imprint
Winter '00
■
Volume 20
■
Brandeis University
National Women’s
Committee
Dedicated to the support of the
Brandeis University Libraries
Number 2
Last Chance...
Don't Sit This One Out
With only weeks to go, the Brandeis University National Women’s Committee campaign to endow a chair
for the University Librarian is climbing toward its goal of $2.5 million. Don’t sit on the sidelines as we race
to the finish—just $330,000 to go.
At the heart of the Brandeis success story are the Libraries, built from the ground up, book by book, with
the invaluable support of thousands of donors like you.
When the Campaign reaches its goal, the Brandeis Libraries will join the ranks of Harvard, Johns Hopkins,
the University of Illinois and a handful of other prestigious universities that have funded a chair for this
important position.
Your gift today will help us fulfill our promises for tomorrow.
Gifts may be made in cash, with appreciated stock or with MasterCard, Visa or American Express
and must be finalized by March 15, 2000 in order to be included in recognition programs.
Call toll free 1-888-TO-BUNWC (1-888-862-8692) for additional information.
Heller Graduate School at 40:
Focus on the Working Poor
A
s the American economy mints new millionaires
daily, one group continues to be left behind: the
working poor. The Heller Graduate School at
Brandeis University marked its 40th anniversary in
November with a symposium dedicated to these invisible
millions of men and women who are working hard and
playing by the rules, yet are barely able to make ends
meet.
“For 40 years, The Heller School has focused on those who
are socially excluded — the people who need help in order
to help themselves,” Heller School Dean Jack Shonkoff
told the audience of 400. “Two generations of leaders in
social policy and health and human services have used
their Heller education to work more effectively for social
justice.”
“Since the overhaul of welfare, the problems of the poor
and the problems of the working poor have become one
and the same,” Robert Reich, the former labor secretary
and current University Professor and Maurice B. Hexter
Professor of Social and Economic Policy at The Heller
School told the many Heller alumni and others in
attendance.
“These are the invisible people in our economy — the
laundry workers, hotel workers, custodians, hospital
Heller in Brief
1200 Heller alumni work as social welfare managers,
analysts, and top-level policymakers in 46 states and 19
countries.
Heller alumni are represented in all levels of government, including the White House and state houses and
they direct countless human service agencies.
Teaching the next generation, they include one college
president, 17 deans, and faculty members at the nation’s
top institutions of higher education.
orderlies and aides, child-care workers, retail and
restaurant workers, garage attendants, and others who
work but remain impoverished. They are playing by all the
rules, and yet their families are still falling behind. They're
still not on the public agenda.”
Inside
Research Briefs: aging brains find
alternate routes to memory
2
Books: what’s really rare?
3
Chapter/region news
6
4 exceptional students from California,
Florida, New York, and Virginia
7
Click on to Brandeis...check out our
websites
While The Heller School is distinctive in its commitment
to the least powerful members of society — the poor, the
elderly, children and individuals with disabilities — the
school is also known for the academic excellence
Continued on page 2
CONFERENCE 2000
Planning for the 21st Century
Formulas
Success
4
Wednesday, May 31 — Sunday, June 4, 2000
Meet and learn from faculty, tour libraries and campus, see old friends and new
Conference Chair: Gayle Wise
Brandeis University
National Women’s Committee
Waltham, Massachusetts 02454-9110
Address Correction Requested
Nonprofit org
U.S. Postage
PAID
Hudson, MA
Permit No. 6
8
PRESIDENTIAL
PERSPECTIVE
By Marcia F. Levy
My new IBM computer has
an AMD Athlon Chip, a 20
Gigabyte Hard Drive and
128 Megabytes of RAM. I
had hoped that with all this
potential, it would turn out
a clever column while I was
it the movies, but when I
returned, the screen was totally blank.
Obviously, computers still are dependent
upon human beings.
Libraries, too, are dependent upon human
beings, and just as the output of a computer
depends upon the person who operates it, so
does the excellence of a library closely relate
to the excellence of its librarian. How
fortunate we are to have Bessie Hahn as the
highly skilled administrator of the Brandeis
University Libraries.
We are approaching the end of our $2.5
million campaign to endow the Brandeis
University National Women's Committee
University Librarian Chair. This endowment
ensures that Brandeis will always be able to
secure a librarian of the highest calibre. In the
initial stages of the campaign, much
excitement was generated throughout the
country as gala events were planned in
chapters, and many of you were anxious to
wear the golden chair pin which symbolized
your gifts. Now, we must sustain that
excitement as we make a final push to fulfill
this commitment.
March 15 is the deadline to receive chapter
and individual recognition in the new
Women's Committee commemorative garden,
which overlooks the main entrance of
Goldfarb/Farber Library. Individual names
will be inscribed in the sculptured bronze
book for gifts of $3000 and above, and names
of chapters who have reached their 1999-2000
50th Anniversary goal by March 15 will be
inscribed on bricks within the garden.
The opportunity to participate in the
endowment of a University Chair is a
singular one. To place the name of BUNWC
on an endowed chair will bring us prestige.
We are a heartbeat away, and with everyone's
help we can do it!
Research Briefs
Continued from page 1
embedded within its social mission. In
reputational surveys, it ranks among the
top 10 social policy graduate programs
nationwide.
Caretakers Pay Big Price
Brandeis University’s National Center on
Women & Aging (NCWA) has documented
for the first time the enormous price those
who provide care for elderly relatives pay
in lost wages, lost Social Security and
pension contributions due to time off, and
reduced opportunities for promotions,
training, and desirable job assignments.
The study will provide much-needed hard
evidence to persuade governments to
enact subsidies or tax credits
commensurate with losses suffered by
caretakers and possibly employers to offer
caregiving workers flexible schedules or
paid leave.
