Hadassah Waldman Blocker HC'34, of Newton, Mass., a member of Hebrew College's Board of Overseers, was honored by the Jewish Women's Archives on March 2, during Women's History Month, at the fifth annual Women Who Dared dinner. The dinner celebrated contemporary Jewish women who have dared to stand up for the rights of others. More than 40 years ago, Hadassah paved the way for Conservative Jewish women's participation in synagogue life.
Norman Finkelstein P'57, HC'61, MA'86, class agent, spoke at Hebrew College last December to visiting students and teachers from Haifa's Alliance School. After receiving a travel grant from The Brookline Foundation to study about Jews in colonial and revolutionary America, he published a source-book that will be included in the curriculum for Brookline Public Schools as well as a Prozdor course next year. In March, the Jewish Publication Society will reissue his first book for young readers,
Remember Not to Forget: A Memory of the Holocaust. His latest book, a biography of Ariel Sharon, will be published in the coming year by A&E Biography, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group.
Fran Muchnick Goldstein, who attended Prozdor and Camp Yavneh in the mid-1950s, graduated from Brandeis University and taught at Temple Emeth in Chestnut Hill, Mass., from 1962 to 1963. After making aliyah with her two children, Eric and Karen, in 1976, she worked for El Al Israel Airlines and the diamond exchange in Ramat Gan. She publishes English and Hebrew directories for the Antwerp and Israeli diamond industries, and her
Keyguide Directories—a pocket-sized reference guide to the diamond centers—is internationally acclaimed. She recently published the book
Sightholder Showcase: The Branding of the Diamond Industry. Fran's late father,
Isadore H. Y. Muchnick, a Hebrew College alumnus, graduated from Harvard University in 1928, and her mother volunteered at Hebrew College's cafeteria. She has three grandchildren.
Ruth Kaplan P'66, was elected to a three-year term on the Brookline School Committee in May 2003. Involved in Jewish education, law and educational policy, she transferred from Hebrew College to the Jewish Theological Seminary's Seminary College of Jewish Studies, where she received a BHL in 1971. A 1981 graduate of Boston College Law School, she earned her bachelor's from Barnard College in 1971 and her master's in near eastern Judaic studies from Brandeis University in 1974. She and her husband, Toby Kusmer, a patent lawyer, have two daughters—Anna Kusmer and Sarah Rose Kusmer—who both attend Prozdor. Ruth's mother,
Eleanor, is a 1999 Me'ah graduate and her father, Judge Sumner Kaplan, is currently enrolled in Me'ah, making her part of a multi-generational "Hebrew College family."
Celia Goldman Lyons P'37, HC'41, will be the Grand Marshal leading the processional at Hebrew College's 79th Commencement exercises on June 6. She is the founder of the Boston
Chug Ivri and a supporter of the College through the Celia and Melvin Lyons Cultural Fund.
Robert Kraft P'58, founder and chairman of the Kraft Group, a private holding company headquartered in Boston, is the owner of the New England Patriots—the Super Bowl XXXVIII champions—and 2004 recipient of the Vince Lombardi Super Bowl Trophy. He and his wife,
Myra Me'ah'01, reside in Brookline, Mass.
Rabbi Leonard A. Sharzer P'60, of New York City, formerly a clinical professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, retired from medical practice in 1999 to enter rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), where he was ordained in May 2003. In addition to 17 book chapters and 26 journal articles in medical literature, he has recently published "Artificial Hydration and Nutrition: Revisiting the Dorff and Reisner Teshuvot" in
Conservative Judaism. A Fellow of the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies at JTS, he is working in the area of bioethics. His wife, Lois, founder and president of Lois Sharzer Associates Inc., does marketing and consulting, and staff development in the areas of educational publishing and children's literature. They have two daughters—Jessica, a filmmaker in Los Angeles, Calif., who wrote and directed a feature film for Showtime called
Speak, which premiered at the Sundance Festival this year; and Rebecca, who earned a physical therapy degree from Northeastern University, has a background in integrative nutrition and is launching a private practice in holistic counseling.
Dr. L. Seymour Simckes P'54, HC'58, is proud to announce the opening of his plays—
Nossig's Antics, this spring, and
Soldier Boys, starring Judd Hirsch, in the fall—both at the Theater for the New City in NYC. Living in New Haven, Conn., he is a psychotherapist and teaches writing workshops at Yale University as well as an online writing class for an international interactive writing institute. At Yale Hillel's Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life, he sits at the Hebrew-speaking table.
Rabbi Barbara Sachs Speyer P'59, HC'63, MHL'67, class agent, was inaugurated president of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains (NACJ) on January 13, 2004, for a two-year term. She and her husband, Dr. Jason Speyer, have four children.
Professor S. Ilan Troen P'58, HC'62, teaches modern history at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and was recently appointed to the Karl, Harry and Helen Stoll Chair in Israel Studies at Brandeis University. Founding editor of the journal
Israel Studies, he has written and edited several books.
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