In the Wake of Controversy, Scarsdale Residents Search for Common Ground
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What do your friends and neighbors think about the political climate in Scarsdale?
A series of events that some characterized as antisemitic occurred in April, ultimately causing the school board president to step aside from his leadership role. Tensions were high on May 11 at the first meeting of the Scarsdale Board of Education following the events, when students, parents and community members stepped up to share their feelings.
If you want to know what was said – we won’t rehash it – you can read it all here.
But if you’re wondering why this occurred, here are some thoughts on the underlying reasons for the disagreements. Perhaps some lessons can be learned from the experience to avoid future conflict.
We caught up with a few friends around town to gather their thoughts in the wake of this uncharacteristically discordant period in our usually peaceful Village.
Here is what we learned:
We asked a school administrator why he thought people here seemed so angry and he surmised that global conflicts, injustice, and lack of civility from the outside world are spilling into our local conversations. It’s disturbing to witness a war abroad, polarization, the breakdown of our political and justice system, and loss of free speech to name a few – and TO feel powerless to right the wrongs. So when something occurs in an arena where residents have some control, they speak up, injecting local discourse with the same rancor they see in the national news. Rather than radiating our spirit of civil discourse outward, we’re absorbing the world’s venom into our conversations in town.
Another observer offered this view on community conflict: She cautioned our leaders not to listen to the loudest voices in the room. She suggested that only a few extremists on either side of the debate were making it appear that the entire community was up in arms. This was amplified by television reporters coming to town and seeking out only the most irate residents who made it seem as if the fabric of Scarsdale were coming apart at the seams. Angry words and memes spread quickly on social media. In her observations, for the most part, she sees her neighbors and friends as consensus builders who seek a middle ground and do not believe that our community is so divided. Her advice? Seek out the quietest voices in the room and find out what they are thinking.
We heard a few comments from people who thought that the parents were the problem. Referring to the rancor among the adults, one woman asked, “What kind of message are you sending to your kids?” If the parents had not gotten involved in these school events, would the kids have been quietly disciplined – and spared Scarsdale from an appearance on the nightly news?
A former PTA President suggested that the “buck stops” at following school rules. The culpable students broke the rules that govern political and apolitical conduct alike. She said, “The kids know what they are allowed and not allowed to do.” She saw it as an open and shut case and was surprised that there is controversy surrounding blatant violation of the long-running rules at student performances. In response to recent events the district has released their Guidelines for Student Expression at School-Sponsored Activities.
Hopefully, codifying these rules will prevent further misconduct and familiarize everyone with these longstanding policies. Some conduct however, like tearing down signs and placing them in urinals, is beyond codification. For that, there is no explicit rule. Who would think to do something like that! So this one is on parents to do their best to teach common sense and good values at home.
A recent SHS graduate reflected on the importance of respect and suggested that conflicts often become more divisive when people focus on trying to impose their political views on others rather than listening and finding common ground. She said, “Many people are not especially concerned with the political opinions of teenagers but are far more interested in seeing students treat one another with maturity, understanding, and respect.”
To that end a few suggested that the schools build lessons on civil discourse into the curriculum, so that students can learn how to effectively state their views while listening to other opinions. In other words, we need to learn how to agree to disagree with civility.
A wise woman I met in the board room shared her takeaway from the events. She said, “Although the full duration of the public comment at the Board of Education meeting on Monday May 11th was clearly diverse in the perspectives discussed, what stood out to me as a listener was that everyone really wanted the same thing: to be safe, to feel respected, and to be able to express their beliefs and views in a way that is uplifting to them while (ideally) not demeaning or threatening to others.”
So what can we take away from this period of strife? To the girl and mother in their keffiyahs and the boy in the kippah I have a few words of advice. Respect one another for your cultures, respect one another for your beliefs and even respect one another for the dress you wear to represent your identities.
If we follow the rules, engage in civil discourse and respect diverse people and viewpoints, maybe we can find common ground. Let’s be embraced for our differences, not targeted because of them.
Superintendent Expresses a Commitment to the Safety and Dignity of Community Members and Announces New Initiative
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Superintendent Andrew Patrick addressed recent events and the divisive times in which we live at the opening of the Scarsdale School Board meeting on Monday May 11, 2026. The following morning he announced a new community initiative, Common Circles, Understanding Ourselves and Others in a community wide email. See the details about this new program below.
