Friday, September 26, 2025
10:00 am to 11:30 am
Scarsdale Public Library, Scott Room
Topic: Village Projects and Priorities
Featured Guests: Village Manager Alex Marshall, Mayor Justin Arest, Deputy Mayor Dara Gruenberg, and Village Trustee Jason Kofman

Event is free and open to the public (league membership not required).
Light refreshments will be provided.

The annual Fall Membership Coffee will include a discussion of upcoming Village projects and priorities. Featured speakers will be Village Manager Alex Marshall, Mayor Justin Arest, Deputy Mayor Dara Gruenberg, and Trustee Jason Kofman, who will participate in a Q&A session following their presentation. Mix and mingle and learn about opportunities to get involved in the League!

Topic: The State of Democracy
Speaker: Congressman George Latimer*
Friday, May 9, 2025
10:30 am to 2 pm
(luncheon and speaker portion of event begins at noon)
Scarsdale Golf Club
Tickets are $60/adult or $30/student
(adult price increases by $10 after Friday, May 2, 2025)

*George Latimer, a third generation Westchester native, attended Mount Vernon public schools, graduated with a B.A. from Fordham University in the Bronx in 1974 and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from New York University’s Wagner School in 1976. His public service career began in 1987 on the Rye City Council. In 1991, he was elected to the Westchester County Board of Legislators, where he served for 13 years. In 2004, he was elected to the NYS Assembly, where he authored more than 20 new laws. Latimer was then elected to the NYS Senate in 2012, representing the 37th District.

Latimer took office as Westchester County Executive in January 2018 as the ninth County Executive. He was then re-elected to a second term as County Executive in November 2021, never losing an election after over three decades in public office. During his tenure as County Executive, Latimer upheld an impressive record of achievements, including three consecutive County property tax cuts and credit rating stabilization. He was also responsible for bringing several long-standing infrastructure projects to fruition, including the historic Elijah J. Miller House, Sprain Ridge Pool, New Rochelle Family Court and the North and South County Trailways. Latimer also worked to electrify the County’s Bee-Line Bus Fleet and modernize all County facilities for a green future.

In November 2024, Latimer was elected to represent Congressional District 16 in the U.S. House of Representatives and began serving his two-year term in January 2025.

Follow this link to view Annual Meeting Agenda.

Online luncheon ticket sales will close on Thursday, May 8, 2025. Walk-ins are welcome but please RSVP to Anne Lyons in advance and bring cash or a check payable to League of Women Voters of Scarsdale in the sum of $70/ticket (write Annual Meeting luncheon in memo line along with the names of attendees). Credit cards are not accepted.

Spring Book Selection: Master Slave Husband Wife (2023)
by Ilyon Woo
Friday, April 25, 2025
12 pm to 1:30 pm
Private Home in Scarsdale

Please RSVP to let us know you will be participating and to be notified of the address.

Winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine and Oprah Daily, this biography is about Ellen and William Craft, “an enslaved couple who escaped from Georgia in 1848, with light-skinned Ellen disguised as a disabled white gentleman and William as her manservant, exploiting assumptions about race, class and disability to hide in public on their journey to the North, where they became famous abolitionists while evading bounty hunters.” — The Pulitzer Prizes 

Bronx River Books in Scarsdale Village is offering a 10% discount on the purchase of the book when you mention you are participating in the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale Book Club.

Saturday, January 25, 2025
5 pm to 7 pm
Graciously hosted by
Janice and Ira Starr
65 Church Lane
Scarsdale, NY 10583

Our in-person winter social event returns! All are welcome to enjoy a fun and festive evening with good food and League friends.

Saturday, September 21, 2024
2 pm to 4 pm
Scarsdale Public Library, Scott Room
Film Screening and Discussion with the Filmmakers of Undivide Us
Moderator: Valerie Abrahams, Former Editor-in-Chief of the Scarsdale Inquirer

Event is free and open to the public (league membership not required).
Light refreshments will be provided.
Registration is required.

The fall membership event, co-sponsored by Scarsdale Public Library, is a film screening and discussion with the filmmakers of the documentary Undivide Us, in a call for healthy national discourse during the 2024 national elections and beyond. Undivide Us challenges the idea that citizens who disagree are incapable of civil conversation and demonstrates the truth that, even in our differences, the American experiment is still alive and well. Rather than letting partisan divides fester, the documentary reminds us that our neighbors and fellow Americans can be a source of strength and aid: well-meaning, helpful in times of need, and dedicated to the success of the country.

Please add your name to the wait list if registration is full.

