I was editor of The Justice from January 1964 through January 1965, sharing the position with my friend and classmate Richard Weisberg during fall semester 1964. 

Working on The Justice from 1962-1965, I had fun, gained competence, confidence, and began transitioning to adult responsibilities and the responsibilities of journalism. 

The editors who preceded me were Arnie Reisman and Steve Slaner. Editorial board members that I remember were Celia Ussak, Jane Margold and Jeff Cohen.  We spent most of Sunday laying out the paper, Monday evenings reading proofs from the printer, Tuesday mornings at the Boston print shop overseeing corrections, revisions and late additions, and Tuesday evenings at a meeting planning the next week’s edition.  There was a plenty of laughter at each event. 

Of course,  the mid-1960’s was a period of considerable social change and accompanying tumult.  In one issue, we ran on the bottom of the front page an article about the NAACP picketing a few Stop and Shop stores because of the chain’s allegedly discriminatory hiring practices.  At the time, the chair of the Brandeis Board was a prominent member of the family that owned Stop and Shop, and was a high level officer of the corporation.  We editors felt that the Brandeis connection made that a story suitable for The Justice.  The Dean of Students then called me in and told me to write a letter of apology to the board member.  With mixed feelings, I did. 

In spring 1964,we published a brief letter to the editor from a graduate student, inviting Brandeis students to join him on a planned trip to Cuba, which had been through its revolution a few years earlier, led by Fidel Castro.  Shortly after that, the FBI called me to ask what I knew of the graduate student. I told them, truthfully, that I had never met him.

The Viet Nam war was heating up. One Monday night in the fall of 1963, Madame Nhu, sister-in-law of South Viet Nam’s dictator, was to speak at the Harvard Forum, a well known “town hall” type event in Cambridge.  The editors of The Justice asked me to attend the talk, and prepare a report for inserting in the paper the very next morning - just like a real newspaper reporter.  I did it, proudly.  One questioner asked Madame Nhu to justify the harsh oppression of Buddhist peace advocates in Vietnam by her brother-in-law’s government. Her response was “You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.”   That was in my article, which was published by The Justice the next day. 

In the fall of 1964, President Sachar called a convocation, in the largest auditorium on campus, specifically to criticize The Justice.  I do not recall what angered him so much.   Perhaps it was about this:  when the Faculty Senate was considering some major change in the academic structure, a faculty member with whom I was friendly showed me, in his office, a copy of the internal faculty memo outlining the proposed changes - and then left it on his desk and walked out of his office.  We ran a lengthy story about it.  At any rate, the convocation was a tempest in a teapot.   Nothing came of it. 

I hope the current Justice staff is having as much fun as I did during those years.

Marty Fassler

Brandeis class of 1965

FYI: After Brandeis, I attended Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, a 1-year M.S. program, then worked for the Quincy, Mass. Patriot Ledger, then the Sacramento Bee, then began law school at Berkeley in fall 1969. I worked as a lawyer from then until   recent retirement.  While in law school, I wrote a few free- lance pieces, for the Boston Phoenix, and for a magazine no longer in existence, called, I believe, Juris Doctor.  As a lawyer, I was managing editor of the California State Bar publication for labor and employment lawyers, 1998-2004.  Since retirement from full time work, I have written a few articles for other State Bar publications, including one about how California law about government employee ethics  would apply to some of the shenanigans of the Trump administration.