(Monday night May 11, 2026)
Good evening to everyone who has joined us both in person and online. While we are here tonight to conduct the business of the Board of Education and the regular work of governance that keeps this district functioning, I know that is not the only matter on the minds of our community tonight. I want to take a few minutes to acknowledge the last several weeks in our community and to share some thoughts about how we move forward together.
Our community is hurting deeply, and is wondering what it means for the future, and what comes next. I have served as Superintendent for four years, and in that time I have been guided by two unwavering principles - our work must be driven by the needs of our students, and trust with our community requires honesty and transparency. As we gather tonight, I say to you honestly and transparently that moving forward will require the collective work of our entire school community. That means that we are listening, seeking to learn from all of the feedback we are receiving, and putting our deepest, most concerted effort into promoting a safe, welcoming, positive school environment with the tools at our disposal- education, policy, and dialog.
We are living in divisive times. Our country is engaged in conflict on the other side of the world. Our domestic politics feel increasingly polarized. And members of our community are feeling the impact of these larger forces in very personal ways. When global issues reach into our schools, into our shared spaces, into our homes, we feel it deeply. Many of you are here tonight because you are carrying both what has happened here and what is unfolding in the broader world.
It must be said clearly: we are also living through a moment in which concerns about anti-Jewish hate have intensified in ways that are deeply felt by Jewish families in our community, contributing to a palpable sense of fear, vulnerability, and destabilization. National data helps explain why: although Jews make up roughly two percent of the U.S. population, they are the target of nearly seventy percent of religion-based hate crimes. Jews have been murdered in antisemitic attacks in the United States in Washington, DC, Colorado, Pittsburgh and elsewhere, attacked physically in communities across the country, and targeted in violent incidents in places like London, Australia, France, Belgium, and Canada.
At the same time, hate-fueled violence is not limited to any one community. Multiple minority communities are also experiencing heightened bias, hostility, and fear. Here in the United States, we have witnessed the shooting of Palestinian university students in Burlington, VT and the murder of a 6 yr old boy, because he was Palestinian. It is not surprising that these broader dynamics cause members of our own community to carry their weight. But bias, hostility, violence, and fear have no place in our country.
As Viktor Frankl wrote after surviving The Holocaust, there is a space between what happens to us and how we respond—and in that space lies our freedom to choose what comes next. We are in that space right now. Tonight. Together.
As an educational institution, we are holding closely to that idea. The students in our care—and the adults in this community—are being asked to navigate a difficult moment. Between events that have caused pain and the actions we take next, there is an opportunity to be deliberate and to act in alignment with our values: kindness, respect, care, and empathy for all. It is also true that, in recent weeks, some of those values have felt strained.
The intersection of advocacy, politics, and bias in this moment can cloud our ability, and at times our willingness, to acknowledge when harm is happening, including in our own community. While that may be a human instinct, it cannot be where we stop. We remain responsible for engaging these realities with clarity, care, and accountability.
In this community, we will not rank suffering or turn away from one another. We stand with our Jewish neighbors, and with anyone targeted by hate, bias, or harassment. That commitment to the safety and dignity of every member of our community is foundational to who we are.
As an educational institution, we are guided by a core premise: when issues become difficult, we do not avoid them, we turn toward learning. Education gives us a framework for naming what we are seeing, understanding how bias operates, and building the skills required to respond thoughtfully rather than reactively. That includes being clear about how anti-Jewish bias manifests today, sometimes overtly, sometimes in more coded or distorted ways, and ensuring that our response strengthens, rather than fragments, our broader commitment to the dignity and safety of all members of our community.
In the near term, we will be putting forward a structured plan to move this work ahead. One component of that includes new Guidelines for Student Expression at School-Sponsored Activities, which appear in tonight’s agenda. These guidelines have been developed in consultation with experts, and a link appears in Item 12.01 for members of our school community to share feedback. Other components of this plan may include opportunities for input through surveys and small, facilitated focus groups, as well as engagement with outside experts who can help us assess where there may be gaps in knowledge and skills, particularly around civil dialogue and engaging across differences. This moment has surfaced the need to strengthen those capacities, and we are actively considering how to ensure that our students, especially at the high school level, graduate with stronger skills in these areas as they prepare for college and beyond.
