Brandeis Magazine

Stuart Burd, P’06, reports that his son Dave Burd’s TV show, “Dave,” was named the FX network’s most-watched comedy series, averaging 5.32 million viewers per episode. Arthur Caplan is the Mitty Professor of Bioethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. During the coronavirus pandemic, he is co-directing an advisory group on ethics, sports and recreation for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, to help cities safely reopen their recreation programs, and serves as a member of the World Health Organization advisory committee on COVID-19, ethics, and experimental drugs and vaccines. Howard Fingert, MA’73, helps develop new approaches to treating cancer. Earlier in his career, he worked at the National Cancer Institute, Dana-Farber and Mass General Hospital, then at Pfizer, Takeda and other biopharmaceutical companies. This year, he was appointed to the National Cancer Institute’s National Cancer Advisory Board and continues to consult for multinational biotech companies. He also does volunteer teaching with staff from biopharma companies and the MIT Sloan School of Management on optimizing quality and success in the development of cancer treatments. When Bradley Gordon retired from his post as director of policy and government affairs at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, his contributions were publicly recognized by U.S. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-VA). Bradley’s public-service career spanned more than 40 years. Jackie Hyman is a USA Today bestselling novelist, writing under the pen name Jacqueline Diamond. She recently joined with several other authors to write loosely linked romances that feature couples over age 50, for a series called “Better Late.” Jackie’s first “Better Late” romance — her 105th published book — is called “Really? At Your Age?” See jacquelinediamond.net for more information. Ralph Katz and other graduates of the Jacob Hiatt Institute in Israel’s Class of 1969 had a 50th reunion on Zoom in April. Other Brandeis classmates who attended included Susan Broner, Leslie Cohen Godoff, David Maeir-Epstein, Michael Swartz and David Tabachnik. Richard Liskov is an adjunct professor at Albany Law School, where he teaches an online course on U.S. insurance regulation. He taught a similar course in the banking and financial law program at the Boston University School of Law. David Maeir-Epstein writes that his Good Neighbors Abu Tor/Al-Thuri project has served as a bridge between Israelis and Palestinians during the coronavirus pandemic. Hametz was delivered from Jewish residents to families in need in the Palestinian community, and Ramadan lights were lit on both Muslim and Jewish homes as a sign of solidarity. He says that alumni from the 1969 Jacob Hiatt Institute in Israel program enjoyed catching up on Zoom. Victoria (Free) Presser took office as a member of the White Plains (New York) Common Council in January. She has retired from the Scarsdale Public Schools, where she served as public information officer for 18 years. Loretta Vitale Saks and husband Bob celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in June with a Zoom party. Attendees included their two sons and their families; Carole (Lichtensten) Skowronski and Jack Skowronski ’69, both P’04; and Shoshana Zonderman ’70 and Saul Perlmutter ’69, both P’03. Susan Reich Weiss, a professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and a researcher at the Penn Center for Research on Coronavirus and Other Emerging Pathogens, is studying whether scent-detection dogs can identify the presence of COVID-19 in humans.