Brandeis Magazine

Matt (Brown) Brookner, Heller MA/MPP’13, married Sara Bookin-Weiner on Oct. 11, 2015, in Somerville, Massachusetts. A total of 29 Brandeis alumni were in attendance. Former Brandeis basketball star Joe Coppens was inducted into the Rockland (Massachusetts) High School Hall of Fame. He served as captain of Rockland’s 2004 state-championship basketball team and finished his career with more than 1,000 points. Kira Glassman is a psychotherapist working with adults at Cambridge Health Alliance. She recently completed a two-year fellowship in psychodynamic psychotherapy through Harvard Medical School. As they have every year since sophomore year, Whitney Gray and members of the Gordon 3 hall gathered for Friendsgiving in fall 2015. Sarah Klein, Becky Peters, Elizabeth Ginsburg, Rachel Gold and Mat Schutzer joined Whitney at the 11th annual get-together, held in Washington, D.C. Whitney, who lives in the District, is a communications coordinator at CropLife America, focusing on media relations and communications campaigns. She and Rob Bailer will be married during Labor Day weekend this year. Ashley Ruskiewicz Hinds was married in Hawaii to a Boston University graduate whom she met in Los Angeles. She has started an online marketing, consulting and copywriting business in the Boston area. Tamar Jacobson, MA’09, Heller MBA/MA’11, is community-engagement coordinator at public broadcasting station WCNY. Formerly, she was director of volunteers at Westchester Jewish Community Services. Shortly after being admitted to the Massachusetts Bar, Justin Kadich opened his own law practice, J. Scott Law, where he focuses on immigration and criminal law. He joined Justice Bridge, a new legal incubator in Boston, where he represents low-income clients in all legal matters at reduced rates. Binny Kagedan is happily married to Rebecca Stone and living in Riverdale, New York. An advanced doctoral student in clinical psychology at Rutgers, Binny will complete his clinical training in NYC in the coming year. Anna Kerzner married Dovid Schwartz on June 21, 2015, in Brooklyn. About 20 Brandeisians helped them celebrate. Samantha Lakin, a doctoral student at Clark University’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, joined selected Fulbright scholars from around the world in a TEDxFulbright Talk last fall. Her talk, “Survivors Speak: Exploring Stories of Genocide and Justice After Conflict,” examined how a society can recover after genocide. She spoke before an audience of 500 people. Joe Levitan and Alex Ball ’09 continue their work with the Sacred Valley Project, a nonprofit they founded that provides educational opportunities for indigenous young women in the Andes of southern Peru. The project has expanded to two centers to give more students the chance to obtain a secondary education. Rachel Pfeffer lives in Washington, D.C., with Ben Terris, who writes for The Washington Post. She recently opened her own jewelry studio/store, Rachel Pfeffer Designs, on the Arts Walk in Brookland, and sells her goods at www.rachelpfeffer.com. She’s also running a company called Stitchtagram with her brother. Brian Price left Bloomberg Television to join CNBC as a producer on “Fast Money.” He traveled to Sweden to celebrate his engagement to Katherine Alberti. Matt Ruby and his wife, Arielle ’07, welcomed a baby boy, Levi, in spring 2015. Ari Tessler was promoted to the rank of captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. Ari graduated from law school in 2013 and, after a year of additional military and legal training, serves as a defense attorney for fellow Marines. He is stationed at Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina.

MILES OF SMILES: Matt (Brown) Brookner ’08, Heller MA/MPP’13, married Sara Bookin-Weiner on Oct. 11, 2015, in Somerville, Massachusetts. A total of 29 Brandeis alumni attended.

NORTH QUAD FOREVER: Every fall since they were sophomores, a group of Gordon 3 residents have gathered for a Friendsgiving celebration. Last year’s get-together was held in Washington, D.C. Left to right: Whitney Gray, Sarah Klein, Becky Peters, Elizabeth Ginsburg, Rachel Gold and Mat Schutzer, all ’08.

ONLY JUST BEGUN: More than 20 Brandeisians celebrated the marriage of Anna Kerzner ’08 to Dovid Schwartz on June 21, 2015, in Brooklyn.