In the medium term, I am honored to announce some important news. After many months of collaboration and preparation, we will be introducing a new program to our schools next year called The Common Circles Experience: Scarsdale. The program features two connected parts: We Are Scarsdale! Bridging, Belonging & Building Community and Voices Against Hate: Lessons from the Holocaust. We are very excited about the opportunities for students, faculty, families, and community members to help shape and become part of the experience itself through local stories, photography, art, and participation. The program is an immersive research-based experience that blends art, technology, and storytelling to explore our shared humanity, build community, and teach the lessons of the Holocaust. In a moment marked by growing polarization, rising antisemitism, and increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric, the exhibition celebrates identity and strengthens historical understanding while inviting reflection. Above all, the experience encourages dialogue and fosters a space where everyone is seen, heard, and valued.
While these are important steps, we also need to continue to listen to our community. Tonight is part of that process, and your perspectives will help shape what comes next. We will share more details about those next steps in the coming weeks.
I want you to know that we see you, and we understand that this has been a challenging moment.
Our goal tonight is to listen carefully, to learn, and to take responsibility for how we move forward. We are committed to doing that work with seriousness, with care, and with a clear sense of our responsibility to one another. The fact is, we can't do it alone, and we can’t do it all in a matter of days. But we will move forward as a school community, together - students, teachers, administrators, staff, parents, our Board of Education and our broader community. I appreciate the opportunity to share these remarks.
We Are Scarsdale: Bridging, Belonging and Building Community
(Sent May 12, 2026)
I am writing to share some exciting news related to a program we will be bringing to Scarsdale during the 2026-27 School year. The program is called Common Circles: Moving to Understand Ourselves and Others, and it is an immersive research-based experience that blends art, technology, and storytelling to explore our shared humanity, build community, and teach the lessons of the Holocaust. In a moment marked by growing polarization, rising antisemitism, and increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric, the exhibition celebrates identity and strengthens historical understanding while inviting reflection. Above all, the experience encourages dialogue and fosters a space where everyone is seen, heard, and valued.
We have been working to bring this opportunity to our students for nearly ten months. The exhibit was installed at Rye Country Day School during the 2024-25 school year, and I, along with building leaders and teachers, had the chance to visit. We were struck by the power and effectiveness of the learning experience, and eagerly discussed its potential applications to our learning community. At the end of last school year, the installation moved to Southern Westchester BOCES for the summer. I organized our annual summer Administrative Council leadership retreat to take place there, and our full leadership team had the opportunity to take part in the experience first-hand. Since July, we have been discussing the potential value of bringing this opportunity to our students, and we have invited faculty and parent leaders to the experience as well. We have finally reached a point where we can announce a personalized version of Common Circles, The Common Circles Experience: Scarsdale, thanks in part to the generous support of SSEF (Scarsdale Schools Education Foundation).
About the Experience
In the first section of We Are Scarsdale! Bridging, Belonging & Building Community students and visitors are invited to go beyond first impressions through art, photography, optical illusions, and interactive installations that reveal the multi-layered individuals in our shared community. Visual storytelling invites reflection on how we see one another and the world around us, and how easily both people and history can be reduced to a single story. By beginning with this exploration of connection, the experience prepares learners to encounter Holocaust history not as distant events, but as deeply human stories.
The second section is called Voices Against Hate: Lessons from the Holocaust, and is presented in partnership with USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony. Visitors to this portion engage in life-like conversations with Holocaust survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and Jewish American liberator Alan Moskin. Using advanced interactive technology, visitors ask their own questions and hear firsthand testimony. This section also provides historical context, examines antisemitism past and present, explores Jewish life and peoplehood, and highlights local stories of hope and survival that connect global history to contemporary community life. Because visitors first encounter one another as layered human beings, they can meet Anita and Alan not only as survivor and liberator, but as unique individuals. It is also important to note that this second portion - Voices Against Hate - holds the potential to change over time to examine other historical events. Thus, Common Circles is an experience that can evolve and develop with input from our rich, multicultural community.
