Brandeis Magazine

Labor lawyer Jules Bernstein debated Harvard Law School emeritus professor Alan Dershowitz this summer at a Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival event. The topic was Dershowitz’s recent book, “The Case Against Impeaching Trump.” As the university celebrates Leonard Bern­stein’s centennial birthday, Robin Brooks is corresponding with the Leonard Bernstein Office Inc. in NYC on behalf of Brandeis. “I worked for Bernstein at Tanglewood in 1956,” Robin writes. “He was the personification of charisma. I’ve donated more than 70 Bernstein-related items that I began collecting at that time to the University Archives and Special Collections department. For the record, my involvement in the Bernstein celebration has nothing to do with the fact that I dated several music majors. Well, maybe a little (hi, Donna!).” Janet Davis and her partner, Bernie Wides, “took a great trip with Brandeis Travelers,” she writes. “We went to the Baltic countries on a wonderful small ship with a group of 17 alumni. Our leader, Irina Dubinina, associate professor of Russian studies at Brandeis, was fabulous.” Evelyn Fox Keller, physicist and former MIT professor, was one of nine people who received the Dan David Prize at Tel Aviv University in February. Evelyn won the prize, which encourages interdisciplinary research that cuts across traditional boundaries, for her work on gender and science. She says she will donate her prize money to the anti-occupation organization B’Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and Physicians for Human Rights. Janet Hentoff Krauss continues to teach creative writing to boys and girls. “I love to interact with young people and hear what they are thinking about,” she says. Poetry groups and writing also keep her busy. Last summer, she and her husband, Bert, hosted a celebration for their older son, David, who turned 60. “It was a milestone in our lives.” Norma (Rajeck) Marder’s personal essay “Light From Dead Stars” was published in the online journal Forty-Five: A Journal of Outside Research. The essay stitches together her family’s history from scraps of memoirs and a recent translation of “The Memorial Book of the Community of Sierpc, Poland.” Doris Marks tried to ignore the heat this summer to tend a glorious (first-time) flower garden and a tiny veggie one. “The crazy weather and gobs of fertilizer helped,” she writes. Deena Metzger is a poet, novelist, essayist, storyteller, teacher, healer and medicine woman. She has been convening a ReVisioning Medicine gathering since 2004, when she gave the keynote address at the American Holistic Medical Association, and has also taught and counseled for more than 50 years. Arnie Rovner sends his greetings from the Lowcountry of South Carolina. His eldest grandson graduated from Columbia cum laude, one granddaughter is in her junior year at Bucknell, another grandson is a pre-med junior at Rice, and another granddaughter entered Tulane this fall. Glenda Sakala says she enjoys life by the sea in beautiful Rhode Island. She has taken trips to the Caribbean and the Hawaiian Islands, and will soon leave for Ukraine. A portrait Bret Schlesinger painted of Cynthia Nixon as a child with her mother, which Nixon keeps in her home, was shown in a New York Times article about Nixon’s (ultimately unsuccessful) bid for the Democratic nomination for the New York governorship. Moriel Weiselberg is part of the Moriel Chamber Players. In September, the ensemble performed three cello quintets by Luigi Boccherini at a concert in Commack, Long Island.