ARTS Page 19
SPORTS Men’s soccer ends year in Elite Eight 16
MELA 2014
FORUM Religious freedom still deserves respect 11 The Independent Student Newspaper
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B r a n d e is U n i v e r sit y S i n c e 1 9 4 9
Justice
Volume LXVII, Number 13
www.thejustice.org
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
FACULTY
SPREADING LIGHT
Policy requires faculty reports GRACE KWON/the Justice
MOURNING A LOSS: Members of the Brandeis community held and lit each other's candles at a vigil on Sunday to commemorate the victims of recent terror attacks in Jerusalem.
Students gather to mourn for victims ■ Hillel and the Jewish
Learning Initiative on Campus held a vigil for the victims of a recent attack. By MARISSA DITKOWSKY JUSTICE EDITOR
Members of both the Brandeis and the greater Boston community were invited to gather for a vigil at Fellows Garden on Sunday night to commemorate the loss of the victims of a terror attack that took place in Jerusalem last week.
During services on Nov. 18, two terrorists entered Jerusalem synagogue Kehilat Bnei Torah armed with a gun, knives and axes. When police arrived at the scene, one of the officers involved was shot in the head, and another was seriously wounded. The attack left five civilians, three of whom were Americans, dead. Twentysix children lost a parent in the incident. The community gathered at 8 p.m. and began to light each other’s candles. Images of the victims lined the bushes of Fellows Garden by the Shapiro Campus Center. Attendees
Waltham, Mass.
were also invited to write letters to the victims’ children. In addition to the vigil, yesterday Students for Accuracy about Israeli and Palestinian Affairs, the Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee and Alpha Epsilon Pi’s chapter at Brandeis held a separate day of solidarity for the victims of terror in Jerusalem. The groups encouraged those participating to wear blue, and they handed out flyers with facts about recent terror attacks. They also gathered signatures for a petition stating that participants stand with these victims.
According to SAIPA President Ari Givner '17, who is also a member of BIPAC and AEPi member Ari Givner ’17 in an interview with the Justice, the event was intended to demonstrate solidarity with all of the victims of a number of recent terror attacks in Jerusalem, including stabbings, bystanders hit by cars and the Nov. 18 incident. “It’s something we can all stand for,” he said. Givner noted that a member of Students for Justice in Palestine reached out to him and said that he would be wearing a blue shirt as well.
See VIGIL, 7 ☛
■ Faculty will now be mandated to report incidences of sexual assault or harassment. By MARISSA DITKOWSKY JUSTICE EDITOR
The University has mandated all faculty and staff members to report sexual violence and harassment to Title IX Coordinator Linda Shinomoto, according to Prof. Bernadette Brooten (NEJS) in an email to the Justice. Previously, faculty members were not considered “mandated reporters” under University policy. According to Brooten’s report to the Faculty Senate on Nov. 1, 2013, the University Advisory Council Subcommittee on Sexual Violence was looking to address questions as to whether or not faculty members should be required to report instances of sexual violence. “I am very pleased to be working with the senior administration on
See REPORT, 7 ☛
STUDENT ACTIVISM
B.SASV releases progress report on University policies ■ The report provides
grades for progress in University sexual assault policies and protocol. By HANNAH WULKAN JUSTICE EDITOR
Brandeis Students Against Sexual Violence released a progress report Thursday on the University’s responses to the petition they started which garnered over 2,700 signatures last spring, outlining many persist-
ing problems in sexual assault procedures on campus. The report showed that B.SASV believed that progress was made on several aspects of University practices but that most of the issues raised had either not been addressed adequately or at all. B.SASV presented hard copies of the report to the offices of University President Frederick Lawrence, Senior Vice President of Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel, Provost Lisa Lynch, Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams and a member of the Board of Trustees. Additionally, they
sent a link to the online report to all of the deans of the University, wrote B.SASV member Ava Blustein ’15 in an email to the Justice. The University responded to the initial petition in June and addressed each point B.SASV raised, outlining how they would respond to them. “We invite all members of the Brandeis community to actively engage with one another on these issues and look forward to your participation as prosocial bystanders, student leaders, and advocates for change on this important social justice issue,” read the response.
For each point raised in the group’s initial petition from April 8, the report included a letter grade ranging from A to F to indicate how well the University has since addressed it. B.SASV also outlined, for each graded point, what needs to be done further to successfully meet their expectations. “If there were some improvements made, we graded according to how many elements within each point were taken into consideration and the impact we feel the changes will have for the community,” Blustein wrote. Flagel wrote in an email to the Jus-
See B.SASV, 7 ☛
To the Netherlands
Charity stripe
Housing lottery
An innovative English course for spring 2015 simulates the experience of going abroad.
The men’s basketball team lost the first two games of its season by a combined eight points
The Department of Community Living sent a survey to students regarding a potential change in policy.
