Guest Speakers
Ellen Galinsky | Thursday, March 27th
Shari & Lamb Chop
A popular keynote speaker, Galinsky has been a presenter at five White House Conferences. She has been featured regularly in the media, including appearances on Good Morning America, the Today Show, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Daniel Robbins | Sunday, March 30, 2025
Bad Shabbos
Daniel Robbins is NYC-based director. In his films, he takes exciting concepts and grounds them with authentic performances, surprising humor, and propulsive energy. His breakout film PLEDGE was a hit at Fantasia Film Festival and sold to IFC Midnight as well as a streaming deal with Hulu. He also won “Best Director” at Screamfest. His Borat-style comedy feature CITIZEN WEINER debuted in 2024 and is currently available on Tubi. And his film BAD SHABBOS won the Audience Award at Tribeca and is currently in theaters.
Thursday, April 3rd
Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round
Rev. Carl L. Washington, III is a native of Baltimore, Maryland. He is currently the Pastor of Pilgrim Baptist Church in Nyack, New York. He is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of the College of New Rochelle, possessing a Bachelor of Science Degree with a focus in Sociology and a Yale University graduate having completed the Master of Divinity Degree with a focus in systematic theology. Rev. Washington is very active in the community and serves in several organizations within Rockland County. Rev. Washington is the Executive Director of Nyack, New York Housing Authority. He is the 2nd Vice President of the NAACP of Nyack. He is also working with several organizations locally and nationally to advance African Americans in this country.
Dr. Frances Pratt had worked for years as a nurse and was the first African American head nurse at Nyack Hospital’s emergency room. Known for her trademark hats, Dr. Pratt, born on May 13, 1934, has been recognized with over 140 awards and honors including the Heroine Award from the National NAACP in 1986, induction into the Rockland County Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2003, the Harriet Tubman Award from the New York State Museum in 2006, the Liberty Bell Award from the Rockland County Bar Association in 2016, and the Belle Mayer Zeck Award from the Rockland County Women’s Bar Association in 2019, to name a few. Dr. Pratt served as the President of the Nyack Branch of the NAACP for 41 years. IN 2020, Cooper Drive in South Nyack was renamed Dr. Frances Pratt Drive, honoring. Pratt’s service and dedication to Rockland County.
Barbara Williams was born in Anniston, Alabama and moved to Nyack in the early 1960s. She was an avid member of the protests against the urban renewal project. In 1965, she managed the campaign that won Hezekiah Easter a seat on the Village of Nyack Board of Trustees—the first Black person elected to public office in Rockland County. Williams was inducted into Rockland County’s Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2016 for her work in fighting discrimination against disadvantaged people and people of color. She describes herself as a storyteller, memory keeper and “ancestor in training.”
Bill Batson is a writer, artist and civic leader. The author and Illustrator of the Nyack Sketch Log on nyacknewsandviews.com has published over 300 columns since 2011.
In 2015, Bill chaired the Nyack Commemoration Committee, a group that placed a Toni Morrison Bench by the Road monument in Memorial Park. The bench commemorates the life of nineteenth century abolitionist and entrepreneur Cynthia Hesdra.
In June 2021, Bill was inducted into the Rockland County Hall Civil Rights Hall of Fame.
Bill continues to work with the community and the village to bring resolution to repair the injury to individuals, families and the civic fabric of the Village of Nyack.
Peter Geffen is the Founder and President of The Kivunim (Key-Vu-Neem) Institute that began in 1999 as a summer institute for teachers and staff in Jewish schools and in 2005 expanded to focus on a year-long post high school/pre-college gap-year program based in Israel and studying about and traveling to 12 countries (from Morocco to India). Together with an almost exclusively Jewish group of friends from Camps Ramah and the United Synagogue Youth movement Peter Geffen ran freedom schools, encouraged sharecroppers to attempt to register to vote and assisted the local African-American community face the rising white supremacist resistance in the form of the KuKluxKlan. He assisted at the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr. and accompanied Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Senator (and Presidential Candidate) Robert F. Kennedy during the solemn procession across Atlanta to King’s initial burial site on the campus of Morehouse College. Professionally a Jewish educator, Peter founded The Abraham Joshua Heschel School in New York City in 1983. In 2012 he was selected to receive the Covenant Award, the highest recognition in the field of Jewish education.
Wilbur T. Aldridge born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. He attended the
Public school of that city which was a segregated system.. He was an active, vocal member of many of the marches once being arrested for the cause of Civil Rights. He has devoted to use his time, talent and energyilluminate any form of discrimination.