Curriculum Connections
The Common Circles exhibit will build on our Developmental Relationships work and serve as a powerful catalyst for our existing curriculum, creating a cohesive thread of empathy, interdependence, and inquiry from elementary through high school. It will logically extend the identity work at the elementary level, and connect to the practices emphasized in Responsive Classroom. The exhibit also mirrors the core values students experience at SMS through units of study that emphasize culture, identity, and understanding of diverse experiences and hardships faced by different groups throughout history. This work helps students build a deeper awareness of society and develop empathy for a wide range of perspectives. These concepts are also embedded in creative ways throughout our classrooms and addressed through the advisory program.The exhibit complements the rigorous work on civic engagement and global interdependence that takes place throughout the disciplines at SHS, and invites consideration of audience, purpose, perspective, and bias when confronting opposing viewpoints. In short, Common Circles serves to foster school environments grounded in respect, connection, and a shared commitment to understanding one another and the uniqueness of our experiences as individuals and members of a community.
The Exhibit is Us
One of the things that makes this experience unique is that it is customized to our community, with multiple opportunities for teacher, student, staff, and community involvement. One of the more powerful components is The Stories We Live in which members of our school community and broader community are featured in five different outfits that reflect aspects of their lives. These images are surrounded by words that characterize the individual. Other ways that members of our community can contribute include:
Common Threads: What Do We Have in Common - a tower of trading-card style biographies
Stories of Hope & Survival - personal narratives from members of our community or those connected to them about their experience.
Interactive biography - a tool that enables students to create their own digital interactive biographies.
Student artwork is also a central component of the exhibit.
Con Ed Says They Will Pay to Repair Damaged Sewer Laterals - But Will They?
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Will Con Edison pay to repair resident’s sewer laterals that were damaged during the installation of a gas transmission line along Walworth Avenue and Fox Meadow Road?
A memo from Scarsdale Village about the issue is somewhat vague, but Allan Drury, the spokesman for Con Edison said this in an email to Scarsdale10583: “Yes, I can confirm that if the contractor’s work damaged a sewer lateral, we will repair the sewer lateral at no cost to the homeowner.”
On this point, the FAQ from the Village of Scarsdale says, “Sewer laterals are private infrastructure owned by the property owner and are typically the homeowner's responsibility to maintain. However, where damage is believed to have resulted from third-party construction work, such as a utility project, responsibility may depend on the specific facts and circumstances. Homeowners may wish to consult with legal counsel to better understand their rights and options.
As background, the multi-year project to install the large gas transmission main started in 2021 and caused major disruptions for residents for years - as portions of the street were often closed – and even driveways were blocked by the construction equipment, digging, and repaving. Some sections of the road were repaired and dug up multiple times without explanation. The project extended down through Fox Meadow but was never completed. It’s on pause and no one knows if the work will resume. And is the line in use? Who knows?
What came to light in 2025, is that the installation of the gas main damaged the sewer pipes of some homes along the west side of Walworth Avenue and possibly Fox Meadow Road. The gas pipe caused the sewer laterals to sag, break and in some cases separate the lateral line from the main sewage line running down the street.
Under a new law enacted in February 2023, homeowners are required to have their sewer laterals inspected prior to a sale. In the process of selling their homes, residents did these inspections and some found the lines were damaged.
At first, concerned residents who thought they were affected were told to hire an inspector and then turn in a receipt for reimbursement. The cost is around $400. Those who did so, are now wondering if they will be reimbursed. More troubling, is that the estimate to repair a damaged line is around $40,000 and those wishing to sell their homes now have to either make the repair themselves or deduct the cost from the sale price.
This week Con Edison agreed to retain an independent inspector who will schedule video inspections of the sewer lateral lines that will be shared with the homeowners. Information is supposed to be hand delivered by Con Edison to those who are thought to be impacted during the week of May 4, 2026 and this work is supposed to be done over the next month.
For those whose lines have been damaged, the Con Edison spokesman is saying that the utility will make the repairs.
But will they? Scarsdale Village is speaking in more measured terms saying, “Con Edison has committed to holding an in-person meeting with impacted residents following completion of the televised inspections. At this stage, the specifics of the in-person meeting are unknown, but details will be shared with impacted residents as soon as they become available.”
Commenting on the above, Greenacres resident Karen Lee said, "Thanks for contacting Con Ed's spokesman and providing the community with an update. I think your 5/5/26 article struck the right balance of faint hope and abundant caution.
At last Wednesday’s GNA meeting, dozens of Walworth homeowners came angry and disappointed. We were vocal about our David-and-Goliath fight against Con Ed. We did nothing but tolerate the noise and disruption kicked up by Con Ed’s contractors for over a year, only to end up with damaged sewer laterals (buried like ticking time bombs under six feet of asphalt).