FEATURES 9 For tips or info email editor@thejustice.org
tice, “There has not been time to try and understand the methodology and information behind the recent ‘grading’ effort, but work continues across campus at continuously improving our (sic.) services for survivors as well as prevention efforts.” B.SASV gave grades of F to all points of their petition that they said had not been addressed by the University at all, according to Blustein’s email. These included hiring a permanent on-call crisis response counselor, creating an effective campus-wide campaign to combat rape
Let your voice be heard! Submit letters to the editor online at www.thejustice.org
INDEX
SPORTS 16 ARTS SPORTS
17 16
EDITORIAL FEATURES
10 8
OPINION POLICE LOG
10 2
News 3
COPYRIGHT 2014 FREE AT BRANDEIS.
2
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014
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THE JUSTICE
NEWS WIRE BRIEF
The University of Virgina suspends fraternities after rape allegations The University of Virginia suspended all fraternity activities and asked police to investigate a 2012 sexual assault in the wake of a damning Rolling Stone article that suggested the Charlottesville campus failed to protect students from potential sexual predators lurking among the school’s Greek organizations. In a statement issued Saturday, University President Teresa Sullivan said all fraternity activities would be suspended through Jan. 9, 2015 as campus officials discuss steps to prevent assaults on campus. Sullivan has also asked Charlottesville police to open an investigation of the brutal gang rape described at the beginning of the Rolling Stone piece. According to the report, a girl identified only as Jackie was attacked by several members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity in 2012, sexually assaulted for hours and sodomized with a beer bottle at the fraternity house. The victim had repeated meetings with campus officials and told them that two other women also had accused Phi Kappa Psi members of assaulting them, but the campus did not take any measures to warn students of the potential danger, according to the report. Response to the article has sparked anger and protests on campus, and four people were arrested Saturday during a rally outside the Phi Kappa Psi house, according to Lt. Stephen Upman, a spokesman for the Charlottesville Police Department. Although he described the demonstration as largely peaceful, Upman said two men and two women advanced onto the fraternity’s property and refused to leave. They were arrested and charged with trespassing, Upman said. Sullivan called on students who had knowledge of the 2012 assault to contact Charlottesville police immediately. Upman confirmed that the police department had been contacted by the school about the 2012 case but declined to comment on any details of the investigation. The University of Virginia was one of dozens of colleges throughout the country placed under a Title IX investigation by the United States Department of Education this year. Investigators are trying to determine whether those campuses violated federal law by failing to properly receive and review complaints of sexual violence and harassment made by students. Schools that fail to comply could lose federal funding, though none have in the six months since the investigations began. The move makes the school the second in the region to shut down fraternity activities in the last eight days. On Nov. 14, West Virginia University suspended all Greek activities on its Morgantown campus after a freshman student from New York was found without a pulse in the Kappa Sigma fraternity house. The student, Nolan Michael Burch, died days later.
POLICE LOG Medical Emergency
Nov. 17—A caller reported that a student had sustained a shoulder injury at Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. The student was treated with a signed refusal for further care. Nov. 18—A party in Massell Quad called to report a lacerated finger that would not stop bleeding. BEMCo staff treated the patient with a signed refusal for further care. Nov. 18—A party in North Quad called to request BEMCo for a head laceration. University Police ultimately transported the party to the hospital for further care. Nov. 18—University Police spoke to a student who stated that she had scraped the bottom of her foot during rehearsal for a performance. There was no sign of a cut or damage to her foot. No medical attention was needed. Nov. 20—A reporting party at Mailman House requested Cataldo Ambulance for a male party’s voluntary transport to Newton-
Wellesley Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. Nov. 20—A 19-year-old female with a prior back injury stated that she had aggravated it while trying to jump-start her car. BEMCo responded and treated the patient with a signed refusal for further care. Nov. 21—A party called from Mailman House to request transport for a student who needed to go to the hospital. Cataldo was notified, and Cataldo in turn notified 911 for ambulance transport. Nov. 21—University Police and BEMCo responded to a report that a student had suffered a hand injury after being shocked by her computer. Nov. 22—BEMCo responded to a report of an intoxicated male student in the men’s bathroom in the Hassenfeld Conference Center. Cataldo Ambulance transported the student to NewtonWellesley Hospital for further care. Nov. 22—Police received a report that a 21-year-old student
was intoxicated in a hallway in Ziv Quad. Cataldo Ambulance transported the student to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for further care. Nov. 22—A male party in the Foster Mods called complaining of a headache, the result of a bar fight in Waltham the previous night. Nov. 23—A student in North Quad called to report that his roommate was intoxicated and vomiting. University Police and BEMCo responded.
Sex Crimes
Nov. 22—The community development coordinator on call reported a possible past sexual assault on an anonymous victim. There was no request for police intervention at this time.