Topic: Local News, Community, and Democracy
Speaker: Jon Elsen*
Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of the Rye Record
Friday, May 3, 2024
10:30 am to 2 pm
(luncheon and speaker portion of event begins at noon)
Scarsdale Golf Club
Tickets are $50/adult or $30/student
(adult price increases by $5 after April 29, 2024)

*Jon Elsen has served as an editor at The New York Times and New York Post, and was a strategic communications advisor. Earlier in his career, Elsen was a reporter at several newspapers, including the Hartford Courant and the Journal Inquirer, both in Connecticut. He graduated from Columbia University, where he was a history and political science major and editor of the student newspaper. He grew up in Scarsdale and Manhattan.

Follow this link to view Annual Meeting Agenda.

Online luncheon ticket sales will close on Thursday, May 2, 2024. Walk-ins are welcome but please RSVP to Anne Lyons in advance and bring cash or a check payable to League of Women Voters of Scarsdale in the sum of $55/ticket (write Annual Meeting luncheon in memo line along with the names of attendees). Credit cards are not accepted.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BOOK DISCUSSION HAS BEEN POSTPONED. THOSE WHO COMPLETE THE RSVP WILL BE NOTIFIED OF THE NEW DATE ONCE IT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED.

Spring Book Selection: North Woods (2023)
by Daniel Mason
Sunday, April 14, 2024
RESCHEDULING IN PROCESS
7 pm to 8:30 pm
Private Home in Scarsdale

Please RSVP to let us know you will be participating and to be notified of the address.

Named by The New York Times as one of the ten best books of 2023, this novel follows the inhabitants of a single house in western Massachusetts over the course of several centuries, beginning with a runaway Puritan couple all the way up to inhabitants from the present day. The novel “is a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic.” (Washington Post book review, 9/13/23).According to Goodreads, the book “shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment and to one another, across time, language and space.” 

Bronx River Books in Scarsdale Village is offering a 10% discount on the purchase of the book when you mention you are participating in the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale Book Club.

Saturday, January 27, 2024
5 pm to 7 pm
Graciously hosted by
Janice and Ira Starr
65 Church Lane
Scarsdale, NY 10583

Our in-person winter social event returns! All are welcome to enjoy a fun and festive evening with good food and League friends.

Advocacy to Improve the Lives of Women in Westchester
Speaker: Colleen R. Brathwaite
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
10 am to 11:30 am
Scarsdale Public Library, Scott Room

Event is free of charge and open to the public (league membership not required). Light breakfast food will be available. Please RSVP to help us predict attendance.

Colleen R. Brathwaite will speak on the mission and work of Westchester Women’s Agenda (WWA), the leading advocacy group working to improve the lives of women in Westchester County. Brathwaite will also discuss her journey as an activist and what we can do collectively to drive change.

Colleen R. Brathwaite is currently chair of Westchester Women’s Agenda (WWA), the leading advocacy organization working to improve the lives of women in Westchester County by advancing racial, economic and social equity and justice. She has advocated for legislation and policies in Westchester County and New York State government to address issues as diverse as domestic violence prevention, immigrant rights, healthcare, education and childcare funding, elder services and economic empowerment. Brathwaite co-founded Westchester Racial Equity Collaborative, which seeks to bring together all community groups focused on antiracism work in the region. Brathwaite’s recent work has been featured in print media and on local television, including News12 Westchester and Westchester Magazine. She is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism with a Master of Science degree and holds a B.A. in English and African-American Studies from Brandeis University.

Fall Book Selection: Small Things Like These (2021) (2022)
by Claire Keegan
Sunday, October 22, 2023
7 pm to 8:30 pm
Private Home in Scarsdale

Please RSVP to let us know you will be participating and to be notified of the address.

Shortlisted for 2022 Booker Prize, Small Things Like These tells the tale of an Irish coal merchant living in a small Irish town, who is forced to confront the horror of Ireland’s Magdalene laundries. “From the elements of this simple existence in an inconsequential town, Keegan has carved out a profoundly moving and universal story. There’s nothing preachy here, just the strange joy and anxiety of firmly resisting cruelty.” Washington Post Review, 12/7/21. Although short (128 pages!), this beautifully told story presents numerous opportunities for discussion both about an individual’s conscience and the responsibility of an entire community.  

Bronx River Books in Scarsdale Village is offering a 10% discount on the purchase of the book when you mention you are participating in the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale Book Club.

