For ten years (1975-1985) Sidney Offit and Jersey City State professor of political geography, Martin Abend, engaged in spontaneous debate on the 10 o'clock news, WNEW Ch 5 New York. Abend, an avowed conservative, and Offit, the avowed liberal, took on many of the social, political, and economic issues of the day in their nearly 1000 debates. Offits's positions - advocacy of affirmative action, opposition to capital punishment, his defense of a woman's right to choose - evoked spirited responses from the audiences. The debates were re-introduced briefly in 1992 on Ch 11 WPIX , New York. Although ideologically opposed, the two men joined together in charitable efforts. In 1983, the Legislature of the State of New York passed a resolution commending Abend and Offit for their joint support of the Aishel Avraham Residential Health Facility in Brooklyn, NY.

In the series are notes, correspondence, publicity, clippings, a listing of topics for debate, typescript of commentaries, and photographs. Of interest in the series are letters received from viewers who responded both negatively and positively to Offit's liberal viewpoints. Many of the debates were videotaped, and copies of the Abend/Offit encounters 1979-1982 are part of the series. In 1992, Offit donated a series of the taped debates to the Museum of Television & Radio in New York City.