The average direct and indirect cost to the
study’s 55 subjects was $659,000 over the
time they provided care. The average
length of caregiving was eight years; one
in three provided care for more than a
decade. Three-quarters of caregivers are
women, usually daughters or daughters-inlaw. Among caregivers employed outside
the home, five in six were forced to quit,
retire prematurely, cut back their work
hours, take sick time, vacation time, or a
leave of absence
from their jobs.
“In honoring their
obligations to
elderly relatives,
caregivers may
imperil their own
long-term
financial health,”
says NCWA
Executive
Director Phyllis Mutschler. “This study
reveals the true costs to caregivers of
providing assistance, which have long
been trivialized.” Mutschler says greater
recognition of the costs by policymakers
and employers could do much to ease the
sting.
A BUNWC Strategic Planning Committee has
been meeting during the course of this year to
address a variety of issues. How can we best
serve the University and its Libraries in the
years ahead? Are there new directions or new
programs that we might find exciting to
explore? How can we develop a committed
membership? This committee will make its
final report at our National Conference.
Conference 2000 will be an important one for
all of us. In addition to receiving information
and inspiration, we will elect and install a
new slate of national officers, all of whom
will serve a two year term. The dates are
May 31-June 4, so mark your calendars now
and watch for more details. There will not be
B
another national conference until 2002
Volen Research: Aging Brains
Find Alternate Routes to Memory
The brain can
compensate
when normal
aging keeps its
important
neural circuits
from working
as well as they
should, recent
research by
scientists at
Brandeis, the
University of Toronto, and the Baycrest
Centre for Geriatric Care in Ontario has
revealed. The brain calls upon substitute
circuits to pitch in, the researchers found.
The finding suggests that our brains may
constantly reorganize themselves
throughout our lives in an effort to ensure
peak mental performance.
Sekuler, the Louis and Frances Salvage
Professor of Psychology in Brandeis’s
Volen National Center for Complex
Systems, and his Canadian colleagues
made their surprising finding by devising a
simple test of short-term visual memory.
A small number of older and younger
volunteers compared patterns shown to
them in rapid succession while PET
scanners measured instantaneous blood
flow in the brain to determine which areas
of their brains were active.
“These brain images showed that older
and younger people depend upon very
different brain circuits to remember what
they’ve just seen,” Sekuler reported. The
researchers now plan to probe the brain’s
normal limits of reorganization, and
search for ways to push those limits
B
through training.
Winter 2000
Professor Emeritus Gunnar Dybwad (left)
and Robert Reich, University Professor
and Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social
and Economy Policy
Brandeis University
National Women’s
Committee
imprint
President
Marcia F. Levy
imprint Chair
Shirley Brickman
Chair Communications Committee
Helen Meltzer
Executive Director
Joan C. Bowen
Director of Programming and
Publications
Beth Bernstein, M.A. ‘90
Want to Live Longer? Try Volunteering
Editor
Mary Pat Prado
People who volunteered at least 40 hours per year were more likely to be alive 7 1/2
years later than those who did not volunteer, according to a University of Michigan
study. Researchers studied more than 1000 people age 65 and older.
Designer
Thea Shapiro
In another study conducted by Civic Ventures, a public-policy group in San Francisco
that encourages older people to work with charities, respondents aged 50 to 75 said that
volunteering and community service are among their top priorities during retirement,
but the study found that relatively few currently participate in such activities regularly.
Commenting on the study, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that
the most likely to volunteer are women and people with college
educations. The most popular forms of volunteering cited were raising
money, helping old people, and working with children and young people.
Americans who have not yet retired place an even higher priority on
volunteering.
6
Half of those polled in the survey said that they considered helping non-profit
organizations to be “fairly important” or “very important” in their retirement years,
second only to traveling. About three-quarters of those interviewed currently volunteer,
but only about a third of that group do so several times a month or more. The biggest
obstacles to volunteering more regularly are lack of time (39 per cent), service requiring
too much of a commitment (23 per cent), problems in finding activities suited to their
skills and interests (11 per cent), and simply not being asked (10 per cent).
Interestingly, a whopping two-thirds of those surveyed said they would consider
spending 15 hours a week in community service if they were offered financial or other
benefits, such as weekly stipends, education credits, or reduced costs for prescription
drugs. In addition, those polled gave high ratings to feeling vital and physically active,
maintaining social connections and friendships, and feeling valued and needed.
2
Participants also met for roundtable
discussions on restoring the social
contract for children and families; health
care for the uninsured; aging and
disabilities; the organization and quality of
work; and the economies of
B
global societies.
MetLife’s Mature Market Institute funded
the research, conducted in conjunction
with the National Alliance for Caregiving.
The National Center on Women & Aging,
established in 1995 at the Heller School,
brings national attention to issues
affecting women at midlife and beyond.
Neuroscientist and vision expert Robert
As the chair campaign winds down, we must
begin to consider new challenges for the
future. Now that we have entered the 21st
century, we, like all organizations, must
recognize the changes in our volunteer
environment and be willing to respond to
them..
A group of well-known academics and
public leaders —including law professors
Peter Edelman and Lucy Williams,
community organizer Ernesto Cortes,
sociologist Harriett Presser, Cessna
Aircraft Company CEO Russell W. Meyer
Jr. and Welfare to Work Partnership CEO
Eli Segal — participated in forums on
workplace inequality, welfare reform, and
the emerging 24-hour economy during
the symposium.
B
Photographer
Julian Brown
imprint is published three times a year in
January, May, and October for the
members of the Brandeis University
National Women’s Committee. Please
share with our readers your chapter’s
accomplishments and experiences or
information about members that you
think would be of interest to our readers.
Materials submitted for publication
should be typewritten and include a
contact name, address and phone number.
