Class Correspondent

This has been a special year for our family. In April 2014, my husband, Irwin, and I attended his 40th Duke Law School reunion. Then, in June, he joined me at our Brandeis Reunion, which was truly my favorite of the eight I have attended. I enjoyed catching up with friends and classmates. The highlight of the summer was the wedding of our daughter, Tracy, to Jon Gretarsson on July 5 in Sonoma, Calif. The ceremony took place at a winery, and it was a wonderful celebration of their love. Jon’s relatives performed two Icelandic songs at the reception. It is great hearing from all of you. Please keep those Class Notes coming.

Kathie Abrams writes, “I have been an art teacher for 11 years and currently teach elementary students. I’m married to Jeremy Garber, a government attorney. We have three lovely daughters, ages 24, 22 and 20, and live in South Orange, N.J. The Reunion in June was delightful; I stayed in the ‘new’ Ridgewood dorms. To my surprised delight, our daughter Judith is pursuing a master’s in public policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.” Stuart Appelbaum has served as president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union since 1998. He is also an international vice president and member of the executive board at the 1.4 million-member United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, and president of the Jewish Labor Committee. Marian Bass spent Reunion weekend with Jane Kaufman and Dale Morse, P’00. “We were happy to reconnect with our fourth apartment-mate from senior year, Kathie Abrams,” she reports. Susan Feigenbaum and Jay Pepose ’75, MA’75, P’08, are proud to announce that their Brandeis legacy will continue with daughter Morissa’s transfer to Brandeis for her undergraduate studies. She is the second of their offspring to attend Brandeis; their son David ’08 now works for CBS in New York City. In 2014, Susan accepted an invitation to join the Economics Advisory Board at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her PhD-granting alma mater. Don Friedman and Ilene Miller celebrated the birth of their first grandchild on May 24, 2014. Jack (Gilberg) Gilron, P’09, reports that his older son, Roee ’09, married Tiffany Roberts ’10 on June 26, 2014, at Derech Eretz, near Bet Shemesh, in Israel. Roee is working on his doctorate in neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, and Tiffany writes marketing copy for Wix, a company that provides tools to help build websites. At Reunion, Michael Goldenkranz enjoyed visiting with his classmates, some of whom are still among his closest friends. In May 2014, he saw Kenny Raskin performing an original mime show at the Seattle Moisture Festival, and later hiked Oregon’s Mount Hood with Arnie Freedman and Lori Kahn Freedman ’76. Kathryn Hellerstein and her husband, David Stern, celebrated their daughter Rebecca’s wedding in June 2014, the same month their son Jonah’s film “Swollen Feet” premiered at the New York City International Film Festival. Kathryn’s book “A Question of Tradition: Women Poets in Yiddish, 1586-1987” was published in July. Bob Jaffe had three films circulating in various film festivals during summer 2014: “Imagine I’m Beautiful,” in which he plays a psychiatrist; “Water Dogs,” a short in which he stars as a homeless man who becomes the most celebrated hot-dog vendor in NYC; and “The Offering,” a short supernatural thriller. Ellen Jaffe-Gill, newly ordained as a rabbi by Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, has moved with her husband, Spencer Gill, to Virginia Beach, Va., where she is establishing herself as a freelance life-cycle officiant and Jewish learning facilitator. She explains, “Objective: Outreach to the unaffiliated. I’m on to new adventures below the Mason-Dixon line.” Hal Karas reports, “Our son, Steve, visited us over the Fourth of July, together with his girlfriend (now his fiancée). He was bringing her home to ‘meet the parents’ for the first time. It was her first trip to the United States, and we enjoyed seeing our blessings here in a new light.” Dan Klein writes, “It was wonderful seeing so many people at the Reunion and being able to renew special old acquaintances. Retirement has been good, but no moss is growing under me. I am doing volunteer marketing work for Indian Hill Music and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Research Fund, and am ritual chair for my synagogue. In addition, we are looking forward to our daughter Lauren’s wedding to Gabby, which will bless us with a terrific new daughter-in-law. Lauren and Gabby are social workers in Chicago. Our other daughter, Ariel, manages the Edgar Modern art gallery in England. I’m playing a lot of golf. My wife of 37 years, Shelley, and I are planning a trip to Cuba in January 2015.” Michael Krasnow had the pleasure of serving as justice of the peace at his son’s wedding on the porch of his home in Vermont. “I took a photo moments after Darif married Sally Elliott on July 10, 2014,” he writes. “If you would like to see it, I have posted it on B Connect. Yes, they are as happy as they look. My wife, Sumru; our younger son, Raphael; and I are excited to have Sally join our family. If anyone would like to have a Vermont wedding, I would be happy to help — at no charge.” Producer Cathy Morris Chernoff won three Tony Awards in 2014: “All the Way” was named Best Play, and “The Bridges of Madison County” won for Best Music and Best Orchestration. Son Marc graduated from California Institute of the Arts. Tom Phillips recently finished scoring “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,” a two-hour PBS “Independent Lens” documentary, written and directed by Stanley Nelson. The show will be broadcast in 2015. Tom is now scoring a two-hour PBS “American Experience” documentary on the assassination of President James Garfield, which will also be broadcast in 2015. Sandra Lee Pinel was selected for the third cohort of 20 Fulbright NEXUS fellows from North and South America, who will work collaboratively on applied interdisciplinary research to address climate change and adaptation strategies in the Western Hemisphere. Sandra credits her undergraduate Sachar research grant for her continued interest in the Andes and cultural identity. Paula Rabinowitz published two books, “Fashioning the Nineteenth Century,” the third volume of the series “Habits of Being,” which she co-edits, and “American Pulp: How Paperbacks Brought Modernism to Main Street.” In addition, she was named editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Literature, a recently launched online project. Betsy Sarason Pfau reports, “On July 18, 2014, in New York City, Dan ’73 and I were proud parents as our son David defended his thesis, ‘Learning Structure in Time Series for Neuroscience and Beyond,’ at Columbia and became ‘Dr. Pfau.’ Former Brandeis professor Larry Abbot was on David’s defense committee, and we had a nice chat with him at the department reception afterward.” Stephen Simons, MA’76, PhD’02, wrote “Benjamin Wolf Rosoff: The Messiah of Brownsville.” He works as a freelancer in Portland, Maine, translating documents from Yiddish to English. Stephen, known by his Hebrew name, Shimon, finally has the opportunity to take late Brandeis professor Chaim Brandwein’s advice: “Immerse yourself in literary endeavors.” Henry Stancato, a lawyer at Stancato Tragge Wells in Detroit for more than 35 years, was named to the newly formed Michigan Wildlife Council by Gov. Rick Snyder. For the second consecutive year, Bruce Stark was chosen by Philadelphia magazine as a top doctor in the field of ophthalmology. Gary Zellerbach works as a professional guitarist in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is featured on flutist Gerald Beckett’s latest album, “The Messenger,” which rose to No. 12 on the national jazz charts in July 2014.

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