Larceny
Nov. 17—A student in the Village reported that his credit card was used without his consent, resulting in a charge of $38.
n In the Senate Log, Senator-at-Large Brian Hough’s ’17 last name was spelled incorrectly. (Nov. 18, pg. 2) n In a News Article, University Librarian, Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer John Unsworth was quoted as stating “cut off our nose despite our face,” when in fact he said “cut off our nose to spite our face.” (Nov. 18, pg. 3)
The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Email editor@ thejustice.org.
Justice
the
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Drugs
Nov. 20—A staff member of the Department of Community Living stated that he found drug paraphernalia inside a student’s room at the Charles River Apartments. University Police confiscated a black porcelain pipe and a chrome pipe, as well as a small amount of marijuana.
Miscellaneous
Nov. 21—A party reported that flyers were left on vehicles in Theater Lot. Nov. 21—A party reported that two females were passed out in a red SUV near the Bernstein-Marcus Administration Center. University Police checked the entire campus and could not locate the individuals in question. —compiled by Tate Herbert
Senate discusses ski trip
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS
n In an Arts article, the Spring Awakening choreographer and lighting director were not identified. The choreographer was Sarai Warsoff ’16 and the lighting director was Danny Steinberg ’15. (Nov. 18. 7, pg. 21)
Nov. 18—A reporting party stated that she was harassed by text message.
SENATE LOG
GIVING THANKS
—Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
n A Features article stated that Yaakov Malomet ’15, Talia Lepson ’16 and Zachary Anziska ‘16 are J Street U Brandeis co-presidents, when in fact Malomet and Anziska are co-presidents, and Lepson is the vice president. The article also stated that co-sponsors included Brandeis Divestment Campaign, Hillel at Brandeis, Poverty Action Coalition and Brandeis Libertarians. It should be noted that the list of co-sponsors for Turn on the Tap for Gaza is as follows: Hillel at Brandeis, Brandeis Zionist Alliance, Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee, Brandeis Visions for Israel in an Evolving World, Poverty Action Coalition, Brandeis Libertarians, Brandeis Climate Justice, Brandeis Muslim Students Association, Brandeis University and Al-Quds University Student Dialogue Initiative and Amnesty International at Brandeis University. (Nov. 18, pg. 8)
Harassment
GRACE KWON/the Justice
The Catholic Student Organization and the Catholic Chaplaincy hosted their annual Thanksgiving dinner, open to all Brandeis students, on Sunday evening in the Intercultural Center lounge.
The Student Union Senate convened on Sunday for their last meeting before Thanksgiving break to check up on ongoing initiatives and approve funding for a campus movie screening. To commence the meeting, Student Union Vice President Sofia Muhlmann ’16 asked each senator to present a brief report on progress and news regarding their initiatives. It was announced that the Student Union had been denied their application for funds for a weekend ski and snowboard trip to Stowe, Vt. that the Class of 2016 is considering sponsoring. According to Class of 2016 Senator Nyah Macklin, the class was welcome to continue pursuing its application process in the hopes of eventually securing funding. It was also reported that 149 students responded to an online survey in regard to a proposed spring formal for first-year and sophomore students that the Student Union is considering; the majority of participants responded positively. Class of 2016 Senator Marlharrissa Etzerlyn Lagardere, who is on the Social Justice and Diversity Committee, presented a Senate Money Resolution for a film screening on campus on Friday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. in Olin-Sang for a film titled Call Me Kuchu, a documentary about Uganda’s first openly gay man. Etzerlyn Lagardere said that the committee chose this movie because it fits with a major theme of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer rights that the committee wants to focus on this semester. The screening will be the first in a three-part series that will include a campus-wide discussion on another social justice theme and a poetry slam. A total of $423.62 was requested, with $300 for the rights to show the movie, a $24 cost to ship the movie and the cost for food. Funding was approved unanimously by all present. The Senate will not be meeting next week. —Jaime Kaiser
ANNOUNCEMENTS Threats, Free Speech and the Law
Join the Supreme Court Colloquium course for its end-of-the-semester conference on the Elonis v. United States case on the current Supreme Court docket. Guests will include Erik Nielson of the University of Richmond, Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute, Lauren Jones of the Anti-Defamation League, Margaret Drew of the University of Massachusetts Law School, Joan S. Meier of the George Washington University Law School and Gregg Leslie of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Tuesday, Dec. 2 from 12:30 to 6 p.m. in Levine-Ross I and II.
Women Scientists in the Israeli State
This talk examines the contrasting careers of the first woman scientists at the Weizmann Institute for Science in Rehovoth, Israel, who joined it at its foundation in 1949, further seeking to establish whether these early career patterns prevailed in later gen-
erations of women scientists at WIS. Tuesday, Dec. 2 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Epstein Building multipurpose room.