Photographs should be fully identified on
a separate piece of paper. Deadline:
March 15, 2000
Brandeis University
National Women’s Committee
MS 132
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
e-mail: bunwc@brandeis.edu
Our Mission Statement
Imprint is published in support of the mission
of the Brandeis University National Women’s
Committee, i.e., to provide financial support
and growth for the Brandeis University
Libraries, to offer members opportunities for
intellectual pursuit, continuing education,
community service, personal development and
leadership development, and to inform readers
of the University’s accomplishments.
Up Front & Personal: Goldie Moss,Los Angeles
G
oldie Moss calls her recent 90th birthday the “most celebrated” of her life and “the
most meaningful.” Although she has many pictures taken with famous people and
shelves and drawers full of plaques and awards from a lifetime of service and
leadership in her community, her daughter’s recent gift of a Library Collection to the
Brandeis Libraries in her honor means the most.
To mark the milestone Judy Moss Stuart established the Goldie Moss Library Collection
in Twentieth Century American History and Culture because the Brandeis Libraries have
been a cause near and dear to her mother’s heart for the past 50 years.
The founder of the Los Angeles Chapter, a former national vice president, and current
honorary board member of the National Women’s Committee, this spirited and
accomplished woman said of her daughter’s gift: “During years of dedication to many
worthy causes, one can collect...various awards, trophies, engraved plaques and citations;
none of these honors, though deeply appreciated, can compare with the recognition that I
have received on this special occasion and throughout my association with the University
and the wonderful National Women’s Committee.”
“Brandeis and the National Women’s Committee have been the focus of my mother’s
life,” Stuart says. “She met so many fascinating people through Brandeis and even opened
and operated a development office here in Los Angeles for the University in its early days.
In addition to her Women’s Committee work, she put on a big fund raising dinner every
year for the University.”
This year also marked the 70th anniversary of Goldie Moss’s graduation from UCLA at
the age of 19. She started teaching high school English and history at the age of 20 after
earning her MA in history from USC. “She would get stopped in the hall for a pass
because she was often mistaken for a student,” Stuart says.
Once featured among the top women in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Times, Moss
served over the years as president of the Jewish Professional Women’s Club, head of the
Conference of Jewish Women’s Organizations in Los Angeles, and on the Los Angeles
Emigre Committee which helped settle Jewish refugees from Europe during the Holocaust.
She has painted and written poetry and, just three years ago, turned her graduate school
thesis into an historical novel. “I’ve filled my life with things that help people,” she
reflects. “When I was helping my grandson recently with an essay on how to be
successful, I told him you need three things — a caring heart, an inquiring mind, and a
sense of humor. That’s about it.
ooklovers who snap up the newest
novel, biography or memoir while it’s
hot off the press might be surprised
to find that some of these relatively new
first editions are already worth several
hundred dollars on the rare and used book
market. Skyrocketing prices for first
editions of classics such as Jack Kerouac’s
On the Road, Ulysses by James Joyce, and
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird have
fostered speculation in newer books,
especially first editions printed within the
last five years that are still in pristine
condition and preferably signed by the
author.
B
•It is bound in leather or has beautiful
decorated cloth boards.
•It is signed or inscribed to a well-known
person by an author and/or illustrator.
•It is an illustrated book about art,
antiques, architecture, photography,
natural history, etc.
•It is an early edition of collected subjects
(military unit history, slavery,
freemasonry, etc.)
•It is a first edition novel of a collected
author or the author’s first book with dust
jacket.
•It has one or more of the above and is in
at least Very Good condition.
Frank McCourt’s 1996 memoir Angela’s
Ashes, for instance, sells on the Internet
for $500 and Charles Frazier’s Cold
Mountain, for a similar amount. Both
books became best sellers after small first
print runs. If the book is made into a hit
movie, it is worth even more. If the movie
version fails, it can actually hurt the value
of the book.
The condition of a book is critical to its
value. In order for a book to be considered
collectible, it should fall into one of these
top three standard categories of condition:
mint — as new/never read; fine—no defect,
yet not quite as fresh as a new book; very
good — shows some general shelf wear
such as rubbing, slight fading or a frayed
dustjacket.
This unpredictable hypermodern collecting
is just one aspect of the rare and used book
business, which nets the National
Women’s Committee (NWC) almost half a
million dollars annually for the Brandeis
Libraries through chapter sales and its rare
book catalog. (A complete list of titles can
be found on the Internet at
www.abebooks.com under the listing
NWC Book Business.) More than 300
books have been donated by NWC
members and friends to the catalog since
its inception, selling at $35-$700. Those
trying to determine if they have books
appropriate for the catalog or a chapter rare
book auction can follow some simple
guidelines. Following are the top reasons a
book may be collectible:
Some collectible authors include Margaret
Atwood, Jane Austen, James Baldwin, Saul
Bellow, Albert Camus, Raymond Chandler,
Agatha Christie, Pat Conroy, Michael
Crichton, Louise Erdrich, Ian Fleming,
Dick Francis, Sue Grafton, John Grisham,
Stephen King, Toni Morrison, Robert
Parker, and Anne Rice.
•It is a numbered and/or limited edition.
•It is illustrated by a noted artist. (See list
below.)
•It is an Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARC) or
Uncorrected Proof (UP) of a book by a
collected author. (See list below.)
Visit www.abebooks.com, under the
listing NWC Book Business, to see the
National Women’s Committee’s rare
book offerings.
Collected illustrators include J.J. Audubon,
Aubrey Beardsley, Max Beerbohm,
Margaret Bourke-White, Kate Greenaway,
Rockwell Kent, Maxfield Parrish, Arthur
Rackham, Norman Rockwell, Maurice
Sendak, and N.C. Wyeth.
2000
That Gold on Your Shelf Could Benefit Brandeis
Conference
Goldie Moss (left) celebrates her 90th birthday with her daughter Judy Moss Stuart.
