Brandeis Magazine

Tamara Beliak is dean of the beit midrash at Oakland Hebrew Day School, in California. She lives in Berkeley with her husband and four children. During whirlwind traveling over the summer, she visited Ariel Serkin, Scott Buchanan ’94 and Lauren Elson in Massachusetts; Kari (Phillips) Margolis ’01 in New York; and Arudra Burra in New Delhi, India. Lynne Feibelmann married Jonathan Abrams on Oct. 20 in Tarrytown, New York. Twin sister Sandra Feibelmann was maid of honor. Susan Hochberg ’86 was also in attendance. Ursula Furi-Perry is assistant dean of the School of Nursing and Behavioral Sciences at Becker College. Before joining Becker, she was director of academic excellence and adjunct professor at the Massachusetts School of Law, where she earned her JD. Ursula has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in law, paralegal studies, criminal justice and government at Becker and other institutions. Colleen Johnson’s son, Grayson, was born on July 20. Colleen and her wife, Jolanta, are thrilled to be parents. Michael Katz co-founded and serves as president of Evoxe Laboratories, which makes vaporizers that blend aromatherapy with cannabis. He is also a co-founder of Emerald Exchange, a platform that helps small-batch, sun-grown farmers in northern California expand their brands into a broader market. Amy Rubenstein is artistic director at Windy City Playhouse, the Chicago theater she opened in 2015, which just produced its 10th show. A world premiere, “Southern Gothic,” which Amy co-created, opened earlier this year. Amy also runs a real estate development company, Windy City RE. She has two children, ages 9 and 6. David Salama’s third son, Oliver Herschel, was born on July 31. David is an anesthesiologist in a private-practice group outside Detroit. In 2016, Kaukab (Jhumra) Smith moved to Dakar, Senegal, with her husband, Patrick, and their two boys for Patrick’s job with USAID. Twelve years after completing a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park, Koki is pursuing a second master’s degree, this time in refugee protection and forced migration studies, from the University of London. From 2014-16, Koki and her family lived in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Koki worked as a USAID communications specialist.