The Passages of Walter Benjamin
The Paris Arcades, known as Passages in French, were a principal focus of renowned literary and cultural critic Walter Benjamin. From 1927 to 1940 he worked on his study: “My book, Paris Arcades, is the theater of all my struggles and all my ideas.” Benjamin’s Arcades Project is the focus of this one-hour documentary, set in the context of his life and times. The film includes documents, manuscripts and letters from the Benjamin archives, albums of prints and photographs at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, interviews with leading Benjamin scholars and archival film of Paris and Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s. Tuesday, Dec. 2 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Mandel Center for the Humanities room G03.
The Immigrant Experience in Waltham
A city where over a dozen languages are spoken at home, Waltham presents an array of opportunities and challenges for a substantial community of immigrants and their families. Join the students in the practicum “The Immigrant Experience in Waltham,” taught by Marci McPhee, the associate director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, as they share learnings from working with organizations in Waltham supporting immigrants. Wednesday, Dec. 3 from noon to 12:50 p.m. in Levine-Ross.
Tringo
Celebrate the end of the semester with a combination trivia and Bingo game. Prizes include The Magic Bullet, an Amazon Kindle, a $75 gift card to Uno Pizzeria & Grill and so much more. Thursday, Dec. 4 from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. at the Stein Restaurant.
THE JUSTICE
student activism
Intercultural Center holds talk on Ebola ■ Students at the event
discussed the issues surrounding the disease and the implications they carry. By SHERRY SIMKOVIC JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
The Intercultural Center hosted an event yesterday called “Ebola: It’s Our Crisis,” which focused on the recent epidemic in Western Africa. The speakers also looked at the social epidemic of stigmatizing those from the countries or continents with infected populations as automatically being infected by the virus as a result of being from a country afflicted by it. The event was mostly discussion based and was led by Nadege Seppou ’15 and Rima Tahini ’16, both international students. Seppou is from Cameroon and Tahini is from Sierra Leone, one of the three main Western African countries affected by Ebola. The duo presented a PowerPoint that featured pictures of Seppou and Rima, as well as other international students, holding signs that said things like, “I am Sierra Leonean, not a virus.” The other countries on the slide included Guinea and Liberia, both of which are greatly affected by the Ebola epidemic along. Both University President Frederick Lawrence and Dean of Students Jamele Adams were present at the event. Lawrence compared the current issue of labeling citizens as viruses to calling those who suffer from epilepsy epileptics. He said, “If we change the vocabulary that we use, we can change our own minds. People do terrible things out of fear and ignorance and not realize that they are only worsening and contributing the problem rather than solving it.”
The question then to keep in mind, according to Lawrence, is how to handle the fear and how to approach educating those who are ignorant to the issue. The next segment of the event focused on the facts of Ebola, or as Seppou and Tahini put it, “the realities on the ground.” They showed a video titled Ebola: Waiting, which focused on the claim that the world waited too long to react to the Ebola epidemic. It showed individual people waiting, looking into the camera as music played in the background and a screen with the sentence “This is what waiting looks like.” The video featured stars such as Morgan Freeman and Connie Britton. It ended with a black screen and the words “We can’t wait to stop crises like Ebola. Talk is cheap,” and then gave the address for a website to donate to the cause. Seppour and Tahini focused the discussion following the video on the notion of prevention and the fact that Ebola could have been prevented even though it is deadly. Tahini posed the question, “Why had the disease been able to thrive? Why did it spiral out of control so rapidly?” Adams responded, “As I get older, I think of moments of history of when a virus is created and applied to a group of people. When AIDS was first discovered, it was connected to black people and then gay people, and eventually the world came to the conclusion that it didn’t just affect one group of people. We spend a lot of time trying to place blame rather than working to solve the problem.” Tahini explained a little bit about the background and discussed the effects of cultural and economic factors in relation to why the disease has spread so rapidly. They showed a video titled Five Facts You Should Know About the Ebola Virus. The
video described the current epidemic as “the worst outbreak of Ebola” ever and said that in order to prevent the further spread of the virus, individual communities are now being quarantined. The video also stated that the current virus is a known quantity, the Zaire strain, and that it is not likely to change. After showing the video, Seppou said, “There are multiple factors that contribute to an enormous crisis like the current one, from a corrupt leader remaining in power to improper allocation of resources. It’s imperative that the global community comes together to help.” The discussion continued to focus on the types of social and cultural implications that occur as a result of the Ebola crisis. This portion of the discussion essentially served to tackle the idea that was described by Sappou and Tahini as “If you’re black, you come from Africa, and if you come from Africa, you must have Ebola.” Several audience members said that they felt that “this was a pervasive idea and that it reflected the general population’s idea that Africans are an inferior race.” Adams added that he felt that within the context of the Ebola crisis, the idea of the white doctor saving the black savages was evident and was the same idea that ultimately led to the enslavement of Africans centuries ago. Tahini briefly shared a personal experience of being an international student at Brandeis. She said, “When people first meet you, they ask you where you’re from. The automatic follow up question is then how long have you been here. Things like that only add to the stigma that Africans in this country face every day.” Seppou concluded by adding, “I believe and I hope that in the future people will take an informed stand on what’s going on the world.”