“I am proud of my daughter, Judy Moss Stuart,” she continued, “who has honored me
with a generous gift to the Library. Although my name will grace the bookplates (in the
collection), the bronze plaque, and the Tribute Wall (in the Library), thousands of
dedicated women throughout the 50 years have provided the tools that are living
memorials. I share my honor with them.”
B
Join us on
May 31
through
June 4.
Tour the
libraries, and
the campus.
See old
friends and
make new
ones. Talk
with
Brandeis
faculty. And
help plan for
the 21st
Century.
We want to hear from you.
Write to: Letters,
Brandeis University
National Women’s Committee,
MS 132, Waltham, MA 02454-9110
or email us at: bunwc@brandeis.edu.
Please include your name, chapter,
and city/town in which you live.
Correction — Thanks a Thousand
For questions or additional information on
evaluating books for the catalog or to
receive a printed catalog, write: Brandeis
University National Women’s Committee,
Mailstop 132, Waltham, MA 02454-9110 or
B
call 781-736-4160.
Offered at $75 in the National Women’s
Committee’s rare book catalog is this
autographed, first edition copy of David
Balducci’s first novel Absolute Power in as
new condition. It was published in 1996,
making the author an overnight success.
We apologize for the omission of the
names of Joan Loeb and Marcia J.
Fuchsberg Auster '67 from the “Thanks a
Thousand” list of major donors in the fall
issue of Imprint. In addition, the Altman
Foundation should have been listed as
The Jack and Sylvia Altman Foundation.
We would also like to clarify that the list
included only the names of those who
made gifts to Brandeis, the Brandeis
Libraries or the Campaign for the
University Librarian Chair during fiscal
year 1999.
Winter 2000 3
1900
The Turn of Another Century
The Collections: “The Immigrant in America: Jews,” microfilm collections from the holdings of the
New York Public Library, containing more than 300 books and pamphlets, and several hundred books
on the religious, labor, cultural, and political aspects of immigration.
Immigration
I
n the century’s first decade nine million people came to America from abroad, about
the entire population of the country in 1820. Very few spoke English. New York had
more Italians than Rome, more Jews than Warsaw, more Irish than Dublin and more
blacks than any city in the world. Most of these immigrants took up residence in
American cities ill equipped to accommodate them. Jacob Riis estimated, in How the
Other Half Lives (1890), that by the nineties New York’s Lower East Side had almost
twice as many people per square mile as Dickens’s London, making it perhaps the worst
slum in the history of the Western world.
Ronald Sanders says in his seminal work on Jewish immigration to America, Shores of
Refuge, during the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Lower East Side of New
York took on a character that made its way into American folklore. To the social
reformer, it was a place of filth, squalor, overcrowding, and intolerable conditions. For
others, it was the home of a culture more vital than any they saw elsewhere in American
life. Fortunately for these European Jews, the sanitary and dietary practices prescribed by
their religion gave them some protection against disease.
Photo courtesy of the Brearley Collection
Indeed, in a 1902 booklet in the Libraries’s collection, “Health and Sanitation of the
Immigrant Jewish Population of New York,” Herbert Bentwich pointed out that although
references to unsanitary surroundings at the turn of the century often pointed to the
Lower East Side as an extreme example, he maintained that conditions were not as bad as
usually portrayed.
Stephen S. Wise
The Collections: Stephen S. Wise Family Papers (1899-1951), given to the Brandeis Libraries by his
great niece Rosemary Krensky, one of the first members of the North Shore, IL Chapter of the
National Women’s Committee, and the Stephen S. Wise (public) Papers (1841-1978)
A
college graduate at 18, a rabbi at 19, and later co-founder of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil
Liberties Union, Zionist and social reformer Stephen S. Wise had a lasting impact
on the American Jewish community and many others who fell within his sphere of
influence.
Wise acted as an important intermediary to President Woodrow Wilson when he helped
formulate the text of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 with Louis D. Brandeis and Felix
Frankfurter. (The Balfour Declaration approved the establishment of a national home for
the Jewish people in Palestine, then controlled by the British.) He spoke on behalf of
Zionist aspirations in Palestine at the Versailles Peace Conference of 1918-19, where he
also pleaded for the cause of the Armenian people.
He was also one of the first to warn of the dangers of Nazism and presented the Jewish
cause to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the U.S. State Department. A social liberal,
Wise pleaded for clemency and justice on behalf of Sacco and Vanzetti in 1927 and battled
for the rights of workers to organize. He even exposed corruption in New York City and
succeeded in forcing the resignation of the mayor in 1932 when he helped lead the City
Affairs Committee.
The son of a rabbi, Wise realized
his childhood dream of following
in his father’s footsteps when he
was ordained in 1893. He
became rabbi of Temple Beth
Israel in Portland, Oregon,
where, for six years he pioneered
in interfaith cooperation, social
service, and civic leadership. He
also served as unpaid
commissioner of child labor for
Oregon while living there.
Wise returned to New York in
1907 and founded the Free
Synagogue, based on freedom of
pulpit, not subject to control by
a board of trustees, and free
pews to all without fixed dues.
He used his pulpit to criticize
social ills and created an
extensive program of social
welfare.
Salem Street, North End, Boston, 1901
The adjustment to life in America, however, was trying. “It was a tremendous struggle,”
says Larry Fuchs, the Meyer and Walter Jaffe Professor of American Civilization and
Politics at Brandeis and one of the nation’s foremost scholars on immigration. “It was
particularly difficult for the fathers, because there was so much emphasis on making a
living.” Harold Evans relates in his book American Century: “The Jews in eastern Europe
had started to call America goldineh medina, the golden country, but the transition was
wrenching, loved ones and homes abandoned, the countryside exchanged for a thrusting
industrial culture....An immigrant guidebook of 1891 on surviving in the United States is
urgent in its advice:
The Stephen S. Wise Family
Papers Collection sheds light on
this remarkable man’s
relationship with members of
his family. Wise’s public papers
are available in the Brandeis
Libraries in microform.
