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Letter to the Editor - Brandeis University Faculty and Staff Letter On the Occasion of Commencement

Globe-trotting grads: Conversations with Fulbright grant recipients

 In the aftermath of World War II,  the United States Congress set aside  funds to create the Fulbright Program,  a “flagship international academic exchange program.” Arkansas senator  J. William Fulbright introduced the  program through legislation in 1946  and President Harry Truman signed  it into law. The goal was to promote  the educational value of international  understanding and collaboration. This  vision is reflected nearly 80 years after  its initiation into western society. Fulbrighters, as they are fondly  nicknamed, come from all backgrounds from students and teachers  to artists and professionals. The program, nevertheless, is not to be taken  lightly. It is highly competitive and  the lucky students that are accepted  receive the opportunity to travel out of  the country. In doing so, the program  allows them to develop professionally  and learn not only about other cultures but themselves as well. The Justice spotlights four senior  fellows who will be pursuing their  passions through Fulbright following  graduation.

Arizona fans left devastated as team moves to Salt Lake

As the National Hockey League season comes to an end, the organization has announced some major changes taking place in the Western Conference. The beloved Arizona Coyotes will be moving to Salt Lake City, Utah over the summer and beginning the upcoming season anew.

The 2024 Women’s National Collegiate Gymnastics Championships explained

On April 20, Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas was packed full of fans cheering on their favorite teams and gymnasts at the 2024 Women’s National Collegiate Gymnastics Championships. Four colleges, Louisiana State University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Florida and the University of Utah battled it out on the championship stage to see who would take home the national title. 

Brandeis alumnus obtains new soccer franchise

Mitchell Baruchowitz '96, a former Brandeis tennis star-turned cannabis industry investor, was awarded a United Soccer League franchise in Westchester County, New York this year. The team, currently dubbed the Westchester Soccer Club, will play in USL League One, a Division III professional league operated by USL, at Memorial Field in Mount Vernon, New York. To serve as a developmental pipeline, Baruchowitz also plans to create a youth system by merging with a local soccer academy in Westchester. The team will play their inaugural game on March 1, 2025, and has shared plans to start a women's team in the coming years.

Rising in radiance

For centuries, art has not merely functioned as a demonstration of aesthetics — it has served as a vital avenue for self-expression, communication and connection. If we turn to history, art has been a platform for communities of color to assert their identities and narratives in a world that often silences their voices. 

Spilling the tea on 'Zoe Rose Spills her Guts.'

Comedy has an incredible power to help us navigate some of the most complex and emotionally taxing experiences. A moment of genuine laughter can lift spirits, foster unexpected connections and create space for people to escape and face the challenges of life. In her one-woman performance, put on in conjunction with the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Arts, Brandeis alum Zoë Rose ’20 used her humor for the very purpose of inspiring audiences to look inward. 

Brandeis Educational Justice Initiative explorers carceral injustice

On April 11, the Brandeis Equal Justice Initiative organized a movie screening of “The Prison in Twelve Landscapes,” followed by a discussion with two panelists in Golding Judaica. The programming was facilitated by BEJI co-directors Prof. Rosalind Kabrhel (LGLS) and Prof. David Sherman (ENG). 

“Hero Camp!”: how three teens found their identity through LARP

On April 13, director Sam Ho ’20, visited the University to screen his documentary, Hero Camp!. The screening took place in Mandel G03, and was followed by a brief Q&A with a couple of the documentary’s primary subjects and part of the production team alongside Ho. The event was part of the 2024 Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. 

Mentoring with melody: Highlighting the Melody Mentors’ second year running

On a Saturday afternoon, 15 high school students were sitting inside of a Sound and Image Media Studios classroom. After enjoying some snacks, the groups split into several areas across the SIMS department rooms to finalize their projects from the semester. These projects are part of Melody Mentors, an initiative which began in the spring of 2023. Melody Mentors is an initiative which plans to run every spring semester as part of Basement Records, a student-run organization on campus dedicated to supporting student musicians, and with support from Samuels Ceneter for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation. The program matches high school students throughout the Waltham area with Brandeis students to support them in their musical careers. 