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014
3
BRIEF Housing selection process under review, will not change The Department of Community Living sent out a survey to the student body on Thursday, Nov. 13, asking if it would support a change in the housing selection system. The proposed change would involve transitioning to a system in which groups of students who wish to live together select housing using the average of the housing lottery numbers in their group. The current system has groups of students who wish to live together select housing using the lowest housing lottery number within their group. This change was proposed to take the pressure off of the student with the lowest number in
the group, according to the Director of DCL Tim Touchette in an email to the Justice. “Many groups are created using the best number available, and at times students can feel taken advantage of by this process,” he wrote. The survey found that 89 percent of the student body opposed the change, according to Touchette, so there will be no change to the current system. Touchette wrote that the survey was part of a regular review of DCL policies and processes in order to ensure that the department is best serving the community’s interests. —Hannah Wulkan
JEWISH FEMINISM
CULTURAL COLLABORATION
HANNAH CHIDEKEL/the Justice
Prof. Joyce Antler (AMST) delivered a lecture on women’s liberation and Jewish identity on Thursday in the Mandel Center for the Humanities.
Want to join the news team? MORGAN BRILL/the Justice
The French and Francophone Club sponsored the Franco-German Unity Party to celebrate Franco-German relations and connections from World War I to today on last Thursday.
Contact Marissa Ditkowsky and Hannah Wulkan at news@thejustice.org.
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THE JUSTICE
and spoke at a screening of her 2013 documentary ‘On the Side of the Road.’ By ABBY PATKIN JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
MORGAN BRILL/the Justice
INSTILLING HOPE: Donna Haig Friedman Ph.D. ’96 advocated for improving policies pertaining to homelessness in Massachusetts.
Scholar discusses policies that shame the homeless
Ph.D. ’96 spoke about how organizations are trying to help impoverished families. By RACHEL SHARER JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Donna Haig Friedman Ph.D.’96 spoke about the contentious and “shaming” policies surrounding family homelessness in Massachusetts at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management last Tuesday. Friedman, who is the director of the Center for Social Policy at the McCormack Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Boston, began the event by discussing the violence of poverty. “Solidarity allows you to find your intelligence again,” Friedman said. According to Friedman, in the past 15 years, growing income inequality and changing housing market dynamics have been the two primary contributors to poverty in Massachusetts. Friedman said that while entering the workforce is considered to be the “most viable pathway” out of poverty, many lowincome families who are working still do not make enough money. Friedman said that the rising cost of housing has affected families considerably, stating that 26 percent of all households pay more than 50 percent of their incomes for housing. Nearly 25 percent of Massachusetts’
5
Director talks on Israel film ■ Lia Tarachansky attended
families do not make enough money to meet their family’s basic needs, and the “majority of people in this situation are ineligible for a range of public income supports”—such as housing, subsidized childcare and food assistance. There has also been a 23 percent cut in programs that support work and an 18 percent cut in housing and homelessness prevention over the past 15 years, according to Friedman. She noted that these also happen to be “the very solutions that can actually enable people to hold on to their housing.” “A clear consequence of these harsh realities is the unrelenting growth of family homelessness in Massachusetts, with no end in sight, and harsh and shameful eligibility criteria,” Friedman said. She stated that the most shameful piece of policy is the approval of a law in September 2012 by the Massachusetts legislature that requires families to prove they have spent at least one night in a place “not meant for human habitation” in order to successfully get into a shelter. Many families in shelters are headed by a single mother and are disproportionately families of color, she said. Friedman also mentioned that 33 cities have enacted policies that prevent people from giving food to the homeless on the streets. Friedman went on to discuss the psychological effects of homelessness. “Humiliation isolates,” Friedman said, and those who experience the “humiliation” of poverty have very fragile states of mind. She stat-
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014
CAMPUS SPEAKER
CRITICIZING POLICIES
■ Donna Haig Friedman
●
ed that neuroscience studies show that “the same part of the brain registers both humiliation and physical pain.” In order to surpass this stigmatization, Friedman said that America must reshape its policies to be “shame-proof.” This includes minimizing the “loser element,” or the idea that some will win and some will lose, in policy design, as well as the “deserving/undeserving” mentality. She also said that America must work on building solidarity across race, class and gender divisions and must hold its policies to “human rights standard” by recognizing that every single individual has the right to live comfortably. Friedman did list several Massachusetts organizations that are successfully working to help impoverished families, including the “Thrive and Five” initiative in Boston, which targets immigrant families with limited resources. The organization gives much needed resources to families and also gives them a “sense of belonging,” which Friedman says is one of the most important steps towards lifting a family or individual out of poverty. “We have the opportunity and the obligation to make a difference,” Friedman concluded. “Material hardship is not the worst thing… being treated like nothing, like an object, is worse.” The event was co-hosted by the Gender Working Group at the Heller School and the Women’s Studies Research Center.
Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine held and sponsored a screening of Israeli director Lia Tarachansky’s 2013 documentary On the Side of the Road last Wednesday. A question-and-answer session with Tarachansky followed the screening. Tarachansky, born in the former Soviet Union and raised in Israel, is a Canadian-educated journalist and videographer whose work has appeared in the Huffington Post, USA Today and Al Jazeera. On the Side of the Road is Tarachansky’s first documentary. The documentary focuses on 1948—the year the State of Israel was established—paying close mind to what took place that year and how it is now taught in Israeli schools. Specifically, the film looks at one event in particular; the Nakba—meaning “catastrophe”—or the Palestinian expulsion from Israel following Israel’s independence. According to the Ma’an News Agency, Israeli soldiers forced the ethnic cleansing of some 750,000 Palestinians during the Nakba. As the documentary mentions, Israel turned the sites of the Palestinian villages into parks and settlements, razed the buildings and, afterward, denied they were ever there. In the film, Tarachansky profiles veterans from the 1948 war as they return to the sites of villages they destroyed, also filming Palestinians’ returns to the hometowns they had long left behind. The documentary’s title pertains to Tarachansky’s return to her hometown, Ariel, a settlement in the Palestinian West Bank. In the film, Tarachansky may be seen looking out across a road in Ariel, viewing the land that once was a Palestinian village. This scene is also one of the film’s more emotional, as the director breaks down on camera upon realizing the full extent of Israel’s actions. Regarding the Nakba, Tarachansky said that she believes the history surrounding the events is crucial, especially now as Israelis and Palestinians alike gear up for what she calls the “third intifada.” According to Tarachansky, much of the animosity between the Palestinians and the Israelis can be traced back to the Nakba. In being aware of these events, Tarachansky said, one might understand some of the motives behind each side’s actions as the violent acts that began this summer escalate. Moreover, taking note from the past might help avoid more violence in the present and future.
“It’s important to look at the past and think about the present,” Tarachansky said. “Of the examples we have in history [of ethnic conflicts], there aren’t a lot of successes that don’t have a lot of people dying.” Tarachansky said that she first became interested in the Nakba after viewing a video featuring Tikva Honig-Parnass, a veteran of the 1948 war who also makes an appearance in her documentary. Tarachansky said during the question-and-answer that her research into the Nakba fueled her interest in making a documentary about the subject, and she felt compelled to discuss the issue with her friends. However, Tarachansky noted, she was met with either indifference or denial. “I really thought that if it had such a big impact on me, it would have an impact on everyone else as well,” Tarachansky said. “I came to realize something else was at play here. It was not about the facts.” The documentary also depicts several instances of Israelis’ violent and racist behavior toward Palestinians and members of Zochrot, an Israeli non-profit dedicated to raising awareness of the Nakba. Yet despite the widespread intolerance, Tarachansky said it is crucial for Israelis to understand the Nakba and its importance in Israeli history. “The Nakba is not just a Palestinian story; it’s our story,” she said. “[Israel] did this three years after the Holocaust.” Everyone, Tarachansky said, regardless of ethnicity, must ask controversial questions about their country’s history. “People are dying. People are dying all the time,” Tarachansky said. “I think it’s our responsibility as Jewish people [to discuss the Nakba]. We have to, despite how hard it is.” Tarachansky also noted that she has received a lot of criticism for her stance on the controversial issue. As she explained, Israel is a highly politicized nation, and despite the fact that it is a democracy, those who oppose popular opinion may be ostracized. Tarachansky described being an Israeli critical of Israel as living “in a constant state of contradiction.” In terms of the plausibility of peace between Israel and Palestine, Tarachansky said the parties involved have thought of every possible solution, and no new ideas could possibly be brought to the table. Tarachansky noted that through her research and filming, she came to the conclusion that the Israeli government is becoming less and less democratic, and the only choice left is to change what she called the Israeli “regime.” Still, despite being critical of both her government and the Palestinian extremists for their handling of the conflict, Tarachansky said that she has hope that Israeli-Palestinian peace may be achieved some day. “We’ve lived before in peace, and we will live again in peace,” she said.
MORGAN BRILL/the Justice
RECALLING THE PAST: Lia Tarachansky spoke about the Nakba in addressing her 2013 documentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict titled ‘On the Side of the Road.’
