Scarsdale Adult School Catalog Spring/Summer 2025
History and Culture
Churchill, Britain's Incomparable Leader Winston Churchill’s life was a roller coaster of bitter failures and glorious achievements, of which recent film biographies only scratch the surface. This lecture series tells the full story, including Churchill’s youthful meteoric rise to the corridors of British political power, and his ensuing setbacks in World War I and dubious party-switching that left him, at middle age, a near-forgotten back-bencher. Only his prescient diagnosis of Hitler’s threat propelled his resurgence, setting the stage for his unparalleled leadership of Britain during World War II and beyond. Also, Churchill's support of Jewish causes, while far from perfect, stood out compared with those of his British contemporaries. Still, Churchill’s willingness to cede spheres of influence to Stalin undercut FDR’s bid for a new international order, and his clinging to a dying British imperialism and stubborn indifference to wartime India’s mass famine hastened the demise of British rule. Throughout, listen to and watch Churchill’s speeches, which defined the preeminent value of
defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. JESS VELONA is a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia Law School with an MA in history from NYU. He teaches courses on American history, the Nazi regime, Russian history and other topics at Fordham, NYU, and other universities in the New York area, and is a Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School. Velona clerked for then-Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg and practiced law for 35 years, including 20 at the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a one-time candidate for public office in Manhattan and former aide to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Velona loves sharing his passion for politics and history. 2 Sessions, starting Thursday, May 1 • 10:00am-11:30am • Shaarei Tikvah • Course 13295 • $70
Walking Tour: Step Back in Time to the Old Lower East Side The old Lower East Side comes alive in this walking tour. Central to the tour is the Jewish neighborhood, whose teeming tenements formed the heart of the most crowded place in the late nineteenth century world, including stops before a gloriously restored historic synagogue and the Jewish-owned bank tower where struggling immigrants built their nest eggs. Briefly visit the surrounding wards, marked at the time by gangs, flophouses, homeless newsboys and the noisy, smoke-belching elevated railway, as well as the seventeenth century Jewish cemetery that is the oldest human site in Manhattan. Along the way, track unforgettable photographs by Jacob Riis and others to the exact spots they were taken, portraying the struggles and desperation of immigrant life. JESS VELONA (see bio for “Churchill, Britain's Incomparable Leader”). Sunday, May 18 • 11:00am-1:00pm • TBD in NYC • Course 13291 • $80
www.ScarsdaleAdultSchool.org • (914) 723-2325
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