Brandeis Magazine

Ellen Abraham, P’04, writes, “After years of being an elderly-services social worker, I am now taking care of my 95-year-old mother in Washington, D.C.” Linda Coppleson has retired after almost 25 years teaching Tanakh and Jewish history at Golda Och Academy, in West Orange, New Jersey. She now spends her time writing torah as a soferet (Jewish ritual scribe), and is working on writing her third Sefer Torah. She also restores and repairs older scrolls, and teaches classes on how a torah is created. She and her husband, Victor, have been married for 41 years, and have two children and two grandchildren. Tony Dunbar published “Night Watchman,” the eighth novel in his mystery series featuring New Orleans lawyer Tubby Dubonnet. Tony is at work on the next in the series during his time off from his other job as a banking partner at Chaffe McCall, Louisiana’s oldest law firm. In 2015, Sarada (Phyllis) Winson George, P’00, and her husband, Craig, traveled to Bulgaria with daughter Erica ’00 to attend folk festivals. Their son, Daniel, and his wife, Holly, had a baby boy. Mark Hamburgh, P’04, P’07, is co-chair of the trusts and estates section of the New York County Lawyers’ Association. His son, Jeremy ’04, had his first child on Sept. 17, 2015. His daughter, Michelle ’07, was married on Oct. 11, 2015. Nancy (Katzen) Kaufman enjoys living on New York City’s Upper West Side, 18 blocks from her two grandchildren, Olivia and Zoe. Nancy serves as CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women. Keena Keel wrote “Piano, How Are You! A Guide to Understand, Evaluate and Maintain Your Piano,” a book featured in the January issue of Piano Technicians Journal. At Brandeis, Keena was known as Barbara. Randy Kovacs is an adjunct associate professor of communication at City University of New York. Her principal areas of interest are international public relations/activism, corporate social responsibility, ethics, health communication and popular culture. She travels frequently for conferences and research, but her favorite journeys are to her sons, daughters and grandchildren. In her spare time, she organizes community events, writes, walks along the shore, dances and streams classical music virtually nonstop, in reverse order of frequency. Ruth Sheri Liberman has spent her life teaching, directing, designing and producing theater. She is in her 34th year as associate professor of theater and speech at SUNY Adirondack. She has directed/designed more than 50 productions and has won the New York State Chancellor’s Award twice — for research and creativity (2007), and for teaching (2012). When not at the theater, she lives on her organic farm in the foothills of the Adirondacks in the company of her husband, animals and gardens. She has two grown sons. Marian and Michael Litt­man’s son, Eric, married Kacey Centrella. Eric is a third-year veterinary student at Tufts, and Kacey teaches biology at Medford High School. They met while working with marine animals at Hawaii’s Sea Life Park. Jeff Marsel retired from Chaparral Energy, an Oklahoma City oil and gas company, where he was an accounting manager for 15 years. He is enjoying his free time, which he is devoting to travel; relaxation; and a startup company, JWF Foods. The company, which he formed with his wife, Patti, develops and distributes specialty sauces. Jeff has two sons: Charlie, a rock/jazz/blues drummer, and Philip, a certified actuary and student at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Ellen Stavitsky is art department chair at the Dalton School, where she has taught for the past 18 years. She is a working artist whose pieces are included in numerous public and private collections. Ellen and her husband, Lee, live in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood. Their two children work in the sports world, Ben at ESPN and Jonathan at the NBA. Jane Sutton authored two new children’s books, “What’s Up With This Chicken?” and another that the buyer can personalize with a child’s name, gender, hair color and so on, to create a unique rhyming Hanukkah story. Jordan Tannenbaum, who serves as chief development officer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, attended the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Ausch­witz. Although he retired from the U.S. Army Reserve in 2010, he continues to assist the military by teaching courses in cultural resource management four times a year. His daughter Rebecca was married on Oct. 10, 2015. Joel Wagman is counsel at Herrick, Feinstein in New York, where he specializes in private-company mergers and acquisitions, and other transactional law matters. He lives in Hartsdale, New York, with his wife, Michelle, and sons Noah and Ellis. Joel is also executive vice president of Scarsdale Synagogue Temples Tremont and Emanu-El. Since 2011, Avi Winokur has been the rabbi at Society Hill Synagogue, an independent semi-Conservative, semi-Reconstructionist congregation in Philadelphia. The Forward named him one of America’s most inspiring rabbis. Avi has served on the board of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College for 20 years.