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REPORT: Staff now to receive online training CONTINUED FROM 1 implementing our proposals, which have now been discussed in a number of venues and continue to be discussed,” Brooten wrote in an email to the Justice. “Provost Lisa Lynch and other senior administrators have been very receptive to our proposals.” The UAC Subcommittee on Sexual Violence was created in February 2013 “to examine Brandeis’s policies concerning sexual violence and their implementation” and delivered its report to former Provost Steve Goldstein ’78 and the Faculty Senate in June, according to Brooten in an email to the Justice. The University has not yet released the report, although the UAC and the Faculty Senate will consider its recommendations, Brooten wrote. The April 2011 Dear Colleague Letter from the Department of Education, which clarified universities’ responsibilities under Title IX, states that schools “need to ensure that their employees are trained so that they know to report harassment to appropriate school officials, and so that employees with the authority to address harassment know how to respond properly.” Training, the letter states, should include “practical information about how to identify and report sexual harassment and violence.” The Department of Education Office of Civil Rights recommends in the letter that this training be provided to “any employees likely to witness or receive reports of sexual harassment and violence, including teachers, school law enforcement unit employees, school administrators, school counselors, general counsels, health personnel, and resident advisors.” It also recommends that schools develop “specific sexual violence materi-
culture, creating awareness of nonabusive sexual behavior, creating a list of resources as a part of party registration process and creating an accessible safety network for students. Other elements of the petition that received low grades included sexual assault response training of University Police and engaging broader campus resources, which both received a D-; training of University staff, faculty and administrators on the roles and responsibilities of mandated reporters and responsible employees under Title IX, which received a D; the creation of a permanent rape crisis center on campus, which received a D+; and offering pro-social bystander intervention, effective consent and healthy relationship workshops at Orientation and throughout the entire school year, which received a C-/D+. The other points of the petition addressed in the report were creating clear and accessible information on existing reporting paths, options and resources, receiving a B-, and hiring a psychologist on the Psychological Counseling Center staff who specifically specializes in sexual trauma, violence and assault for long-term counseling, receiving a B+. “In the spirit of the social justice activism that started this university, we ask that the administration listen to what students want and what they will not stand for anymore. We ask that in addition to the good work that they have done, that they be proactive in their approach to ending sexual violence at Brandeis, not
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als that include the schools’ policies, rules, and resources for students, faculty, coaches, and administrators.” Although which individuals should be deemed “responsible employees,” or mandated reporters are not directly specified, the April 2014 Department of Education document titled “Questions and Answers on Title IX and Sexual Violence” states that a responsible employee is any employee “who has the authority to take action to redress sexual violence; who has been given the duty of reporting incidents of sexual violence or any other misconduct by students to the Title IX coordinator or other appropriate school designee; or whom a student could reasonably believe has this authority or duty.” If a responsible employee is aware of a studenton-student case of sexual harassment or assault, the OCR concedes that the university “reasonably” should have known about the situation, and thus investigated and taken action. The development follows the launch of a mandatory online sexual harassment training. The training, which is meant “to bring [faculty and staff] up to date with current policy on sexual misconduct at Brandeis and their responsibilities with respect to this policy,” must be completed by Nov. 14, according to Lynch in an email to the Justice. Lynch added that faculty and staff must complete the online training even if they participated in any recent in-person training. Shinomoto is tracking completion. Shinomoto and her staff have also organized in-person trainings, Lynch wrote. Although the fall sessions are full, more trainings will take place in the spring semester. Shinomoto did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
B.SASV: Students call for University action CONTINUED FROM 1
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simply begrudgingly reactive,” the report concluded. Blustein wrote in an email to the Justice, “Many of the changes made so far from the petition were done because members of B.SASV initiated meetings, made budgets and decisions, or publicly advocated for them. The university needs to take more proactive action for the community.” In his Sept. 12 statement, Lawrence explained many initiatives the University has begun in response to the B.SASV petition, such as a reorganization of the entire student health and wellness organization, the hiring of new Psychological Counseling Center counselors with expertise in trauma and sexual assault and the beginning of bystander training programs on campus. “The campus task force on sexual violence, including students, faculty, and staff members, is working on setting concrete priorities that incorporate constructive feedback from all areas of the university, and from external experts,” Flagel wrote in an email to the Justice. Blustein wrote that while all of the points from their original petition should be a priority to the University, those receiving a grade of F should be addressed as soon as possible. “If these issues are not addressed,” wrote Blustein, “B.SASV will continue actively demanding improvements in the ways we see fit and will not rest until they are made. The Office of Civil Rights is also investigating Brandeis for Title IX noncompliance and thus the school will be obligated to make changes.”
ABBY KNECHT/the Justice
Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, Ph.D. ’13, delivered the History department’s Ray Ginger Lecture last Thursday. She discussed the market for aphorism in American culture.