Monday, September 18, 2023
9:30 am to 11 am
Outdoors under the dining tent on Spencer Place in Scarsdale Village
Guest Speaker: Mayor Justin Arest

All current and prospective members are welcome for coffee and conversation to learn about the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale. Mayor Arest will speak about issues relevant to Scarsdale residents, including infrastructure work, safety concerns, housing, updates on the pool renovation, and the proposed pickleball courts, with time available for Q&A.

Topic: Democracy and Equal Rights after Dobbs
Speaker: Donna Lieberman*
Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union
Friday, May 5, 2023
10:30 am to 2 pm
Scarsdale Golf Club

*Donna Lieberman has been executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union since December 2001. Under her leadership, the NYCLU has expanded the scope and depth of its work, using litigation, advocacy, and state-wide organizing to promote civil rights and civil liberties. Among the NYCLU’s many accomplishments during her tenure are protecting the right to counsel, reforming stop and frisk and solitary confinement, repealing the 50a secrecy law for law enforcement, representing Edie Windsor to win marriage equality, expanding abortion rights, winning voting rights in East Ramapo school board elections, overhauling conditions in the psychiatric emergency rooms in Kings County Hospital Center, and founding the Education Policy Center and the Teen Activist Program. 

The NYCLU is widely recognized as the state’s leading voice for freedom, justice, and equality, advocating for those whose rights and liberties have been denied. 

Lieberman began her public interest legal career as a criminal defense lawyer in the South Bronx office of the Legal Aid Society, and she later served as executive director of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys. For a decade, she served on the faculty of Urban Legal Studies Program at City College. She joined the NYCLU in 1989 and was the founding director of its Reproductive Rights project.

Follow this link to view Annual Meeting Agenda.

Online luncheon ticket sales will close on Thursday, May 4, 2023. Walk-ins are welcome but please RSVP to Anne Lyons in advance and bring cash or a check payable to League of Women Voters of Scarsdale in the sum of $55/ticket (write Annual Meeting luncheon in memo line along with the names of attendees). Credit cards are not accepted.

Dinners with Ruth:
A Memoir on the Power of Friendships (2022)
by Nina Totenberg
Sunday, April 23, 2023
7 pm to 8:30 pm
Private Home in Scarsdale

Please RSVP to let us know you will be participating and to be notified of the address.

Journalist Nina Totenberg reflects on her relationships with family and prominent friends that include Ruth Bader Ginsburg, cherished NPR colleagues Cokie Roberts and Linda Wertheimer, and Supreme Court Justices Lewis Powell, and Antonin Scalia. The book is an intimate account of women who paved the way for future generations by tearing down professional and legal barriers and transformed the workplace. 

Bronx River Books in Scarsdale Village is offering a 10% discount on the purchase of the book when you mention you are participating in the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale Book Club.

About the author: Nina Totenberg is NPR’s award-winning legal affairs correspondent. She appears on NPR’s critically acclaimed news magazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition, and on NPR podcasts, including The NPR Politics Podcast and its series, The Docket. Totenberg’s Supreme Court and legal coverage has won her every major journalism award in broadcasting. Recognized seven times by the American Bar Association for continued excellence in legal reporting, she has received more than two dozen honorary degrees. A frequent TV contributor, she writes for major newspapers, magazines, and law reviews.

Saturday, January 28, 2023
5 pm to 7 pm
Graciously hosted by
Janice and Ira Starr
65 Church Lane
Scarsdale, NY 10583

Our in-person winter social event returns! All are welcome to enjoy a fun and festive evening with good food and League friends.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
Speakers: Rabia Muqaddam and Laurie Bertram Roberts
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
9:15 am to 11:45 am
Scarsdale Public Library, Scott Room

Event is free of charge and will be a morning coffee instead of a luncheon. Please RSVP to help us predict attendance.

Rabia Muqaddam and Laurie Bertram Roberts will be discussing their work and the impact of the recent Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on women’s access to healthcare.

Muqaddam is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, headquartered in New York, where she has worked since 2017. She is lead counsel in the challenges to the abortion bans and restrictions passed by the Oklahoma legislature in 2021 and 2022. She previously worked as a litigation associate at Dechert LLP. Muqaddam holds a J.D. from Cornell Law School, where she was a president of the Cornell Law Students for Reproductive Justice, an online editor for the Cornell Law Review, and a participant in the LGBT Clinical programs. She also holds a B.A. from Cornell University.

