Brandeis Magazine

I am taking over the job of class correspondent from Lori Berman Gans, MMHS’86, who did it for many, many years and whom I thank for all her efforts. In my new role, I look forward to connecting with many more of you. At our 30th Reunion, we entertained President Frederick Lawrence with stories about our Usdan lives and Bronstein Weekend that we could never have told our parents. We danced the night away at the Fire and ’Deis Welcome Back Party, watched with pride as the president presented the Alumni Achievement Award to our very own Bonnie Berger, and had time to ourselves at the Saturday-night class dinner. Reunion co-chairs Risa Levine and Robin Sherman presented the president with the check for our class’s Reunion gift, which includes contributions to the John “J.J.” Jamoulis Endowed Scholarship Fund in memory of our beloved classmate. Gifts to the fund have increased in each of the past four fiscal years, bringing its total to $74,127. Building the scholarship is a meaningful tribute to J.J. and will help talented, deserving students benefit from a Brandeis education. To make your gift, contact Lisa Fleischman, director of annual and special gifts, in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, at 781-736-4062 or lfleisch@brandeis.edu. And it’s not too early to start thinking about 2018! I urge all of you to join us for our next Reunion.

Adam Berlin had his third novel published. “The Number of Missing” follows two friends as they struggle to get through the aftermath of 9/11. Adam teaches writing at John Jay College in New York City. Felicia Rosen is a school psychologist at Carmel Academy in Connecticut and lives in Westchester County, N.Y., with her husband and two sons. She writes, “I am enjoying being a retired lawyer.” Lance Kawesch and Anne Exter ’80 celebrated their first wedding anniversary. They married at Brandeis’ Berlin Chapel and enjoyed their wedding celebration with many Brandeis alums at the Faculty Club. Lance is a corporate attorney, and Anne is a manager at Verizon. They live in Newton, Mass. Susan Rubin Borison is publisher/editor of Your Teen Magazine (yourteenmag.com), a magazine for parents of teenagers. Her husband, Daniel, is a general surgeon in private practice. They have five children and live in Beachwood, Ohio. Bill Cember writes, “My son, Kenny, graduated from SUNY Geneseo, Class of 2013. My daughter, Nicole, is a sophomore at Cornell University. I keep in touch with many classmates via Facebook and phone, including Larry Machado, P’16; Scott Nutting ’82; Roland Nadeau; Bobby O’Brien ’82; Stuart Farmelant; Alon Kapen; Dan Bernstein; Kristen Petersen ’85; Pete Halperin; Len Potter; and many others.” Iris Kliman Bloom was remarried on Sept. 29, 2013, to Bennett Lavine. A small service was held at Temple Reyim in Newton, Mass. Lilian Bier owns Bier Family Law, specializing in dissolution of marriage and complex child custody and asset cases. Leslie Ariel ’82 is her office manager. Lilian is also a part-time pro tem judge in Washington County, Ore., where she hears contested family abuse restraining-order cases. For 23 years, she has been married to Eric Bloch, a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge. They have two daughters, 19 and 16, a student at the College of William & Mary and a high-school junior, respectively. Lilian writes, “We enjoy the beautiful Pacific Northwest, mountain biking, skiing, the beach, gardening, hiking, trips to Montana, and hanging out with our friends and family and four dogs. I have taken up watercolor and oil painting over the past 15 years, and find there is never enough time to do everything I want to do.” Drummer Dave Kantor is a member of Jazz Echo, a quintet that performs original compositions along with jazz standards by Billy Strayhorn, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins and many others. He has also played with the Roy Scott Big Band, Herb’s Herd, Occasional Sax, Rave and the South St. Rhythm Section. Dave was a founding member of the Brandeis Jazz Ensemble, and also played French horn in the Brandeis Symphony Orchestra. Carrie Miller works as a virtual project manager in e-commerce, e-marketing, web editing and virtual/live event planning. Chris Rhomberg’s book “The Broken Table: The Detroit Newspaper Strike and the State of American Labor” received the Distinguished Scholarly Monograph Award from the American Sociological Association’s section on labor and labor movements. Chris teaches in the sociology and anthropology department at Fordham University in the Bronx. He and his wife live on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Luigi Pacifico is an invasive cardiologist at St. Vincent Hospital, clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and professor at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences University in Worcester, Mass. Dana Robin Goldman lives in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla., and is married to Michael Gates. They have a daughter, Julia Alexi Gates. Dana is a practicing real estate attorney at Shutts & Bowen and is involved in local government as chair of the City Advisory Committee. Robin Hornik Parritz is chair of the Department of Psychology at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn. The second edition of her textbook “Disorders of Childhood: Development and Psychopathology” (co-authored with Michael Troy) was published in spring 2013. Steven Sterman and his wife lived for 20 years in Connecticut, where they raised two sons (students at Virginia Tech and Elon). He writes, “I worked for TIAA-CREF for 20-plus years and was forced to make a career move in the not-so-unusual corporate 50-plus age-group squeeze. I now work for the University of California as a portfolio manager responsible for the school’s fixed-income credit portfolios. After many years in one spot, the move has been quite invigorating. We are really enjoying life in the Bay Area. Change is indeed good.” David Slater is practicing media and business law in his own law firm on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Congratulations to Noam Seth Hantman, son of Susan Chapman Hantman and Barry Hantman ’84, for achieving the rank of Eagle Scout. Michele Payson Rosenfield has started a new website, kehilatmitlamdim.org, which offers online Jewish adult education courses.