Class Correspondent

40th Reunion
June 5-7, 2015

I was thrilled to hear from so many of you and look forward to seeing you at our 40th Reunion! (I can’t believe I just typed that; maybe I need more coffee.)

Gary Yale and Leah Bishop celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary in August 2014. The celebration continued in September, when daughter Elizabeth was married in Napa Valley, and concluded with a wine-tasting trip through Burgundy in October. To pay for all this, Leah is continuing as a trust and estates partner at Loeb & Loeb in Los Angeles. Gary, in his retirement, is serving as a board member for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s LA office. He is also a founding board member of the MAJOR (Muslim and Jewish Organized Relief) Fund, which creates a sense of community within the two faiths while identifying and funding humanitarian projects that seek to repair the world. Jerry Baum was recently inducted into MIT’s Quarter-Century Club, having spent 25 years as a member of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory research staff. Wife Ellen (Bernstein) ’76 will join the same club in a couple of years as a senior administrator at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Jerry writes, “We enjoyed coming back to campus for Reunion weekend to see longtime friends from the Class of ’74. Can’t believe it will be our 40th in 2015.” Donna Krupkin Whitney is a first-year student at Vanderbilt Divinity School. She retired from her neurology practice in 1998 and served as an adjunct professor at Watkins College of Art, Design & Film, in Nashville. David Markell has taught environmental law and related courses at Florida State University’s College of Law for the past 12 years. Margery Williams is a labor arbitrator in Somerville, Mass. Lisa Cain-Hammerman lives in Mitzpeh Yericho, Israel, where she and her husband raise ducks, cats, chickens and a dog. She reports their “miracle” daughter is now 9 — tall, smart, gorgeous, into gymnastics and Barbie — and is a wonderful aunt to her adopted sister’s son, who is 5. Lisa enjoys being a savta (grandmother) and has several stepgrandchildren as well. She teaches art to the gifted in Jerusalem and coordinates an art program at a high school for English-speaking Orthodox girls who are having trouble adjusting to school life in Israel. Michael Kaiser stepped down as president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sept. 1, 2014, to serve as president of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland. He will also become co-chair of IMG Artists, a performing-arts management agency. Max Friend, the oldest son of Michael and Deborah Colker Friend, P’17, married Megan Cochran. During the same week, Michael and Deborah’s daughter, Leah ’17, joined the Brandeis family as an incoming freshman. Jonathan Sarna, MA’75, the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History and chair of the Hornstein Program for Jewish Professional Leadership at Brandeis, was elected president of the Association for Jewish Studies at its annual meeting. Jonathan, the fourth Brandeis faculty member to hold the office, is the first offspring of a former association president to be elected to the position. The other Brandeisians who served as president are Leon Jick (1969-71), P’74, P’79, G’09, G’12; Marvin Fox (1976-78); and Nahum Sarna (1984-85), P’75. Lauren Stiller Rikleen wrote “You Raised Us — Now Work With Us: Millennials, Career Success and Building Strong Workplace Teams,” which captures a portrait of Millennials as they enter the workplace in large numbers. Ed Mascioli joined SV Life Science, an international life-sciences venture-capital firm, as a venture partner. David Lampl, a partner at Leech Tishman in Pittsburgh, was included in the 2014 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Joey Reiman has plenty to celebrate: 23 years of marriage to wife Cynthia Good; sons Alden, a junior at Emory, and Julien, at WashU in St. Louis; the 20th anniversary of his consultancy, BrightHouse; and a contract for his new book, “Thumbs Up! Creating the Life You Have Always Dreamed About.” Mindy Littman Holland has been enjoying life in Santa Fe, N.M., with Grant, her husband of 22 years. In October 2014, she exhibited her photography at the Santa Fe Land Commissioner’s Gallery and did book signings for “Wait Until You’re 50: A Woman’s Journey Into Midlife”; “The Rebirth of Gershon Polokov,” a novel; and her new photography book, “The Skies of Santa Fe.” Congratulations to Roberta Bell-Kligler, who was appointed acting director of the international school at Oranim Academic College of Education, in Tivon, Israel, where she has worked for nearly 20 years. She writes, “Life is good. I have the same great husband of four decades (who visited Peru with our youngest in July 2014) and four wonderful kids, three of whom have decided to return and set up home on the moshav (agricultural community) where we raised them.” Career foreign-service officer Lisa (Shapiro) Kubiske left her post as U.S. ambassador to Honduras after three years to become deputy assistant secretary in the Economic Affairs Bureau of the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. In Honduras, she regularly hosted appreciation receptions for the visiting Global Brigades volunteers from Brandeis. Lisa has served in Mexico, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, the Dominican Republic and Brazil. Ginny (Faulstich) Shiller, P’04, celebrated with husband Robert Shiller in Stockholm for a week after he won the 2013 Nobel Prize in economics. Ginny and Robert also visited China for two weeks, where she promoted the Chinese translation of her book “Rewards for Kids! Ready-to-Use Charts and Activities for Positive Parenting.” Their first grandchild, Lukas, was born on July 11, 2014, to their older son, Brandeis assistant professor of economics Ben Shiller ’04, and Laurie Gray. Younger son Derek is completing his PhD in philosophy at Princeton.



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