_________________ FREEPORT _________________
HERALD $1.00
SPRING FORWARD at 2 a.m. on Sunday. Remember to change your smoke detector batteries.
Historical Society reopens in-person
Freeport author hosts book event
Herald welcomes new top editor
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Vol. 87 No. 11
MARCH 10 - 16, 2022
OBITUARY
Artist, former editor Andrea Halbfinger dies affairs director for the Westchester County Department of Health. William Halbfinger died Andrea Halbfinger, an artist in 1999. wh o w a s o n c e a Halbfing er was reporter and editor bor n Andrea Sue for the Herald ComKanner on Feb. 17, munity Newspapers, 1941, in Brooklyn, the died at her home in first child of S. Lee Manhattan on March and Elsie (Frumkin) 1. She was 81. Kanner. She was a She had been batdedicated artist who tling pancreatic canproduced more than cer and Parkinson’s 60 years of paintings disease, said her son, and drawings. She David Halbfinger. Andrea Halbfinger started painting when Halbfinger worked she was a student at for the Herald newsBennington College papers in and, according to her son David, the 1990s, continued her artwork in the c o v e r i n g overheated basement of the famV a l l e y ily home in Freeport. Stream From 1971 until 2000, she a n d N a s - painted vividly colored acrylics sau County. and oils with bold, expressive She and shapes on large canvases she h e r h u s - stretched herself. These images b a n d , M . represented “an ordering of W i l l i a m chaos,” she wrote in one stateHalbfinger, ment accompanying an exhibir a i s e d tion of her work. their two Art was not her only passion. c h i l d r e n , After she graduated from BenDavid and nington in 1962, her father urged Caren, in her to pursue a more practical F ree por t. career. She earned an M.S. in D av i d i s journalism from Columbia in n o w t h e 1963, and also met and married p o l i t i c s her husband, with whom she editor for moved to Washington, D.C. the New In 1964, when the art critic for Y o r k the Washington Post went out on T i m e s . maternity leave, Halbfinger, then Caren is Continued on page 14 the public
By REINE BETHANY rbethany@liherald.com
Reine Bethany/Herald
JoSHuA lEVITT lEd his class in a lively discussion of the historical meaning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, offering some perspective on global relations between World Wars I and II.
Freeport educator honored
Joshua Levitt named Distinguished Teacher By REINE BETHANY rbethany@liherald.com
Joshua Levitt of Freeport High School School has been named a Distinguished Teacher of 2022 by the Harvard Club of Long Island. Levitt, 40, who lives with his wife and two children in Baldwin, will be honored at a virtual awards ceremony on April 2, along with seven other teachers from across Long Island. “Dedicated teachers like
Mr. Levitt inspire Long Island students to excel, to become passionate about learning, and to recognize the value of hard work,” Dr. Judith Esterquest, chair of the Distinguished Teacher Selection Committee, stated in a news release. Levitt has taught Adanced Placement Government and AP U.S. History at Freeport High since 2006 and has served as chairman of the Social Studies Department for the past five years. As the stu-
dent gover nment faculty adviser, he oversees the students’ monthly addresses to the Freeport Board of Education, their elections of class officers, and their leadership on community initiatives. Under Levitt’s guidance, the Freeport High School student government has been featured in Newsday four times for its charitable efforts, and its “Breaking Borders Program” with Syosset High School was featured in a Continued on page 4