Team Mangok: Mangok Bol and other staff work to resettle Bol’s niece and nephews in the U.S.

Program Administrator for Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies and Department Coordinator for Chemistry Mangok Bol came to the United States in 2001 as a refugee of the Second Sudanese Civil War after having spent 13 years in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya from the ages of nine to 22. He came to the U.S. as a part of the Lost Boys and Girls program, which resettled children who were orphaned or separated from their parents in the war. Bol’s story was covered in The Boston Globe, National Public Radio, The Justice and BrandeisNOW.

A critical analysis of the third reading presented in A Hold Thy Peace production of ‘The Tempest’

 From Thursday, April 4, to Sunday, April 7, Brandeis’ Hold Thy Peace presented their version of  William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” directed by Naomi Stephenson ’26. “The Tempest” is an incredibly fascinating and nuanced piece of literature, telling the story of one man’s quest for vengeance and those he impacts along the way. 

Beyond the Bookshelf: The threat of book bans in conversation with Julian Winters

In the dystopian world of Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451,” the thought of books going up in flames and being forbidden to the public felt like a chilling work of fiction. Yet little did I know, it’s a reality echoing louder today and not a once-fictional scenario.

Final March Madness Recap

Women’s Conference

Despite allegations of racism and misconduct, Carol Simon reinstated

Although Brandeis prides itself on holding a strong commitment to inclusivity and diversity, the athletics department has faced several allegations of racism in the past six years, most recently against the head coach of the women’s basketball team, Carol Simon. 

Housing gems in the library: Visiting the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections department

You may have walked past it when hunting down a quiet study spot on the second floor of the Goldfarb Library: the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections. Right past the reference desk, down the stairs to the second floor of Goldfarb, it lies behind the glass door: the past of Brandeis summarized in glass displays, featuring a picture of the first graduating class to previous school merchandise from the 1980’s.

It’s time to lock in: Social media detoxes in an age of declining attention spans

Many of us have been sat down by a teacher, friend or a concerned parent to watch “The Social Dilemma.” The documentary came out in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, when virtually all communication was online. It exposed how social media companies specifically design algorithms that nurture addiction and increase screen time by providing instant gratification. Since then, most users have become aware of the consequences of using smart technology in an attention economy that profits off of our decrease in concentration. In a November 2020 survey of people from ages 14 to 24, over half of respondents said they’ve deleted or thought about deleting their social media accounts or app.

Letter to the Editor — Cayenn Landau

Dear Editor,

Letter to the Editor — Richard H Weisberg

   Marty Fassler and I co-edited the paper in 1964-65. Those were frenetic times on campus, capping a four-year battle with the founding president, Abram Sachar.  Everyone with eyes and ears – including the keen reporters and writers for the JUSTICE – saw that the University was in full conformist mode. The liberal and even radical policies at the immediate postwar origins of our school, which sheltered exiled European intellectuals and domestic talent that found no other comfortable home, were “transiting” to the flabby mediocrity of a place that no longer wished to be identified as a leader in social criticism, literature, history of ideas, or left-wing writing of any kind. Sachar instead turned his aging head to the emerging neo-liberal norms epitomized by JFK: style over substance, a subdued and barely visible allegiance to racial justice, misogyny masked as “Camelot”. Sachar wanted a campus that would become quiescent in the intellectual , the moral, and the political sense. He had already fired Kathleen Gough Aberle, a feminist and rising academic star who publicly supported Fidel Castro over Sachar’s darling JFK during the “Cuban missile crisis” of 1962. He had put teeth in the absurd parietal rules that (unsuccessfully) kept boy from girl in the Castle and other campus trysting spots; he had contemplated censoring the JUSTICE itself and had to be subdued by that hardly radical thinker, Max Lerner (so went the rumor: it might have been John Roche who managed to make Sachar see the light on this occasion).

An evening with the Lydian String Quartet

“…they revealed a fire that makes all timeless music forever contemporary.”