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It’s a sight all too common at Brandeis sporting events: empty bleachers on the Brandeis side while the opposing team’s fans are often out in full support. It could be disheartening, but Vince Lauffer ’19 hopes to change that.
Humor and the Holocaust are two things many would never expect to see go hand in hand. The genocide committed by the Nazi regime resulted in the deaths of an estimated 11 million people. To most, this wouldn’t elicit comedy. Last Friday, the lecture “Jewish Humor and the Holocaust” challenged this.
“How the hell did we get here? I’m sure Lenny Bruce would have something to say. The only problem is that if he said it back at the time he was alive, it would have landed him in court or in jail,” Arnie Reisman said after considering the current state of American politics. Reisman spoke at the dinner which concluded day one of “Comedy and the Constitution: the Legacy of Lenny Bruce.” He graduated from Brandeis in 1964 and has worked as a playwright, screenwriter, documentarian and activist. On Thursday night, he introduced Lewis Black (pictured left), renowned comedian, to the crowded Faculty Club.
Under the display labeled “Family” in the Brandeis University Archives, an abundance of black and white family photos gaze up at the viewer. In some of the photos, Kitty Bruce, daughter of Lenny Bruce, is only a toddler. “I am extremely relieved and very proud that the archives have found a home at Brandeis,” Kitty Bruce wrote in an email interview with the Justice. She hopes that scholars, fans, students, lawmakers and educators from all over the world will utilize the archives to learn from the extensive achievements Lenny Bruce accomplished in his lifetime. One of the most important legacies Lenny Bruce leaves behind is, of course, his fight for First Amendment rights.
“I’ve decided that I’m completely corrupt,” reads the start of a letter tucked inside the Farber University Archives. It continues, “My whole set, my economic success, is wholly dependent upon the existence of segregation, violence, crime and other odious counterparts.” The letter, addressed to music critic Ralph Gleason, was written by comedian Lenny Bruce. It identifies an interesting paradox in Bruce’s life, one of many harsh realities that contrasted a life filled with humor.
According to the NASA website, “The universe is a big, big place.” The sun, our nearest star, is 93 million miles away, and the next closest galaxy to the Milky Way is 2.5 million light years away. Yet each week, the Astronomy Club makes the universe seem a whole lot closer.
14 students, four comedians, approximately 70 audience members and a professor walk into a bar. Such was the case Tuesday night in Cholmondeley's Coffee House at 8 p.m. The students of the course Writing for Television were tasked by their professor, Prof. Marc Weinberg (ENG), to write jokes for several local comedians. The jokes were then performed in an hour-long comedy show hosted by Will Smalley, a Boston Comedy Festival Finalist.
When Rosemarie Garland-Thomson ’93 Ph.D. first came to Brandeis, she had a variety of identities. Mother, wife and English teacher were among them. Yet she avoided thinking of herself as disabled, despite being born with a congenital difference. One of Garland-Thomson’s arms is shorter than the other, and she has a total of six fingers.
Alongside her role as a professor at Brandeis for the course Latinos in the United States, Prof. Madeleine Lopez (HIST) also encourages learning about different cultures at the Intercultural Center as its new director. Home to 16 student organizations and the Gender and Sexuality Center, the ICC will celebrate its 25th anniversary this upcoming spring.
In 1966, 30 students attended the first-ever Waltham Group meeting. Little did they know that 50 years later, the Brandeis community service organization would boast hundreds of volunteers who each year dedicate 40,000 hours to community service.
Thinking of Brandeis University, “community engagement” is probably one of the first phrases that comes to mind. You might even say that Brandeis is partially defined by its thriving and diverse community engagement opportunities. This being the case, there are few better representatives of the school than Shana Criscitiello ’18, who is majoring in Health: Science, Society and Policy. Criscitiello is a campus ambassador to Gift of Life, a marrow registry that matches potential bone marrow and stem cell donors to patients suffering from blood cancer.
“I always tell my students to think about the etymology of the word prejudice. Pre - judge. [Essentially this says,] ‘I’ve made up my mind; don’t confuse me with the facts,’” Deborah Lipstadt ’72 Ph.D. ’76 explained to the crowded Wasserman Cinematheque.
“Human beings have dignity; they don’t have a price. That’s why human beings can’t be bought or sold,” said Prof. Berislav Marušić (PHIL) in an interview with the Justice, paraphrasing a conversation he had once had with his son. “What’s dignity?” his son prompted. Marušić replied, “Dignity is the idea that every person gets to make decisions for themselves” — to which his son artfully responded, “Well then, why can’t I watch TV whenever I decide?” And so his young, amusingly ruminative son rendered the 2016 recipient of the American Philosophical Association Sanders Book Prize speechless.
With the welcoming of Prof. Jutta Lindert to the Women’s Studies Research Center on Tuesday Sept. 13 came a renewed conversation about violence against women globally to campus. Lindert, a professor of public health at the Protestant University of Ludwigsburg, Germany and WSRC scholar, has spent much of her career researching health impacts on interpersonal and domestic violence and the long-term impacts of violence against women.
A newsroom, an office with a group of reporters, is a spot that records the shifts of a society. One of the most recent shifts society has seen came with the rise of digital technology, which has come to permeate the daily lives of most people. Yet even as news reporters chronicle shifts in society, they themselves can be affected by them.
Tucked inside the University of Massachusetts Boston’s newly constructed University Hall, Brandeis Prof. Todd Pavlisko (FA) proudly welcomed guests to the opening of his art installation “Now’s the Time.” Pavlisko has worked with UMass for a while now; more specifically he has collaborated with Prof. Robert Carter, the director of the chemistry department. In an email interview with the Justice, Pavlisko explained, “[Carter] and I have been using chemistry and science to make art for about a year and a half. The opportunity for the exhibition came out of this collaboration.”
“American Jewish history for me was not a job, it was a career. It defined me,” said Professor Jonathan Sarna (NEJS) who, after decades of writing, publishing and teaching, has been named a University Professor.
Remy Pontes ’17 spent his summer working toward one goal: peace. Starting at the end of the spring, Pontes worked as a legislative intern for Massachusetts Peace Action (MPA). MPA is an affiliate of Peace Action, the nation’s largest grassroots funding campaign. According to their website, “For over 50 years, Peace Action has worked for an environment where all are free from violence and war.”
Many associate Cuba with communism, the Castro family and the Cold War. These Cuban stereotypes remind many Americans of another political system and cultural circumstances. Prof. Elizabeth Ferry (ANTH), who led a tour to Cuba this year as part of Brandeis Travelers program, brought back stories that challenge these stereotype. In 1961, during the heart of the Cold War, the United States banned Americans from visiting this neighbor. Things changed in 2015 when the U.S government historically restored diplomatic relations with Cuba.