ENGLEWOOD, N.J.—Elizabeth Halverstam has devoted much of her life to arts education and community service. Raised in London, she came to New York aboard Cunard’s RMS Queen Mary in 1966, following her boyfriend, John, an anesthesiologist who had planned to stay for three weeks but remained. After a year of exchanging aerogrammes, she joined him. They married in 1967, lived in Manhattan for seven years and moved to Tenafly in 1974.
Halverstam joined Englewood-based Arts Horizons as a three-hour-a-week volunteer in 1986. She later became acting executive director and was
formally named executive director in 2010. She retired in 2014.
She subsequently served five years as a co-president of the National Council of Jewish Women Bergen County Section and received its Woman of the Section Award in 2022. In 2025, she volunteered as a Reading Buddy with Bergen READS, a Bergen Volunteers literacy program that closed in June.
Halverstam moved to Fort Lee in 2022. She has two sons, a daughter and seven grandchildren.
Hillary Viders: What kind of work did you do at the United Nations?
Elizabeth Halverstam: I worked in the Examinations and Language Training Dept., which oversaw the translators and interpreters at the UN and also offered a wide selection of classes in several different languages.
HV: How did you become involved with Arts Horizons?
EH: I found the position through the Bergen Volunteer Bureau (now Bergen Volunteers, of Paramus).
HV: What arts education or performance experience did you bring to the position?
EH: The arts are included in a British education. I also appeared in many plays.
HV: You met Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother when you were 10. What do you remember about the occasion?
EH: It was a brief photo op as she shook hands with several members of the cast of the play, but I was excited and proud that it happened.
HV: What do you consider some of the National Council of Jewish Women Bergen County Section’s most important accomplishments?
EH: National Council of Jewish Women Bergen County Section was founded 103 years ago. It improves the lives of women, children and families by partnering with 14 nonsectarian Bergen County community service programs, bringing important services to the community through initiatives that feed the hungry, empower women and encourage children to reach their potential. It makes its voice heard in Bergen County and beyond by advocating on such issues as reproductive rights, gender equity in the U.S. and Israel, voting rights and a hate- and violence-free society.
HV: Besides your mother, have you had other role models who inspired your dedication to community service?
EH: My great friend, Carole Benson, who passed away in September 2025, was a passionate advocate for those less fortunate than herself and for Israel.
HV: Given the complex problems society faces, do you believe one person can make a difference?
EH: Yes, I definitely do! Whether it’s making a difference in the lives of women, children and families, or enhancing the life of a child through the power of the arts or the gift of literacy, I believe that one person can impact the lives of others, one building block at a time.