Mayor Arest seemed empathetic and ready to press for action on behalf of affected homeowners but could not guarantee Con Ed would assume full responsibility and do the right thing. He knew empty promises were not going to fly with us. We left the meeting a little less angry but still deeply disappointed that we even had to deal with this maddening situation."
(Photo Credit: Joe Lawrence)
The Scarsdale I Know
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(This is the opinion of Joanne Wallenstein, Publisher of Scarsdale10583.com)
I was heartbroken to learn about recent incidents of antisemitism in the Scarsdale Schools and sad to witness how mistakes made by teens can quickly be inflamed by social media. In no time at all a single event can make it look as if the entire community is coming apart at the seams.
What happened? As recounted by the SHS Principal, last week, “several signs advertising the Israeli Culture Club’s celebration of Israel’s 78th Independence Day were removed from hallway walls, and some of them were put in urinals in boys’ bathrooms. In addition, the School Government’s Instagram post advertising the event received two replies criticizing the event using vulgar language.”
The story has already hit the New York Post and national news, and a petition is being circulated asking for the resignation of the President of the Scarsdale School board. Is something rotten in the town of Scarsdale. Does this incident define us? Are there flaws in the fabric of our town?
Not in the Scarsdale that I know.
From where I sit I see a very diverse community centered on excellence in education, community and mutual respect. Residents hail from all over the globe, speak a multitude of languages, observe many different religions and hold disparate political views. How do I know? Because in the past few months we have covered everything from Chinese New Year, to Iftar and the publication of a beloved Rabbi’s new book. At each Scarsdale Village Board meeting the Mayor notes a long list of religious and cultural observances on the calendar for the month – reaching out to all groups to make them know they are welcome and important contributors to life in Scarsdale. Last year the school district made major changes to the academic calendar to accommodate celebrations of Eid, the Lunar New Year and Juneteenth.
In just the past two weeks, I attended three local events that left me moved by the depth of feeling for our community and the generosity of my neighbors.
On April 6th, our Village Historian Jordan Copeland presented a lecture on the History of the Jews to a packed room of Jews and non-Jews at Scarsdale Library. He traced the growth of the Jewish population in Scarsdale, noting their involvement in business, civic affairs, and the many contributions they made to life in Scarsdale. He also outlined the darker side of the story - how restrictive covenants prevented Jews from living in certain areas and how Jews were not welcome at local country clubs. But what did he conclude? After spending a year doing research he was actually heartened by the Jewish experience in Scarsdale and encouraged residents in the audience to welcome newcomers from other faiths and nations as they would have liked to be welcomed themselves.
That was just one event that made me proud to be here.
On Tuesday April 12 I participated in a focus group as part the development of a strategic plan for the Scarsdale Library – and sat around the table with a diverse group of Scarsdale residents, of all ages and races - most of whom I had not met before. They were asked to provide their thoughts on what they valued about the community and what could be done to improve it. Turns out, they were a happy group. A retiree said that after her children were grown she and her husband decided to stay in town – because everything they could want was here. They could walk to the Village, use the library and enjoy their friends and their golf game. Where else could match it? A more recent entrant said she felt safe at home, liked that her kids could hang out in the Village by themselves and was happy with the schools.
Struggling to think of what could be better, people mentioned more sidewalks and a supermarket, but quickly decided that all in all Scarsdale is well run and that’s why they’re happy here. Any improvements they could imagine were already in the works.
Then I had the pleasure of attending an event at Westchester Reform Temple, where former Rabbi Angela Buchdahl was in conversation with current Rabbi Jonathan Blake about her new book documenting her path as a Korean-American female rabbi and cantor. She was thrilled to be back in a place she called home, where she felt the acceptance and love of a congregation who embraced someone who broke all previous notions of what it means to be Jewish.
Referring to a recent article in The New Yorker, Rabbi Blake asked, “Are synagogues coming apart at the seams about Israel?” She provided a calming, rationale and reassuring response. She said, “You’re seeing extreme emotions over this. It has never been harder to talk about Israel and I did not want to lose people in my community over Israel. But I don’t think our community is falling apart at the seams…. We are a spiritual community and we are still taking care of each other. We see each other as good human beings. We have to be decent to each other. We are serving something higher – bigger than ourselves. When we pray together and sing, when we lift our voices, when we help someone who is ill, the kindness transcends Israel – and disagreement. We can keep our caring community at the core.”
