Brandeis Magazine

Joan Benson-Cacchione is grateful to Brandeis for her career as a journalist at the Erie Times-News. She and husband Tom have two children and two grandchildren. Last summer, the couple discovered family homesteads in Sweden and Italy, where their grandfathers lived before emigrating to the U.S. Linda Liba Casson-Nudell, P’08, P’11, writes, “My husband and I are enjoying retirement in Minneapolis. We have been studying advanced modern Hebrew through the continuing education program at the University of Minnesota. We recently saw Joan Katz and Amy Eilberg, both ’76, and had dinner with Beth Pearlman ’76 and her husband. Nathan “Chip” Cohen received the Lee de Forest Award for major contributions to radio communication from the Radio Club of America. He has been granted his 53rd U.S. patent. Chip is a founder of fractal engineering, and his work on fractal antennas, 3-D electromagnetic printing and invisibility cloaks produced the source patents on those technologies. Mark Lonstein, an orthopedic spine surgeon, is president of Sarasota (Florida) Spine Specialists. He attends many Red Sox spring training games and returns to New England every summer to visit family and Fenway Park, and spend time in Vermont on Lake Memphremagog. With sadness, he reports the death of his lifelong friend Victor Mondry on Dec. 14 in Madison, Wisconsin. Victor was the founder of Victor Allen’s Coffee and Tea. Mindy Nierenberg has been senior director of programs at Tufts’ Tisch College of Civic Life for 15 years. Previously, she served as associate dean at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She met her husband, Bob Fera, during her junior-year study abroad in Italy. Daughter Erin and son David are both married, with two children each. “With four grandchildren nearby in Greater Boston, a more-than- full-time job that involves global travel, and caring for in-laws and my dad, life is extremely full,” she writes. Since retiring from full-time congregational work in 2014, singer Deborah Zecher, P’10, has presented musical programs on Jewish songwriters and a program that combines Torah text with Broadway show tunes as an artist-in-residence at congregations around the U.S. Her solo cabaret show, “On Purpose,” was nominated for Best Debut by broadwayworld.com. Look for her on Episode 3, Season 2, of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (she plays the Irish Catholic mother of Mrs. Maisel’s friend).