Brandeis Magazine

Lisa Gertler Braiterman, P’13, will maintain a part-time consulting practice after her retirement from Brewster Academy, in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, where she has been the chief financial and operating officer for the past decade. She and husband David Neufeld plan to spend most of their summers in Lovell, Maine, or on their 40-foot sailboat, Timshel, based out of Rockland, Maine. In the winter, they will cross the U.S. in their camping trailer. Lisa hopes to reconnect with Brandeis friends as they travel. Marc Brettler, MA’78, PhD’87, a professor of Judaic studies at Duke, is on sabbatical in Jerusalem, spending most of his time reading and writing in the National Library of Israel. In March, he and co-editor Amy-Jill Levine presented a copy of their book “The Jewish Annotated New Testament” to Pope Francis. Mark S. Cohen and Roberta Weinstein-Cohen ’79, P’09, P’17, on March 4 welcomed their fourth grandson in as many years. New baby Boaz Gilad and big brother Ezra Yair — the sons of Hanna Cohen Winkler ’09 — live in Givat Shmuel, Israel. The other two grandsons, Leo Tal and Samuel Bernard Cohen, live in Overland Park, Kansas. Mark and Roberta’s youngest daughter, Rivka ’17, has moved back home to West Hempstead, Long Island. Mark continues to practice law remotely. Lisa Schindler Frankel was appointed to the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires for a three-year term. She is also secretary on the board of directors of the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Berkshire County. Lisa serves as a member of the tennis committee at Wyantenuck Country Club, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts; the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center gala committee; the Fairview Hospital gala committee; and the Fairview Hospital Auxiliary. Steffi Aronson Karp is stepping down from the day-to-day oversight of LimmudBoston, an annual festival celebrating Jewish culture and learning that she created and ran for the past 10 years. Steffi will continue to work on LimmudBoston partnerships. Marta Kauffman was honored in February at the 44th Annual Humanitas Awards, held in Beverly Hills, California. The creator of “Friends” and “Grace and Frankie,” Marta received the Kieser Award for her lifetime body of work. Jeff Kessler plans to spend his retirement traveling with wife Susan, volunteering his time and being open to serendipity after nearly 40 years in higher education, the last 21 of which were spent at Adelphi University, where he was assistant vice president and dean of student affairs. Dave Lubin is litigation counsel in central and southern New Jersey on behalf of employer health-care plans. Three years ago, as part of a Brandeis Travelers group, Fruma Markowitz visited Eastern Europe for the first time. Now she has collected some of the many photographs she took on that trip into a self-published book, “Synagogues Along the Danube,” and is hoping to present talks about the book at Connecticut and New York synagogues, and sell copies of the book and limited-edition photographic prints. She wants to donate any proceeds from that effort to organizations involved with the restoration of Jewish heritage sites in Eastern Europe. Be in touch with her if you’d like to recommend groups engaged in that work. Steve Saklad reports, “I’m writing this note from beautiful Mexico City, where I’m production designing a feature film starring Kristen Wiig called ‘Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.’ We’re shooting it at the same film studio where I worked 31 years ago on a Gregory Peck movie called ‘Old Gringo.’” An ABC series Steve worked on, “Grand Hotel,” had its premiere in June. Gary Wasserman and Debra Wortzman Wasserman ’78 are enjoying their new homein Milwaukie, Oregon, afterliving in Portland for 23 years. Gary oversees the Eyes on Wheels motorcycle team that provides deterrence patrols during Portland-area running and bicycling events, and is training to become an Oregon Jewish Museum docent. Deb is looking forward to retiring from the Portland public school system in a few years. Sandra (Chartkoff) Wegman writes, “It is with great sadness that I report that my husband, Thomas Wegman, passed away in March after a two-year battle with glioblastoma. Tom was a man of great integrity, loyalty and intelligence, with an irreverent sense of humor. Almost every morning and evening, he made time to play his alto saxophone; occasionally he’d jam with musicians in local venues. Tom is greatly missed by me and our two sons, Elliot and Jacob; our family and friends; and everyone at BioSpecifics Technologies Corp., the biopharmaceutical company where he served as president for 14 years.”

SHOW TIME: Paula Musegades, MA’08, PhD’14, assistant professor of music, presented a history of film musicals at a Faculty in the Field event in Houston. Heidi Kaplan ’78, P’16, was the host. To see photos from other alumni events, visit www.alumni.brandeis.edu.