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Celebrating 50 Years of Landmark Victories
Special thanks to the sponsors of the event!
Silver Sponsors
Harriet, Andy & Audrey Feiner, Don Shaffer, Debbie & Naji Almontaser and Hofstra University.
Bronze Sponsors
Andrea Libresco & Michael D’Innocenzo, Barbara & Donald Shack, Barbara & James Bernstein, Charlotte Koons, E. Christopher Murray, Ervin & Edith Drake, Martha & Stephen Offerman, Omar Chaudhry, Parveen Chopra, Roy Klein, Shore Family Foundation, Inc. and Wayne Outten.
The Nassau County Chapter’s 50th Anniversary Gala was a smashing success!
More than 100 members and supporters attended the Gala, held Sunday, Sept. 25 at the Jolly Fisherman Restaurant in Roslyn.
To celebrate 50 years of defending civil liberties, the chapter honored some of our earliest champions of liberty.
We honored our two “Supreme” attorneys who successfully challenged unconstitutional policies all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court:
• William Butler, the attorney who took Herricks Union Free School District to court over a mandatory school prayer and led the chapter to its first victory in the 1962 case Engel v. Vitale and
• Alan Levine, who as an NYCLU staff attorney in the 1980s successfully challenged the Island Trees Union Free School District’s banning of books from a school library in Pico v. Island Trees.
We also honored
• Don Shaffer, our founder, whose tireless dedication and passion for civil liberties got this chapter started and has kept it going all these years, and
• Barbara Shack, our first chapter director, who served as director for 4 years and then went on to serve in many positions in the NYCLU, including legislative director.
The Gala is the chapter's annual fundraiser.
The Nassau County Chapter held its first September Party in 1961. A year later, the chapter clinched the landmark Supreme Court victory in Engel v. Vitale, which banned compulsory prayer in public schools. As former ACLU and NYCLU director Ira Glasser used to say, "Every Supreme Court ruling starts in some small town."
Over the past 50 years, we have continued to defend and promote the fundamental principles and values embodied in the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution, and the New York State Constitution, including freedom of speech and religion, and the right to privacy, equality and due process of law for all residents of Nassau County.
Chapter Director Samantha Fredrickson, honorees William Butler, Alan Levine, Don Shaffer and Chapter President Roy Klein.
NYCLU Nassau Chapter founders Don Shaffer and Don Parker.
From right to left, Nassau Board Members Tony Spizuoco, Omar Chaudhry and his wife Samiyah.
Nassau Board member Chris Murray (center) with Gala guests.
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