Phyllis Berman

Phyllis Ocean Berman (born 1942) is a co-founder of the Riverside Language Program in New York City for adult immigrants and refugees. Opening in 1979, she traveled from her home in Mount Airy, Philadelphia via Amtrak to the school in New York City so that newly arrived immigrants could receive an intensive English-language education. She was its director until her retirement in 2016. She is a teacher and prayer leader in the Jewish Renewal movement as well as a political activist who writes about and has been arrested for non-violently protesting for immigrant rights.