Brandeis Magazine

Comedian Jesse Appell is the founder of Laugh Beijing. In February, he performed a stand-up comedy show in Boston to raise money for hospitals fighting COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. Craig Elman, who developed an algorithm that can optimize financial decision making, is the founder of ZayPop, a company that helps people manage their finances and save more money. Craig has nearly a decade of experience in analytics and software development. He earned an MBA, with high honors, from Boston University. Rebecca Grossman submitted her final dissertation for her PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Miami and accepted a postdoctoral position at Columbia University. Gabrielle Katz, Heller MPP’16, writes she is extremely grateful for her Brandeis friends: “On Sundays, since quarantine started, I have been doing yoga with two of my very first friends from Cable Hall, still my closest friends, Samantha (Grosser) Mazo and Leah Silver. It’s been a consistently grounding, joyful and peaceful time to look forward to, no matter how rough the week is.” Louis Polisson and Gabriella Feingold ’14 welcomed their first child, Asher Meir, in November 2019. Asher was named at Congregation Or Atid, in Wayland, Massachusetts, where Louis serves as rabbi. Asher enjoys playing, drumming and FaceTiming with his grandparents. Herbert Rosen is clerking in the New York Supreme Court, Commercial Division. He and his wife, Ali, welcomed daughter Lillian Rae in September 2019. The family moved to Jersey City, New Jersey, in May. Rachel Salston is rabbi of Fair Lawn Jewish Center/Congregation B’nai Israel, in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.

LIFE ON PAUSE: “The Window” is a recent self-portrait by painter Abigail Drapkin ’12, showing her sitting at her kitchen table. It’s part of a series of paintings that attempt “to merge the genres of still life and portrait,” she says. “Once COVID-19 hit, the metaphor of a still life seemed all the more potent.”