‘Hold fast, this is most necessary in America. Forget your customs, and your ideals.
Select a goal and pursue it with all your might...You will experience a bad time, but
sooner or later you will achieve your goal. If you are neglectful, beware the wheel of
fortune turns fast. You will lose your grip and be lost. A bit of advice for you: Do not
take a moment’s rest. Run. ...A final virtue is needed in America — called cheek. ....Do
not say, I cannot, I do not know.’”
Despite the hardships, life was not all gloom and doom. David George Plotkin had this to
say about the Lower East Side in his charming poem “Orchard Street,” which is part of
the Brandeis microfilm collection:
“No peonies or gillyflowers can grow
In barren sands or steaming slums, and so
God planted girls upon the paves to bring
The balm of beauty to our sorrowing.”
4
Winter 2000
Last picture of Rabbi Stephen
S. Wise taken by E.M. Logan
in 1949 at Usen Castle on the
Brandeis campus. Left is Dr.
Abram Sachar, founding
president of
Brandeis.
1900
At the dawn of a new century, join us for a tour of the rich collections in the Brandeis Libraries as we look back at some of the events
and people that shaped the last century. In 1900 waves of desperate immigrants were risking all to seek a new life in America. Political
turmoil and violence rocked parts of Europe. Jews throughout the world rallied for a homeland as Zionism took root. New-fangled
machines rolled off assembly lines in an industrial revolution that brought unheard-of conveniences to the common man. The Brandeis
collections give students and scholars insight into this tumultous time`.
The Collections: Alfred Dreyfus Trial and Leo Frank Trial
Two historic events, which took place an ocean apart but with much in common, are fully documented
in the Brandeis Libraries’s Special Collections. In 1894 army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted on a
charge of treason in a spectacular miscarriage of justice that came to be known as the Dreyfus Affair
and permanently altered the political landscape in France. The same anti-Semitism that sparked the
Dreyfus Affair led to the unfair conviction and later lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory
superintendent in Atlanta, Georgia. The Frank Collection provides a moving portrait of a good and
gentle man caught in a firestorm of hate and prejudice that cost him his life.
Alfred Dreyfus
Captain Alfred Dreyfus was accused of having written an anonymous document, addressed to
the German military attaché in Paris, revealing French military secrets. Upon discovery of the
document in the German embassy, suspicion fell on Dreyfus, an Alsatian Jew. He was courtmartialed, sentenced to life imprisonment, and shipped off to Devil’s Island.
When Lieutenant Colonel George Picquart, the head of French military intelligence, later
uncovered evidence implicating another officer, Picquart was silenced and dismissed from
the service. Relatives and supporters of Dreyfus also uncovered evidence, forcing the
army to court-martial the newly accused. He was promptly acquitted. After an appeal by
Dreyfus, the French Supreme Court of Appeal ordered a new trial in 1899, but Dreyfus
was found guilty a second time.
Dreyfus/FrankTrials
Photo Courtesy of Brandeis Libraries’s Collections
By this time the case had become a major political
issue. Royalist, militarist, nationalist, and Roman
Catholic elements joined the anti-Dreyfus group, while
republican, socialist and anticlerical forces allied to
defend Dreyfus and to discredit the rightist
government. The immediate result of the Dreyfus
Affair was to bring to power the French left wing. Ten
days after the 1899 national elections, Dreyfus was
pardoned. This change in government led to the
separation of church and state in France six years later.
Dreyfus was reinstated in the army, decorated with the
Legion of Honor, and served his country in World War I.
The Dreyfus Collection includes approximately 1,000
books, pamphlets, photographs of the principal
characters in the drama, and newspapers, as well as
correspondence of French notables.
LEO FRANK
Move Over, Harry Potter
Children’s books such as the Harry
Potter series making the best-seller list
may seem like a phenomenon that
could happen only in this day of hypermarketing. But about 100 years ago
another children’s book, Francis
Hodgson Burnett’s Little Lord
Fauntleroy took the world by storm.
Copies flew out of bookstores, including
a lovely first edition now residing in the
Brandeis Libraries. The story changed
children’s fashions almost overnight.
Parents loved the velveteen, satin and
lace knicker suits the charming little
lord wore in the book, even if their
children did not. The book’s popularity
marked the birth of clothing designed
specifically for children.
Rare Books Span the
Centuries
Among the many rare and beautiful books in the Brandeis Libraries’s
Special Collections are these selections, published over the centuries.
1500
“I am putting up a good fight, for I am innocent of this
horrible charge, and the world will some day know it,”
Leo Frank wrote a supporter on April 29, 1915 from his cell at the state prison at
Milledgeville, Georgia. He had been sentenced to death for the murder of a young girl
employed at the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta where he had worked as a
superintendent.
Antonius Mancinellus. Scribendi orandique modus. Published in
Leipzig, Wolfgang Stockel, 1500. Part of the Brandeis collection of 43
incunables, books published before the sixteenth century.
A janitor, Jim Conley, a suspect in the killing, accused Leo Frank of the murder of 12 yearold Mary Phagan who was found in the factory furnace room, strangled to death in April,
1913. Witnesses swore — falsely it was later proved — that Frank was a sexual deviant.
Leo Frank was found guilty on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to hang. A mob
atmosphere surrounding the trial erupted against “the Jew.”
Bible. O.T. Lamentations. Hebrew. Published in Venice, Zanetti, 1600.
Hebrew commentary on Lamentations by Samuel Uceda, with the
Hebrew text of Lamentations interspersed.
