Additional Brandeis Sites: www.brandeis.edu www.brandeis.edu/now/ www.brandeis.edu/bnc/ Jewish Experience 
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Brandeis University News and Updates:BRANDEIS CHAPTER INFORMATION OFFICER (CIO) 2023-2024Helene Gollub helenegollub@gmail.com 
April 2025 Last month I reported that Brandeis had the highest number of Fulbright Scholars for 2024-25. So it will come as no surprise that Brandeis was chosen one of the top 20 best small Universities in the world. The success of Brandeis alumni, including Pulitzer Prize Winners, leading authors, a Nobel laureate as well as David Crane and Marta Kauffman two of the creators of the TV show "Friends." Only 2 were from the United States. The other one is from right here in California, CalTech. March 2025 Why BNC member Leith Balletin supports the BNC Professorship in Engineering Science "I'm a retired engineer with a BEE in electrical engineering and an MS in engineering management. It's a traditional way of educating engineers. Some call it a silo approach because it's narrow. The Brandeis Engineering Science program is different. It's interdisciplinary. It's inclusive. Students can incorporate problem-solving and engineering skills into their studies in other ways. It's because of my extensive background as an engineer that my wife, Judy, and I are really excited about Brandeis entering a new era of engineering education. We have made a pledge to fund an undergraduate scholarship in engineering at Brandeis, and we are now turning our support to the BNC Professorship in Engineering Science. When BNC meets its $3 million goal, Brandeis will be able to hire a top professor to join the engineering science faculty in a secure, tenured position. I consider Brandeis to be my second alma mater. I'm so proud of the progress that the university has made in creating the program, and BNC is off to a fantastic start in supporting it." September 2024 Studies, papers and conferences that emanate from Brandeis University often find their way into the news, from onlinesites, to newspapers, to political conventions. An article in the well known Jewish paper, the Forward published an article by columnist, Avivya Kushner. Comments by former President Bill Clinton, poet Amanda Gorman and VP nominee Tim Walz. She was inspired to write about "class" and the Jewish community. Assumptions about class can be misleading. The Jewish Community is not an economic monolith. There is definitely poverty in the Jewish community. According to a Brandeis University study of the local community in Chicago where the convention was held, 59% of struggling households reported their financial situations had gotten worse since the pandemic. There was an opinion article in the Jacksonville, Fl. paper on 8/22/2024. Brandeis University hosted 50 executives and senior leaders from across the Jewish Community Center movement for 4 days. The event, "Navigating Israel and the Rise of Antisemitism" was a partnership between Brandeis, Boundless Israel and the JCC Association of North America. Results of a study co-authored by Professor Hersh from Tufts and Professor Saxe from Brandeis indicate that most Jewish college students identify the phrases, "Globilze the Infifada" and "From the River to the Sea" as antisematic tropes. These phrases which creat the notion that Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state. Young Jewish Americans considered this to be Jew hatred. But Boundless Israel found that non Jewish people from the ages 18-34 recognize this. They don't understand why these chants make Jewish people feel threatened and vulnerable. This data was no surprise to those with an awareness of history and how Jewish people are affected by it. We need to be aware that when antisemitism is on the rise so is hatred against other minority groups. As is so movingly written in the famous poem "First They Came" by Pastor Martin Niemoller in 1946 First they came for the Communists And I did no speak out Because I was not a Communist Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for the the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew Then they came form me And there was no one left To speak out for me May 2024 Brandeis extends transfer deadline, appealing to Jewish students distressed by campus anti-Israel unrest (JTA)-Brandeis University, the historically Jewish school outside Boston, has extended its transfer application deadline in a bid to appeal to students who are unhappy with their own schools' responses to campus anti-Israel protests. The university announced the decision on Monday, as encampment protests spread from Columbia University to campuses across the United States. The protests, which take aim at the schools' ties to Israel, are spurred by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and have in some places included rhetoric that veers into antisemitism. Jewish groups and some Jewish students say the protests have left Jewish and pro-Israel students unsafe and unable to take part in campus activities. "As a university founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community to counter antisemitism and quotas on Jewish enrollment in higher education, Brandeis has been committed to protecting the safety of all its students, and, in the current atmosphere, we are proud of the supports we have in place to allow Jewish students to thrive," Brandeis President Ron Liebowitz wrote in an email to the community. "Due to the current climate on many campuses around the world, we are now expanding the opportunity for students to seek the learning environment of our campus by extending the transfer application deadline to May 31." Brandeis made headlines shortly after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and triggered the war, when a portion of its student government failed to pass a resolution condemning Hamas. But the broader student government soon reversed course, and in November, the school became the first to ban its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, saying that the group "openly supports Hamas" - a departure from other schools that have since suspended the group for technical offenses against protest policies. About a third of students at Brandeis, which is nonsectarian, identify as Jewish, according to Hillel International. "Students elsewhere should know we welcome all - Jews and students from every background - who seek an excellent undergraduate education and an environment striving to be free of harassment and Jew-hatred to apply," Liebowitz wrote. April 2024 Driving Mrs. Roosevelt  Photo/Courtesy of the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department, Brandeis Eleanor Roosevelt, a founding Brandeis Trustee, speaks with a student in 1951 as Brandeis' founding president, Abram Sachar, looks on. Story By Allen Secher '56 For five days in 1955, I was in the driver's seat and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt sat by my side. This unlikely pairing was due to Brandeis, of course. One of my student jobs was working as a campus guide in the Public Relations Department. During graduation week, my responsibilities expanded to serving as a chauffeur for visiting dignitaries. A member of the university's Board of Trustees, Mrs. R, would be coming to campus for the Commencement festivities and a board meeting. As graduation approached, I begged, pleaded with and cajoled the PR director to let me be the one to drive her. With some hesitancy, he gave in. Day one arrived... ( TO READ FULL STORE - CLICK HERE!)
