. Ellen tells the story of her mother-in-law’s life as a young girl in the ghetto and her miraculous tale of becoming the sole survivor of her family at age six. The GenerationsForward program consists of children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors recounting their family’s stories as the number of Holocaust survivors is dwindling every day.

Grace with her father Jacob Breitstein
PHOTO BY WILLIAM LANDIN

Ellen Kaidanow, keynote speaker with Ellen Kaidanow, her mother-in-law.
PHOTO BY WILLIAM LANDIN

Chris Lane, Jacob Breitstein (Grace’s dad) and Anna Bennett (Grace’s daughter)
PHOTO BY WILLIAM LANDIN

Grace and HHREC Executive Director Millie Jasper
PHOTO BY WILLIAM LANDIN

HHREC honoree Lee Katz and Chair Valerie O’Keeffe
PHOTO BY WILLIAM LANDIN

Hal Levine, Nancy Huehnergarth, Jodi Levine, Grace, Dawn Dankner Rosen, New Castle Town Supervisor Robert Greenstein and Suzanna Hyler
PHOTO BY JANINE CROWLEY HAYNES

Purchase Tickets Today! Annual Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center Benefit

September 25, 2017 by The Inside Press

2017 Annual Benefit Honoring
Grace Bennett and Paul E. Elliot

Tickets & Journal Ads now available

The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center’s 2017 Annual Benefit will be held on Thursday, October 26th at the Mamaroneck Beach & Yacht Club!

Grace Bennett from The Inside Press will be honored along with Paul E. Elliot of ELCO Management Company.

Ellen Kaidanow, a member our GenerationsForward Speakers Bureau, will give the Keynote Address “What’s in a Name?”

P.S. If you are unable to join us, please consider
supporting our organization through a membership.

Buy Tickets Here

Place your Program Ad Now

Annual HHREC Gala to Honor Paul Elliot and Grace Bennett on Thursday, October 26

August 30, 2017 by Stacey Pfeffer

Grace Bennett, a Chappaqua resident and publisher of two publications, Inside Chappaqua and Inside Armonk magazines, and Paul Elliot, a Rye resident and Founder of ELCO Management an investment advisory firm, will be the honorees at the upcoming Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center’s (HHREC) annual gala on October 26 at the Mamaroneck Beach and Yacht Club.

Both honorees have had a long-standing commitment to the White Plains-based organization that creates compelling programs on the Holocaust, genocide and human rights crimes for students and teachers and encourages today’s students to speak out and be ‘upstanders’ against all forms of prejudice and bigotry.

HHREC Gala Honoree Paul Elliot and his family. (L-R): Arthur Stein, Sabrina Stein, Lauren Elliot, Barbara Elliot, Paul Elliot, Leora Elliot, James Elliot, Spencer Elliot and Jack Elliot.

Since the organization’s inception in 1994, HHREC has provided lessons to more than 1,750 teachers and thousands of middle and high school students in Westchester, Fairfield and Putnam counties. “We honor Grace Bennett and Paul Elliot with gratitude and admiration for their exemplary service to HHREC. Grace has been a valued and respected member of HHREC for many years.

Grace Bennett with her father, Jacob Breitstein a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor. The photo was exhibited in the L’Dor Vador project (From Generation to Generation) produced by Seth Harrison of The Journal News. PHOTO COURTESY of SETH HARRISON The Journal News

“As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Grace brings passion and commitment to Holocaust remembrance. Her contributions include, but are not limited to, participation in all aspects of marketing and promotion, and she was featured in the L’Dor Vador (From Generation to Generation) project where she and her father’s photos and interviews were highlighted in the highly acclaimed documentary and photo exhibit,” noted Millie Jasper, the Executive Director of HHREC. The project was produced by Seth Harrison of The Journal News and HHREC was instrumental in providing the survivors and the second and third generation family members for the photo exhibit and documentary.

Paul Elliot has been a board member for many years and a consistent supporter of the Center’s programs. “Paul chairs the Endowment Portfolio Committee where he consistently brings his financial expertise to all discussions. His leadership, marked with vision and wisdom, continues to strengthen the Center,” commented Jasper.

“Survival of the organization is very important to me. There is no substitute for when a survivor or a member of the next generation shares their personal story with students. Funds are vital so that we can continue that process and reach more kids and make it part of their curriculum,” said Elliot.

Bennett became involved with HHREC after writing some ten years ago that she was a child of Holocaust survivors in her “Just Between Us” column that appears in this magazine every edition. A reader, Richard Laster of Chappaqua, was the first chair of HHREC’s board and suggested that she explore the group. “Since then, I have viewed my own role largely as simply spreading awareness through the Inside Press publications while I encourage others to learn about and support this group too.” Inside Press publications have had numerous articles on Holocaust-related topics throughout the years.

“Since my divorce a decade ago, the constants in my life have been incredibly meaningful. One has been my involvement with HHREC. They bring Holocaust education into our schools by recognizing and honoring teachers who take that mission very seriously. Through their extraordinary annual Human Rights Institute (involving some 30 schools each year), they help shape the student leaders of tomorrow to fight hate and bigotry in all its forms by introducing the concept of being an ‘upstander,’ explained Bennett.

In addition to a wide range of programming with the Human Rights Institute, HHREC has a Speakers Bureau featuring authors and an extensive library of related literature open to the public. “HHREC has helped so many survivors, and now children of survivors can develop and share our family’s stories through the GenerationsForward initiative.”

“The survivors are leaving us soon. It’s up to us now. My involvement with HHREC provides me with a sense of hope for our collective future.” Bennett will be attending the gala with her family including her father, Jacob Breitstein, a 95-year-old survivor whose mother and four brothers and sisters all perished. Tickets to the gala can be purchased at www.hhrecny.org.