Alfred Dreyfus.
The letter declaring his innocence and acknowledging the support of a stranger from
Farrill, Alabama, is one of scores of original handwritten cards and letters in the Leo Frank
Collection in the Brandeis Libraries, including heartbreaking correspondence between him
and his wife Lucille Frank, often beginning with “dear honey” and ending with “your
sweetheart.” Shortly after his conviction he wrote her requesting “5 sets of underwear and
6 pairs of socks — not silk.”
Frank was lynched by an anti-Semitic mob that broke into the prison where he was
incarcerated, enraged by the commutation of Frank’s death sentence by Georgia Governor
John M. Slaton. It would be 71 years before the State of Georgia declared to the world
Frank’s innocence when it officially pardoned him in 1986.
The Brandeis collection includes letters of support to the family and the governor from
Pittsburgh, Chicago, North Carolina, Washington, D.C., Indiana, and Canada. Petitions
filled with signatures on behalf of Frank’s pardon were sent to the governor from Alaska,
Kentucky, and places in between.
After Governor Slaton’s unpopular decision to commute Frank’s death sentence (to life
imprisonment), an eloquent letter to the editor of The Tribune, a Boston newspaper, read:
“Governor Slaton’s action in commuting the sentence of Leo Frank is a noble expression of
the traditions of America and of her bar. It showed scrupulous regard for the rights of the
individual citizen, a love of justice, moral courage and high intelligence.”
B
Louis D. Brandeis
1600
1700
Histoire du Vieux et du Nouveau Testament. Published in Amsterdam,
P. Mortier, 1700. Two large volumes with many engraved plates.
1800
William Wordsworth. Lyrical ballads. 2nd edition. Published in London.
Printed for T.N. Longman and O. Rees, 1800.
1900
T.J. Cobden-Sanderson. The ideal book or book beautiful; a tract
on calligraphy, printing, and illustration and on the book beautiful as
a whole. Published in Hammersmith (England), The Doves Press, 1900.
Donations to the National Women’s Committee Library Benefactor
Fund provide for rare and choice acquisitions.
Winter 2000 5
CHAPTER & REGION NEWS
This group from the New England Region enjoyed a five-day trip to the spectacular
Venetian Resort Hotel in Las Vegas, a fund raiser for the Brandeis Libraries. The
program included guest speakers Gerald R. Molen, co-producer of the film “Schindler’s
List,” and Edythe Katz Yarchever who spoke on the history of the Jews in Nevada. The
trip was organized by New England Region President Gloria Field and Marilyn Davis,
co-president of the Norfolk/Sharon, MA Chapter.
Beaming at a very successful 51st Gala is
Greater Chicago Chapter President
Shirlee Strasburg (center) with guest
speaker Bessie Hahn (left), assistant
provost and university librarian at
Brandeis, and National Women’s
Committee President Marcia Levy.
The Concordia, New Jersey, Chapter claims members in one out of every three
households in its retirement community. More than half of them gathered in
September to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Brandeis and the National Women’s
Committee. This committee of 16 spent a year planning the event which featured Dr.
Michael Blumenthal, formerly secretary of the treasury, president of Bendix
Corporation and chairman and CEO of the Unisys Corporation, and currently head of
the Berlin Jewish Museum. Renowned artist Peter Max also helped the chapter
celebrate with the donation of a painting over poster entitled “Israel’s 50th
Anniversary.” The Chapter has given the artwork to the University.
This Lunch and Learn group of the
Inverrary Woodlands, Florida, Chapter has
been meeting faithfully for more than six
years to discuss a variety of topics with a
Jewish theme and to raise money for the
Brandeis Libraries.
Neither wind, nor rain, nor soggy fairways
kept the 40 men and women of the San
Fernando Valley Chapter, including chapter
President Muriel Eiduson from joining the
chapter’s First Annual Golf Tournament to
raise money for the Brandeis Libraries. The
skies cleared to a brilliant blue when the
first foursome teed off. The event was
organized by members Sid Eiduson, Joe
Letvin, and Gordon Green.
Renowned pop artist James Rosenquist
(center) was the guest of honor at a benefit
for the Librarian Chair Campaign,
sponsored by the New England Region at
the Rose Art Museum on the Brandeis
campus. His work is part of the
permanent collection of the museum.
Pictured with Rosenquist are event cochairs Ellie Shuman (left) and Kay Stein,
MA '72.
Twenty-one former presidents of the
Minneapolis/St. Paul Chapter were
honored recently at the largest event ever
held by the chapter, a brunch to celebrate
the 50th Anniversary of the National
Women’s Committee. A capacity crowd
heard the presidents chronicle the history
of the chapter.
The Pompano/Ft. Lauderdale Chapter hosted WTMI Program Director Lyn Farmer (2nd
left), a renowned wine expert, art historian and lecturer, at its annual Celebrity
Luncheon, chaired by Gigi Paleias (2nd right). Florida Region President Ada Nogee is at
left and Elaine Rabb right.
Rose Fink of the Broward West FL
Chapter shows off her volunteer of the
year award from the city of Sunrise, FL
for her leadership of the chapter’s One
on One Conversation Partners
community service program. The
program, now in its eighth year, has
grown from 6 to 60 Brandeis and other
volunteers who meet weekly for
conversations with people who want to
improve their English speaking skills.
KUDOS TO
Essex County, NJ for a study group
luncheon featuring author Belva Plain
who spoke about her latest and
seventeenth book, Fortune’s Hand, and
her earlier involvement with the
chapter as a vice president. She declined
the presidency because she was writing
her first novel Evergreen at the time.
Gotham, NY for raising $4,000 for the
Library Trust Endowment during a
luncheon at the home of former National
Women’s Committee President Marsha
Stoller. The program included a speaker
from the Manhattan Theatre Club.