I recount these stories to put the incidents in the news into the proper perspective.
To me this event is not a symptom of larger problems simmering beneath the surface. The incident was simply an attempt to grab attention by a few kids who have not learned how to engage in debate in appropriate ways.
I was impressed by the well thought out response from school leaders who clearly took these missteps seriously. The high school principal vowed to be “swift, decisive, and fair in responses to violations of the Code of Conduct.” The Superintendent said the district is developing “a clear, written set of guidelines regarding student speech and dress at school sponsored activities.” The Board of Education vowed to work in partnership with the district and the community to reinforce the values of respect, dignity and inclusion.” And the President of the Board, said, “As a parent, I will focus on healing my family. But as a school board member, my focus will continue to be on our students, our schools, and our educational program. I am fully committed to following through on our mission, which is to support each student's full development, enabling them to be effective and independent contributors in a democratic society within an interdependent world.”
Their words were thoughtful, empathetic and offered concrete steps to prevent future incidents and more forward.
In April and May Scarsdale celebrates our community with wonderful events that bring out people from all quarters. Last week it was a sold-out gala to support the library, this week, it’s the Scarsdale Bowl to spotlight community volunteers and in May, Scarsdale Family Counseling Service will honor those who support the community’s mental health.
These are opportunities to celebrate who we are.
I am not letting an ugly incident shake my confidence in an excellent community of caring friends and responsible leaders. I hope you will all reflect on what you value here and take steps to come together to further strengthen the fabric of the community we all love.
Finding a Voice: How Community, Justice, and Song Shaped One Cantor’s Journey
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Long before she ever stepped onto the bimah as a professional, Cantor Laura Stein’s voice was already echoing throughout the spaces that shaped her: her family’s home, her synagogue, her schools, and the streets of Scarsdale itself. Singing came naturally. So did Judaism. What took time was landing securely where she is today, in a place where her musical talent, commitment to Jewish values, and pursuit of justice coalesce to define a career of using her voice for progress.
“I was always a singer,” she recalls—choirs, school plays, and the first 4th-grader to ever be accepted into all-county chorus. At the same time, Judaism was woven into her daily life. Her family nurtured a strong Jewish identity grounded in community, learning, and social justice. Synagogue wasn’t just a place you went on holidays; it was where relationships were formed, values were passed down, and belonging was solidified.
As a child at Westchester Reform Temple (WRT), she slowly became part of its musical life as well. Her passion for singing and her interest in Judaism began to converge, helped along by Cantor Stephen Merkel of blessed memory, who first took her under his wing. As she got older, that mentorship expanded. “It really felt like the ‘it takes a village’ mechanism kicked in,” she says. The clergy there, including Senior Rabbi Rick Jacobs, Cantor/Rabbi Angela Buchdal, and Rabbi Ken Chasen, recognized something in her and encouraged her to explore it.
Her Bat Mitzvah became a turning point. Learning to chant Torah, interpret tradition, and share it with the community was empowering in a way Cantor Stein hadn’t anticipated. “That was when I first understood what it meant to pass down Jewish tradition in a way that actually moves people, and maybe even helps make the world a little better.”
From there, she became deeply embedded in the congregation’s musical culture. She supported Cantor Buchdal on the bimah, subbed for her at teen events, and attended Kutz Camp, a Reform Movement leadership camp, where she learned to songlead. Surrounded by other young people dreaming of Jewish leadership, guitar in hand, she began to see a future where her voice could inspire others through prayer and music.
That sense of encouragement extended well beyond the synagogue walls, though. Growing up in Scarsdale, Laura experienced what she describes as a “360-degree” support system. Her parents moved to town when she was just two weeks old, and she went through the full K–12 Scarsdale school system. While not a small town in the traditional sense, Scarsdale felt intimate, with familiar faces in the village, neighbors and family friends who she spent holidays with, and a community invested in watching young people grow.
“The biggest thing that Scarsdale did for me was give me a home base,” she says. A place where the parmesan bread at Parkway Diner always tasted the same, Halloween window painting reliably arrived each October, and someone was always playing tennis (or paddle tennis) at the Brite Avenue courts down the street from where she grew up. That consistency created a container—a place from which it felt safe to take risks and explore new paths, and a place she could always return to, knowing she’d be welcomed back.
