Brandeis Magazine

Ariel Ahram’s book “Break All the Borders: Separatism and the Reshaping of the Middle East” was published by Oxford University Press in February. Ariel has been awarded a $400,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to develop ideas for mitigating and resolving proxy wars in the Middle East. Julia Becker and wife Ashley Agerson had their third child, Lena Frances, on Sept. 25. She joins 8-year-old Owen and 6-year-old Henry. Julia practices pulmonary and critical-care medicine in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Sarah Chandler is founding program director at Romemu Yeshiva, a six-week program for young Jewish adults pursuing an egalitarian course of intensive spiritual study and self-transformation. The program launches this summer. Rachel H. Davis welcomed son Logan on Oct. 9. Big sisters Lydia and Sydney are looking forward to his getting old enough to play with them. Rachel has returned to work at her dental practice. Aryn Gittis won the Janett Rosenberg Trubatch Career Development Award, presented by the Society for Neuroscience in November. She is an associate professor of biological sciences in Carnegie Mellon University’s Mellon College of Science and a member of the CMU/University of Pittsburgh Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. Joanna Nadler is a staff writer for “The Continental,” the John Wick TV series that will air on the Starz network. Becca Rausch was elected to the Massachusetts Senate in November, defeating a long-term incumbent. She represents Wayland, Needham, Wellesley, Natick, Sherborn, Millis, Norfolk, Franklin, Wrentham, Plainville, North Attleborough and Attleboro. She is the third woman, the second Democrat and the first Jewish person to hold her seat. Becca lives in Needham with her husband, Lior Barnoon; their two children, Eitan and Micah; and their floppy Goldendoodle, Bailey. Michael Schakow, MA’01, and wife Sarah welcomed their first child, Jack Levi, on Aug. 27. They’ve assured Jack that living in Washington, D.C., is much more pleasant than what he might see in the news. Jeffrey Symons and his wife, Malgorzata, welcomed their second child, Julius Sage, on Oct. 22. The proud parents report everyone is doing well.