Meadowbrook, NJ for its unusual study
group meeting, “Timely Events in
Judaism.” Performer Joyce Kahn sang
and played guitar while sharing
6
Winter 2000
anecdotal background information about
composers and the origins of songs. The
event concluded with a sing-a-long.
Nassau North, NY for a stimulating
afternoon exploring Professor Mary
Davis’s brieflet “Justice Louis Brandeis
and the Evolution of the Idea of Privacy,”
a program on Jewish genealogy, and a
creative event featuring singers Lois
Raebeck and Vivian Rothenberg.
Rothenberg performed her playlet “The
Cezanne Show” which she does twice in
order to play each of two roles.
The New York-New Jersey-So.
Connecticut Region for pulling off a
successful program even when their
speaker’s plane was grounded in another
city.
Brandeis Students: Drawing the Best from Coast to Coast
Matthew Kirschen ‘00
Fullerton, California
Matt Kirschen '00, Volen Center emissary
to Children’s Hospital in Boston.
Matt Kirschen may be the first Brandeis
student to have taken a “year abroad” in a
Brandeis laboratory. A neuroscience major
who had all but finalized plans to spend his
junior year conducting research in
laboratories in Israel and Australia,
Kirschen had made himself so
indispensable in a Volen Center project
studying neuroscience and memory that
Michael Kahana, assistant professor of
psychology and the Volen National Center
for Complex Systems, asked him to stay on
with the project full-time.
The research team’s front man at Boston’s
Children’s Hospital, Kirschen put in 14-hour
days teaching young people seven to 23 years
old how to play video games in the name of
science. They were at the hospital for
neurosurgery to quell severe epileptic
seizures. The games were a tool that allowed
the researchers to test navigational memory
in the brain. The successful results offer hope
for better treatments for epilepsy, which
affects some 4 million Americans.
Caryn Lederer ‘00
Williamsburg, Virginia
Wendi Adelson ‘01
Coral Springs, Florida
Caryn Lederer '00 has made the most of her
Brandeis experience, both inside and
outside the classroom. As a Schiff
Undergraduate Fellow linked with a faculty
mentor for a close-up perspective on the
daily life of a university professor, she
helped American studies professor Mary
Davis revise the syllabus for her legal
studies course “Law and Letters in
American Culture: Rape and the Written
Word.” She is acting as a teaching assistant
for the course this semester and is
developing the curriculum for a course on
the legal issues of reproductive rights.
Wendi Adelson ‘01, a 1999 Ethics and Coexistence Student Fellow at Brandeis, has
been working for peace and social justice
since she was in the eighth grade. That was
the year she launched a one-girl crusade to
provide educational materials to the poorer
day care centers of Dade and Broward
Counties in South Florida. She invested
$200 of her savings in stationery and went
to work soliciting cash and material
donations from manufacturers and inviting
local officials to serve on her “board.”
Upon her high school graduation she left
behind a legacy of $18,000 in funds raised
and many happy memories among the
children she visited and played with every
week.
An American studies major who will also
complete the legal studies and women’s
studies programs, Lederer is writing her
senior thesis on criminal transmission of
HIV statutes. Not one to bury her head in
her books, she has pursued her academic
interests in campus activities as well. She
is the co-coordinator of the Student
Sexuality Information Service, a studentrun counseling and referral service open
about 40 hours per week. She is also
serving her fourth year on the board of the
Women’s Resource Center and her third
year on the University Board on Student
Conduct. She was involved during her
second year at Brandeis in creating a sexual
misconduct policy for the University.
Wendi Adelson ‘01 (center) with her new
friends from the Mothers of the Plaza de
Mayo in Buenos Aires.
When his plane was stuck on the ground
in Washington, Thomas Friedman '75,
foreign affairs correspondent for The New
York Times and author of a new book on
globalization, The Lexus and the Olive
Tree, delivered his talk from the plane
while the audience of 200 sat at rapt
attention.
Northern Virginia for a particularly
rewarding Study Group Showcase, once
postponed due to hurricane Floyd. A surprise
guest was Stephanie Wethington, class of '99
and daughter of member Nadine
Wethington. Stephanie was on her way to
Oxford University to earn her master’s
degree in the history of medicine, including
bubonic plague, smallpox and malaria. She
also plans to attend medical school.
A Schiff Undergraduate Fellow, Caryn
Lederer '00 is a teaching assistant for a
legal studies course at Brandeis.
San Antonio for contributing books from
its book sale to the Beldon Library on the
new Jewish Campus of San Antonio.
San Diego on its “Critics Corner” with
several leading local theatre critics. Program
Vice President Marsha Schwartz, coordinator
Iris Kurzweil, and committee members
Delores Cohen and Alice Alperin organized
and ran the very successful event.
San Fernando Valley, CA for its fifth annual
Children’s Book Tea with illustrator
Kathryn Hewitt, author Ann Paul Whitford,
and April Halpern Wayland who entertained with her fiddle as well as stories.
A biology and neuroscience major,
Latishya Steele '01 has developed a
passion for dance at Brandeis.
Latishya Steele ‘01 has been crazy about
science since she dissected a pig in seventh
grade biology class. “The other kids were
squeamish,” she recalls, “but I loved it.”
She pursued her passion over the next few
years by watching “Bill Nye the Science
Guy” and game shows with science
components on television, attending the
selective Brooklyn Technical High School
and spending summers in university-based
science programs.
Steele’s interests led her to Brandeis after her
junior year for the summer program,
Odyssey, where working on a research
project in math she met “very knowledgeable professors.” Once here she discovered a
whole new world of science and is pursuing a
double major in biology and neuroscience.
Lederer plans to study law and eventually
enter the realm of public policy work after
her graduation this year from Brandeis.