Wilbur has devoted 40 years of advocacy for all forms of Human and Civil
Rights Causes. He has been the Mid-Hudson, Westchester Regional Director of the
NAACP and the Assistant to New York State NAACP President for approximately 6 years.
Wilbur also has provide Multi-Cultural/ Sexual Harassment Training for participants
at the Rockland County Police Academy. He has devoted his life’s work to advancing
the less fortunate through the Development of an equal playing field.
Monday, April 21st
Yaniv
Amnon Carmi
Producer, Co-Writer, Director, Editor, Actor
Amnon is an award-winning director, producer and editor with a decade of experience in animation and film production. He also works as a film educator with the NYC Department of Education.
Ben Ducoff
Producer, Co-Writer, Lead Actor
Ben is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and producer. He serves as a founding film instructor and Work-Based Learning Coordinator at Motion Picture Technical High School in New York City.
Learn how to play Yaniv after the film!
Gary Hochman | Tuesday, April 22nd
Deadly Deception at Sobibor
Documentary filmmaker and journalist Gary Hochman is the Managing Director of Changing Minds Productions in North Haven, CT. For 40 years, Gary worked as a producer, director and writer of national and international productions at Nebraska’s Public Television Network, part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Gary has produced and directed documentaries in the United States, South America, Europe, and Antarctica for PBS, the NOVA science series, Discovery Channel, and museums. His films specialize in history, science, and the arts.
In Poland, he established the Sobibor Documentation Project in cooperation with the Sobibor Excavations.
Sunday, April 27th
October H8TE
David Brodsky is Associate Professor of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He received his PhD from New York University in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. He teaches and has published broadly on the long history of the lands of Israel/Palestine and Babylonia/Iraq, specializing in the ancient and early medieval periods. He is currently working on a book entitled “Who Wants a Perfect God? How Greek Philosophy Impacted Ancient and Medieval Greek, Jewish, and Christian Theologies.”
Avinoam Patt is the Maurice Greenberg Professor of Holocaust Studies at New York University where he also serves as Director of the Center for the Study of Antisemitism. Dr. Patt previously held the Doris and Simon Konover Chair of Judaic Studies at the University of Connecticut, where he served as Director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life. He is the author of multiple books on Jewish responses to the Holocaust. His newest book, Israel and the Holocaust, was published by Bloomsbury Press as part of its Perspectives on the Holocaust series in 2024.
Josh Suchoff is managing director at the Academic Engagement Network, an organization that mobilizes university and college faculty and administrators to counter antisemitism, oppose the denigration of Jewish and Zionist identity, promote academic freedom, and advance education about Israel. In response to October 7, Josh led the creation and launch of the Faculty Against Antisemitism Movement, which now has more than 50,000 followers across social media and post impressions exceeding 20 million. Josh is a Rockland County native who grew up in New City, attended Reuben Gittelman Hebrew Day School, Pomona Junior High School, and Ramapo High School, and was a member of Orangetown Jewish Center.
Rebecca Cypess is the Mordecai D. Katz and Dr. Monique C. Katz Dean of the Undergraduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yeshiva University. A musicologist and historical keyboardist, Cypess is the author of two books, editor of five essay collections, and author of over 45 peer-reviewed articles and chapters. Prior to her work at Yeshiva University, Cypess served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Music at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. She also served for eight years as founding co-chair of Rutgers JFAS (Jewish Faculty, Administrators, and Staff), a grassroots group of Jewish employees that combats antisemitism and anti-Israel bias and promotes a positive, supportive environment for Jews on campus.
Starting in 2023, the disturbing rise in antisemitism in higher education led Cypess to begin publishing and speaking widely on the purposes of academia and how it can be reclaimed as a site of reason and understanding. Her work on these issues has appeared in venues such as Tablet, Inside Higher Ed, and the Wall Street Journal.
Elliott Forrest | Tuesday, April 29th
Midas Man
Elliott Forrest is a Peabody Award-winning broadcaster, director, designer, and producer. He is the afternoon host on New York’s Classical Radio Station 105.9FM, WQXR, and the host of the national radio concerts of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A career highlight was interviewing Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, two legendary members of The Beatles, one of the most influential bands in music history. Speaking with them offered a rare opportunity to gain personal insights into their iconic careers, the legacy of The Beatles, and their individual musical journeys beyond the band.
Check back for more information, as more speakers will be joining us!
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All tickets are subject to change at organizer’s discretion.