Cantor Stein’s musical and theatrical development was nurtured at every stage. Mentors like Fox Meadow music teacher Connie Rybak Shelengian, the Middle School’s music teacher Lorraine Brooks and Popham’s English teacher Kathleen Connon, and High School Choir Director John Cuk didn’t just instruct, they showed up. One even attended a singing performance while she was in graduate school for cantorial studies. “I think of Scarsdale as a place where I was supported at school, in the village, at synagogue, at home…everywhere. I was valued for my unique path.”
She still remembers a moment from 2004 that captured that spirit perfectly. After returning from Jewish songleading camp, the Scarsdale Inquirer ran a feature about her experience. Soon after, a non-Jewish parent of a younger student she only knew peripherally called her house just to say how impressed she was. “It really felt like people, even from totally different backgrounds, were rooting for me.”
That thread of community has never broken. When Laura would return home on breaks and was invited to sing at her home congregation, people who had known her since childhood would approach her. “I remember when you were ten and sang on the bimah,” they’d say. “We always knew you’d become a cantor! We’re so proud of you.” She pauses when she reflects on that continuity, tearing up. “I can’t tell you what it’s meant to have that thread woven through my entire life. It’s been the biggest blessing on my journey.”
Yet her path was not without struggle, especially when she entered seminary at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Reform Movement’s graduate program that trains cantors and rabbis. While cantorial school gave her theological grounding and liturgical skills, it fell short of what she hoped clergy training would provide, and its somewhat toxic culture challenged what she’d come to understand about justice during her Jewish childhood. “I wanted to learn how to minister to the whole person, and to do so in an environment that not only gave me skills but also lifted me up as a person, a woman, and most importantly, a Jew.” When that training and growth-oriented support didn’t materialize in her seminary, she sought them elsewhere, enrolling in NYU’s social work program part-time while also completing her cantorial degree.
That decision, she says without hesitation, changed everything. Through a field placement working with Jewish seniors living with hoarding disorder and an internship doing case management for homeless queer youth, she gained clinical skills that transformed her relationship to pastoral care. “My social work degree is the best thing I ever did,” she says. “It’s the reason I can show up as a cantor the way I do today.”
Now pursuing a PhD in Practical Theology at Boston University, with a focus on the psychology of religion, she is doing the integrative work she once longed for as a student. Her research explores clergy formation, justice, trauma, burnout, and flourishing—asking not just what spiritual leaders can do, but who they are becoming. Studying at BU’s School of Theology, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. earned his doctorate in theology as well, has only deepened her commitment to justice-centered work, which she names as her most important commitment.
At the heart of everything Cantor Laura Stein does is integration—between belief and behavior, spirituality and psychology, tradition and lived experience. “Flourishing isn’t about erasing differences,” she says. “It’s about stitching together wholeness.” That philosophy shapes her work with individuals navigating trauma, identity, and religious struggle, as well as with wedding couples and families looking to bring Jewish joy and meaning to their life transitions. It also informs how she understands mindfulness and what it really means to “live Jewishly”—as attunement to values in the present moment that help people connect to others and community.
Today, as a cantor, social worker, and psychologist of religion in training, her voice still rises in song on the bimah, during lifecycle moments, and in chaplaincy settings. But it also speaks in classrooms, therapy sessions, and in research and advocacy settings. She’s proud of how this journey has led her to where she is, and feels ready to start sharing what she’s learned with the community that formed her into the professional and person she is today.
Looking back, it’s clear that none of it happened in isolation. Family, temple, school, teachers, neighbors, and extended communal networks all played a role, and were patient as she explored her different passions before finding a path that would combine them. “I am so grateful,” she says, “to have been championed by so many people who saw potential in me and wanted me to thrive.”
And in many ways, they still do…cheering her on, just as they always have. But now, she feels, it’s time for her to rise to the occasion of this next chapter.
“I’ve been in school, deepening these various passions and in this pursuit of integrating them for so long, but it’s finally coming together. It’s time to start giving back and to hopefully be someone who inspires another little girl in Scarsdale to follow her dreams. I remain very connected here! My parents still live in the house where I grew up and WRT, where I now work part-time to support congregants along their journeys, is still my spiritual home. What a privilege to still feel held by the community that shaped you. Not everyone has that. I feel so lucky.”