While the Brandeis team’s young emissary
was at first regarded as a curiosity by the
skeptical doctors and nurses at Children’s,
he soon became a respected figure in the
hospital’s halls. He was eventually included
in neurosurgeons’ pre-operative sessions
and authored a paper on the research
published in the prestigious journal Nature.
The ever-adaptable Kirschen entered
Brandeis as a physics major, but switched
to neuroscience shortly after meeting
Michael Kahana in the kosher hamburger
line at a campus picnic. His decision to
stay home for his year abroad should also
be very beneficial to his future plans to
pursue an M.D./Ph.D. “My experiences at
Brandeis and Children’s have been
awesome,” he says. “I have learned
firsthand the value of integrating scientific
and clinical research.”
Now a third-year American studies major
with a peace and conflict studies minor,
Adelson is eyeing a future in international
human rights law. As part of her fellowship, which provides undergraduates with
integrated course work and field work
related to issues of ethics and social justice
in a global context, she spent last summer
working to advance human rights in
Argentina. Living with a family in Buenos
Aires, she did office and translation work
Latishya Steele ‘01
Brooklyn, New York
during the day for the Mothers of the Plaza
de Mayo, an organization of mothers and
grandmothers of the “disappeared” in
Argentina. Nights she translated
documents relating to the elimination of
third-world debt for Nobel Peace Prize
winner Adolpho Perez Esquivel. She
worked at a camp for impoverished or
abused children on Saturdays. At one point
during her stay she joined the mothers for a
30-hour bus ride and seven-kilometer
protest march in northern Argentina to
spread the word about the country’s “dirty
war.” About the experience, she says, “I
feel I did far less for them than they did for
me.”
Tucson for another great year, including a
game day, whodunit mystery night, gala
luncheon in support of the University
Librarian Chair Campaign, and a trip.
Steele admits that the core course in
neurobiology was “tough” and bemoans the
“slings and arrows of organic chemistry,”
but with a GPA of 3.1, she is determined to
earn a Ph.D. and work on the genetics of
neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s
disease and Alzheimer’s in the future. A
McNair Scholar, Steele plans to work in a
lab on campus this summer and will
present her research findings to fellow
McNair Scholars as a requirement of that
program. The McNair Scholars Program
encourages talented students from diverse
socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds to
pursuse doctoral studies and consider
careers in academia.
Science is not Steele’s whole life at
Brandeis, however. A multi-cultural
enthusiast, she is active in the Brandeis
Black Student Organization, the Caribbean
Connection, and BUHO, a group devoted to
educating the Brandeis community about
Hawaiian culture and lifestyle. She will
join a team of ten students to organize
Orientation 2000 and will coordinate the
Intercultural Resource Program. But
perhaps her most daring pursuit at Brandeis
has been dancing, something she had never
done before. Steele tries every kind of
dancing imaginable — tap, modern, lyrical,
Israeli, African, South Asian, folk, and
modern Indian. She spends at least eight
hours per week on this new hobby, dancing
with a wide variety of groups on campus. “I
am enjoying my time at Brandeis,” Steele
says. “Among other things, I have learned
to open myself up to new experiences and
to take chances that I might not have
B
otherwise attempted.”
The Boston Chapter’s new Men’s Group
which got off to a great start with the help
of guest speaker Jonathan Kraft, executive
vice president of the New England Patriots.
And this from New York: When former
national presidents Marsha Stoller and
Barbara Miller attended a breakfast
wearing their chair pins, Hillary Clinton
recognized them immediately from the
National Women’s Committee’s visit to
the White House. “These are Brandeis
women,” Mrs. Clinton told her assistant.
“They get things done!”
Winter 2000 7
Click onto Brandeis
www.library.brandeis.edu
www.brandeis.edu
W
hat’s new, what’s hot, and anything else you want to know about
Brandeis, the Libraries, or the National Women’s Committee is now
on the Internet at three comprehensive and interconnected websites.
The Brandeis University Home Page at www.brandeis.edu contains full press
releases on the University’s latest research developments, events, and programs,
a calendar, and facts and figures about Brandeis. It also includes news of
Spingold Theatre productions, Rose Art Gallery exhibits, the Lydian String
Quartet performances, and athletic events, as well as alumni information. The
entire contents of the Brandeis Reporter, Brandeis Review, the Justice, and a
new publication on science, the Catalyst, are on-line. These require Adobe
Reader which can be downloaded free of charge directly from the website.
The viewer can even walk through on-line exhibits from the University
Archives or listen to a National Public Radio segment on two Brandeis
students, an Israeli Arab and an Israeli Jew who host a radio show designed to
promote peace and coexistence. Both of these also require software that can be
downloaded directly from the website.
The Library website, www.library.brandeis.edu, which can be accessed through
the Brandeis site, features many of the Special Collections at Brandeis as well
as the full library catalog and extensive guides for conducting research on the
Internet or in the stacks.
The newest addition to this trio, www.brandeis.edu/bunwc, contains
information about National Women’s Committee membership, study groups,
faculty speakers, book sales and Imprint (needs Adobe Reader). The
membership section includes chapters and their locations as well as contact
information for those wishing to join. “Study with the Best” is included in its
entirety, listing the most current Brandeis faculty-authored study groups —
everything from history, literature, and drama to women’s and health issues
and American pop culture.
Book sales and chapter events throughout the country are included, as well as a
link to the Rare Book Catalog. A fundraising section is under construction. The
section will outline the many ways to give to the Brandeis Libraries and will
feature full-color reproductions of all Book Fund materials.
All three websites are updated regularly. For more information, email the
National Women’s Committee at bunwc@brandeis.edu.
8
Winter 2000
www.brandeis.edu/bunwc
Get connected to Brandeis on three
information-filled websites—for the
University, its Libraries, and the newest site,
the National Women’s Committee.