Laurie Bertram Roberts is the co-founder and Executive Director of Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund (MRFF), a reproductive justice organization based in Jackson, Mississippi. MRFF provides financial assistance and practical support to persons seeking abortions, as well as free emergency contraception and community based comprehensive sex education to mitigate governmental restrictions and economic limitations that adversely impact people of low income – and especially those who are Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). Bertram Roberts is a writer and activist whose experience dates to the early 2000s with Head Start advocacy, parent organizing, and voter education, utilizing years of diverse leadership and activism to empower communities marginalized by their gender, race, poverty, disability, and/or sexuality.

Monday, September 19, 2022
9:30 am to 11 am
Outdoors under the dining tent on Spencer Place in Scarsdale Village

All current and prospective members are welcome for coffee and conversation to learn about the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale. Special guest Lauren Miller, counsel in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program where she focuses on voting rights and elections, will speak on The January 6 Hearings and the Big Lie’s Ongoing Threats to our Democracy. Miller will discuss how false claims about the 2020 election have prompted the passage of anti-voter laws and mistrust in the electoral process.

Topic: The Future of Voting Rights: Current Battles and Where We Go from Here
Speaker: Jerika L. Richardson*
Friday, May 6, 2022
10:45 am** to 2 pm (please note: new start time)
Scarsdale Golf Club
Outdoor Terrace to the Right of the Main Entrance

Updated 5/5/22: Online luncheon ticket sales are now closed. Walk-ins are welcome but please RSVP to Anne Lyons in advance and bring cash or a check payable to League of Women Voters of Scarsdale in the sum of $55/ticket (write FFT luncheon in memo line along with the names of attendees). Credit cards are not accepted.

*Jerika L. Richardson is Senior Vice President for Equitable Justice & Strategic Initiatives at the National Urban League. She leads the organization’s advocacy, public education, and strategic work on civic engagement, police reform, criminal justice reform, and other justice related areas. Previously, Ms. Richardson was Deputy Executive Director and the Senior Advisor & Secretary to the Board for the nation’s largest independent police oversight agency, the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board.

She has also served as Chief of Staff in the Office of the Counsel to the Mayor of New York City and Special Advisor to the Mayor for media relations, criminal justice, and public safety planning. Before working in City Hall, Ms. Richardson was the Senior Spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York and a Field Producer & Off-Air Reporter for ABC News. She holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. in English from Spelman College.

Follow this link to view Annual Meeting Agenda.

The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights
Sunday, April 3, 2022
3 pm to 5 pm
Scarsdale Public Library
Please RSVP (requested for planning purposes)

In the 1850s, Harriet Tubman, strategically brilliant and uncannily prescient, rescued some seventy enslaved people from Maryland’s Eastern Shore and shepherded them north along the underground railroad. One of her regular stops was Auburn, New York, where she entrusted passengers to Martha Coffin Wright, a Quaker mother of seven, and Frances A. Seward, the wife of William H. Seward, who served over the years as governor, senator, and secretary of state under Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, Tubman worked for the Union Army in South Carolina as a nurse and spy, and took part in a spectacular river raid in which she helped to liberate 750 slaves from several rice plantations.

Wright, a “dangerous woman” in the eyes of her neighbors, worked side by side with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to organize women’s rights and anti-slavery conventions across New York State, braving hecklers and mobs when she spoke. Frances Seward, the most conventional of the three friends, hid her radicalism in public, while privately acting as a political adviser to her husband, pressing him to persuade President Lincoln to move immediately on emancipation.

The Agitators opens in the 1820s, when Tubman is enslaved and Wright and Seward are young homemakers bound by law and tradition, and ends after the war. Many of the most prominent figures of the era—Lincoln, William H. Seward, Frederick Douglass, Daniel Webster, Charles Sumner, John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison—are seen through the discerning eyes of the protagonists. So are the most explosive political debates: about the civil rights of African Americans and women, about the enlistment of Black troops, and about opposing interpretations of the Constitution.

Through richly detailed letters from the time and exhaustive research, Wickenden traces the second American revolution these women fought to bring about, the toll it took on their families, and its lasting effects on the country. Riveting and profoundly relevant to our own time, The Agitators brings a vibrant, original voice to this transformative period in our history.

The paperback editions of The Agitators and of Nothing Daunted are available for purchase at Bronx River Books. For phone, email, and in-store purchases, mention LWVS to receive a 10% discount.

*Dorothy Wickenden is the author of Nothing Daunted and The Agitators and has been the executive editor of The New Yorker since January 1996. She also writes for the magazine and is the moderator of its weekly podcast The Political Scene. A former Nieman Fellow at Harvard, Wickenden was national affairs editor at Newsweek from 1993-1995, and before that was the longtime executive editor at The New Republic. She lives with her husband in Westchester, New York.