Brandeis Magazine

After 34 years of teaching high-school math, Linda Burke retired in 2010. She taught college for a few years, and now tutors students who have missed a lot of school, often because of emotional problems. Linda has three children and a 7-year-old granddaughter. She writes, “I cherish memories of Brandeis during those tumultuous years: SDS, Professors Michael Spivak and Hugo Rossi, Dean Peter Diamandopoulos, the chocolate-chip cookies in the Union and the Ford Hall protest, to name a few.” Jack Dembowitz, P’10, and his wife, Jillian, live in Boynton Beach, Florida. He’s a financial adviser at Wells Fargo. His son Joshua will marry Lindy Wisostky on Oct. 29 in Woodbury, New York. Jack and Jillian’s blended family includes seven children and nine grandchildren. Rebecca Harris-Warrick, professor of music history at Cornell University, published “Dance and Drama in French Baroque Opera.” She served as musicological adviser to the 2017 Boston Early Music Festival, whose centerpiece was the André Campra opera “Le Carnaval de Venise.” Jackie Hyman, who writes under the pseudonym Jacqueline Diamond, published her 102nd novel, “The Case of the Surly Surrogate,” a medical mystery. Her previous medical mystery, “The Case of the Questionable Quadruplet,” has been nominated for a RONE (Reward of Novel Excellence) Award, which honors the best in independent and small-press publishing. Jackie and her husband, who live in Southern California, recently traveled to Greece and Turkey as part of her research for “Surly Surrogate.” Susan Eisenberg Jay became a “nana” to first grandchild Clementine Elsa, born to son Joseph Panoff and his wife, Vicky, on Dec. 15 in Miami. She writes, “They recently moved to Key West, and I now have the pleasure of visiting Margaritaville rather frequently.” Ralph Katz reports he has retired and moved to Denver. David Maeir-Epstein is the head of IsraelGrants.com, a resource-development consultation firm for Israeli nonprofits. For the past five years, he has served as the elected representative of the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Abu Tor and North Talpiot to the Greater Baka Community Council. David and his wife, Alisa, have developed a model-community Israeli-Palestinian coexistence project, which was featured on NPR in March. The Maeir-Epsteins are also profiled in a chapter in the 2015 book “A Street Divided.” (Read more about them here.) Jason Sommer says he has “packed in his professoring” and retired. He’s writing his fifth book of poems and palling around with his 4-year-old, Gabriel. Jason’s poetry has appeared in journals, and his poem “Incident at the Mother’s,” first published in Sou’wester, was featured on the Poetry Daily website in May. His most recent collection, “The Laughter of Adam and Eve,” won the Crab Orchard Review open competition. Steven Swerdlow and his wife of 42 years, Jenny, celebrated the birth of their first grandchild, Mia Magnolia. A pathology professor and director of the Division of Hematopathology at UPMC Health System, in Pittsburgh, Steven reports he received the Harvey Goldman Master Teacher Award from the U.S.- Canadian Academy of Pathology. He writes, “I remain extremely grateful to the great Michael Henchman, my first-year chemistry professor.” Jesus Tarallo de Kelly sends greetings and best wishes from Australia. Susan Townsend retired after 40 years at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where she was active in Service Employees International Union as steward and officer. She continues to work on issues of race, gender and immigration. She credits her parents and Brandeis for her activism, and says “hi” to Professor Gordie Fellman.