Brandeis Magazine

My husband and I flew to California to celebrate Thanksgiving with our older daughter and son-in-law, and our younger daughter, who lives in New York — the first time we’ve had Thanksgiving with both girls in more than a decade. We also attended a PaleyFest talk in New York featuring all the members of the new show “Star Trek: Discovery.” Once a trekkie, always a trekkie. Please keep sending your notes. If you’re not receiving my email reminders, let me know.

Kathie Abrams, P’16, teaches elementary art, and her husband, Jeremy Garber, P’16, is a lawyer in professional ethics. Daughter Judith, Heller MA’16, who lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, works at a health-care nonprofit. Daughter Leah lives in Brooklyn and works at a tech company. Kathie, Jeremy and their daughter Miriam visited Nova Scotia last summer as well as Chelmsford, Massachusetts, hometown of Kathie’s former roommate Susan Giavaras. Stuart Appelbaum was named co-chair of the DNC’s Resolutions Committee, which is responsible for developing the national Democratic Party’s policy positions. He was also re-elected a vice president of the national AFL-CIO. Stuart is president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, and executive vice president of the 1.3 million-member United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Marian Bass and Kathie Abrams, having reconnected at the 40th Reunion, got together for lunch in the fall. In November, Marian and Jane Kaufman spent a weekend together in Manhattan, leaving their husbands to fend for themselves. Karen Bernstein was named to the board of directors of Achaogen, a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative antibacterials. She is chair of BioCentury, which she co-founded, and has received numerous awards for her contributions to the biotechnology industry. Susan Feigenbaum and Jay Pepose ’75, MA’75, got a huge pay raise in May with the graduation of their triplets from college, including a Brandeis graduate, Morissa ’17. Morissa sang the national anthem at graduation, and, yes, the tears were flowing. Joel Fiedler was on vacation in Greece in September when he got a message from Bruce Stark, who was also in Greece. They met up for dinner after not having seen each other for more than 30 years. “Technology has certainly made the world a lot smaller,” Joel writes. Neil Goldstein traveled with colleagues from the Janssen vaccines and prevention group to Kambia, in the northern district of Sierra Leone, for a trial of the company’s Ebola vaccine. The ultimate goal is to improve the region’s pediatric care. Kathryn Hellerstein, along with two Nanjing University professors, hosted a workshop titled “China and Ashkenazic European Jewry: Transnational Encounters” at the university’s Diane and Guilford Glazer Institute for Jewish and Israel Studies. The workshop is part of Kathryn’s three-year grant from the Penn China Research and Engagement Fund. Bob Jaffe writes, “In July, Jill and I welcomed a second granddaughter, Parker Fiona, thrilling not only us but her parents, her aunt and, especially, her older sister, Riley. During the summer, I did three days of shooting on a new film, ‘Bite Me.’” Francine Ladd Sohn and Roger Sohn ’73 welcomed their first grandchild, Benjamin, on Aug. 29. The proud parents are Joshua Sohn and Amy Palin. Mindy Milberg and her husband, Phil Benjamin ’73, celebrated the marriage of their son Alex to Allison Feldman, on Oct. 20, in Stanhope, New Jersey. Their son Jason served as best man. After a honeymoon in Japan, the newlyweds returned to their home in Kirkland, Washington. Cathy Morris Chernoff was proud to be part of the team that brought “Farinelli and the King,” starring Mark Rylance, to Broadway. In February, Cathy enjoyed some R&R on Antigua. She is looking forward to celebrating her grandson’s first birthday in March. Tom Phillips has completed the scores for several PBS films, including “Into the Light,” which chronicles PTSD’s devastating effects. He’s also working on “Detroit 48202: Conversations Along a Postal Route,” which centers on a postal carrier’s observations on Detroit’s decay during his 30-plus years on the same route. Sandra Pinel has been nominated as an American Institute of Certified Planners fellow, in recognition of her career in applied anthropology, and urban and regional planning. Sandra recently relocated from Idaho to Washington, D.C., where she’s involved in federal infrastructure resilience initiatives. She was in Puerto Rico in the fall, working on the hurricane recovery effort. Stanley Reed writes that his wife, Joyce Branda, retired from the U.S. Department of Justice after a distinguished 37-year career. They are the proud grandparents of Zoe Lorraine, born in June to their older son, Ben, and his wife, Lorraine Zoltan, who live in New York City. Their younger son, Alex, became their family’s third cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan Law School in May, following in Stanley’s and Ben’s footsteps. Alex works as a litigation associate at O’Melveny & Myers in D.C. Daughter Genna is the business manager at a Success Academy school in Brooklyn. Michael Rubin, a partner at law firm Altshuler Berzon, received the ADL’s Distinguished Jurisprudence Award. Michael has been a public-interest attorney representing low-wage workers, labor unions and others since 1981. In June, Betsy Sarason Pfau and Dan Pfau ’73 went to London to visit their son, David, who works for DeepMind. Their younger child, Vicki, works in San Francisco for OpenAI, an Elon Musk-funded nonprofit. In October, Don Friedman joined the Pfaus for dinner while in Boston for a conference. Anne Shyavitz Foran has a second grandchild, Elliot Philip, born on Oct. 12 in Los Angeles. His 2 1/2-year-old sister, Rebecca, adores him already. Anne writes, “I thoroughly enjoyed helping to care for both children during Elliot’s first two weeks, and I look forward to regular visits in the future.” Stephen Simons’ recent paintings have been exhibited at Holy Redeemer Lafayette, a continuing-care community in Philadelphia; the Lexington Club, a community complex in Delray Beach, Florida; and the Old School Square Creative Arts School, also in Delray Beach. He works as a translator of handwritten and printed works in Yiddish. Jill Stavenhagen writes, “I have outlived almost everybody I knew at Brandeis. I am 82 years old and teach art history. Maybe a degree in art history from Brandeis is good for the health. I loved my time there.” After a year studying in Israel at Midreshet Ein Hanatziv, Maya Zanger-Nadis ’21, daughter of Sally Zanger, P’21, began her freshman year at Brandeis. Sally writes, “It is fun being back on campus when I visit her. As you can imagine, with a child in college I am not retiring yet.” Sally says she enjoyed attending the wedding of Alex Benjamin, son of Mindy Milberg and Phil Benjamin ’73.