Tikkun Olam A pansecterian University that one day will embrace the concept of a school of law and social justice. Visit the University Website www.brandeis.edu Renew Your Membership Online It's quick and easy! Click here, complete the form, pay and you're done.. If you would like to see what the beautiful Brandeis University campus looks like, please CLICK HERE ! Here's a link to the campus drone tour. https://youtu.be/aiiCRA3G5e0 The Brandeis Beginnings Tidbits: Brandeis University is the youngest private research university in the United States
and is the only nonsectarian college or university in the nation founded by the American Jewish Community Albert Einstein was one of the original planners of Brandeis University Eleanor Roosevelt was a member of the faculty, teaching a course on international
affairs that drew on her experience as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She was also the first Commencement speaker, for the class of 1952 The University's first professor of music and director of the School of Creative
Arts was composer Leonard Bernstein. While at Brandeis, Bernstein debuted Trouble in Tahiti on June 12, 1952 as part of the first Creative Arts Festival Notable alumni: Tony Goldwyn '82 actor, director, producer, starred in such
cinematic hits as: Ghost, Tarzan, The Pelican Brief and Kiss the Girls. His directorial works include:: Someone like you and A Walk on the Moon. Brandeis University counts among its alumni five Pulitzer Prize winners,
a Nobel laureate and several Emmy Award-winning actors, broadcasters and producers.
Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, Brandeis University is ranked in the top tier of universities in the country.
Founded in 1948 and named for the late Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis of the U.S. Supreme Court, it is the only
nonsectarian, Jewish-founded university in the country, known for its academic excellence and ideals of social justice.
At the same time as Brandeis' founding, eight women from Boston, all leaders in the community, were asked to help in
supporting this new university. They were given the task of building on the collection of 2,000 books in the Library,
which was housed in a converted horse stable. The dedication and perseverance of these women, who now called themselves
the National Women's Committee continues today, sixty years later, as the Brandeis National Committee. With over 70
chapters nationwide and over 39,000 members, BNC is one of the largest and most successful "friends of a library"
organizations in the world. Over the years, we have placed over one million books in the
FUN FACTS ~~ Brandeis was founded in 1948 as a non-sectarian, coeducational institution sponsored by the Jewish community. ~~ Brandeis was established on the site of the former Middlesex University. ~~ Brandeis University was named for Justice Louis D. Brandeis, who was the first Jewish Justice of the United States Supreme Court. ~~ Brandeis First President - Abram L. Sachar -1948-1968 ~~ Famous Professors who taught at Brandeis - Eleanor Roosevelt, Leonard Bernstein, Anita Hill ~~ Brandeis Motto - In Hebrew - Emet - In English it means - Truth even unto its innermost parts ~~ Brandeis Colors - Blue and White ~~ Nickname - Judges ~~ Mascot - Ollie the Owl - named for Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Justice Louis D. Brandeis - "Our government teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy." |
Brandeis libraries, and raised over $100 million for Brandeis University and its libraries, scholarship and research.
Brandeis University has become one of the youngest private research universities, with ground-breaking exploration
in neurodegenerative and age-related diseases. 
It would be an extraordinary task to create a library that could barely compete, let alone compete well,
with the "old ivies" in New England. Brandeis was determined to be first rate. Remarkably,
eight women would answer this challenge. Their loyalty to this unproven university came from
a different breed of faith: both to the Jewish community at large, and to education itself.
They called themselves the National Women's Committee, and what they would work to achieve was no less than amazing.