VIGIL: Students hold day of solidarity with terror victims CONTINUED FROM 1 Rabbi David Pardo, who helped to plan and organize the vigil, began with a few quotations and set an atmosphere of unity. “Their loss is our loss. Their pain is our pain. Their terror is our terror,” he said to the somber crowd. University President Frederick Lawrence was also in attendance and said a few words at the vigil. “When an innocent life is taken by an act of terror, that is by itself a heinous crime,” Lawrence said. However, he noted that it is worse when those acts are “rooted in hate.” Lawrence asked attendees what should be done with the pain and loss that the community, the victims and their families had endured. “The answer is in your hands,” he said to the crowd. Additionally, Lawrence noted the proximity of the event to Hanukkah, the festival of lights. “It is not ironic that our festival of light comes at the darkest time of the year,” he said. He added that it is important to “light each other’s light when it seems hard to find
the light in the darkness. … It’s the only light we have.” Rabbi Moshe Twersky, a Boston native who was from an “an esteemed and beloved family,” according to the event’s Facebook page, was one of four rabbis killed in the attack. Prof. Reuven Kimelman (NEJS), who knew Twersky, spoke in Twersky’s memory. Kimelman noted the language in Jewish mourning and prayer following such attacks. “We Jews leave vengeance up to God, because God can measure properly the retribution,” he said. He added that the “response to senseless murder is unity.” Chelsea Polaniecki ’16 then spoke about her experiences working with the OneFamily Fund—which supports victims of terror—in Israel this past summer. Although Polaniecki said in an interview with the Justice that her initial plan was to assist with occupational therapy for victims of terror, those plans and her work changed when the three Israeli teens Naftali Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrach and Gilad Shaar were kidnapped.
During the vigil, she recalled her experiences, noting that “trauma and terror are not fleeting. “The headlines go away…but the way these peoples’ lives are affected doesn’t,” she continued. She then told the story of a young girl who suffered from post traumatic stress disorder after her experience in a rocket attack and explained that the girl’s memory was triggered when the situation escalated over the summer. The day of solidarity was not only meant to augment unity, with all participants wearing blue and giving out flyers, but it also included taking donations for the OneFamily Fund. Givner said that he hopes to organize a bigger fundraiser for the OneFamily Fund next semester. The vigil officially concluded with the singing of “Acheinu.” Pardo ended by saying that “prayer means so much more when it’s for someone else” and recalling once again the lives that were lost in the attacks. The vigil was sponsored by Hillel and the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus.
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VERBATIM | ALBERT EINSTEIN I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.
ON THIS DAY…
FUN FACT
In 1958, French Sudan gained autonomy as a selfgoverning member of the French Community.
A medium-sized cumulus cloud weighs about the same as 80 elephants.
FAMILY TIES: Alan Hassenfeld (left), the former chairman of Hasbro and the benefactor behind the new center, in conversation with Hubert Burda of Hubert Burda Media. CREATIVE COMMONS
Innovate, develop, repeat Hassenfeld Innovation Center aims to spur ingenuity while partnering with companies to develop practical products By ALEC SieGEL JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The Hassenfeld family name is one that Brandeis students are quite familiar with. It can be found written in silver lacquer on the front of a handful of buildings around campus. The name Hassenfeld refers to two brothers from Providence, Rhode Island, Henry and Hillel, who, in 1923, founded a company that sold textile remnants: rolls of fabric that are left over from the textile production process. They named the company Hassenfeld Brothers. Nearly 30 years later, after a gradual transition into the toy industry, Hassenfeld Brothers introduced a new toy that would wind up in Pixar’s Toy Story films and in children’s toy chests around the world: Mr. Potato Head. A decade or so later, the brothers from Providence would officially change the name of their once-little toy startup to its current incarnation: toy giant Hasbro. The Hassenfelds have provided generous donations to the University since its founding. On November 7th of this year, the Brandeis International Business School announced the latest benefaction of the Hassenfeld family: the Hassenfeld Family Innovation Center. Alan Hassenfeld, a founding donor, grandson of Hasbro cofounder Henry Hassenfeld and the recently retired CEO of Hasbro, offered the $2.5 million gift. Given the family’s history of entrepreneurial innovation and business acumen, it only makes sense that their latest contribution to the Brandeis campus would be a center dedicated to maximizing contact between the University’s internal research and development with external commercial entities, merging the innovation done at Brandeis
with commercial opportunities across the globe. The Hassenfeld Center will work in conjunction with the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) to increase outreach with research done at Brandeis by faculty, students or post-doctoral fellows to the corporate world. Aside from improved contact with innovative outside firms, the center also aims to assist in furthering research and development that takes place at the University. Provost Lisa Lynch will oversee the new center, which is to conduct all activity out of existing offices at the OTL and Brandeis IBS. At this time, there are no plans to build offices specific to the Center. Rebecca Menapace is the associate provost for innovation and the executive director of the OTL. Her focus for the center will be on scaling the infrastructure needed to facilitate technology development and commercialization across University departments. “[The Center] will promote a culture of innovation and foster intellectual collaborations and synergies throughout the Brandeis community,” Menapace wrote in an email to the Justice. The Brandeis OTL will play a major role in accomplishing the Center’s goals, building on the success of the Brandeis Virtual Incubator’s Sprout Grant Program. The Sprout Grant Program dispenses grants ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 to nurture and support the entrepreneurial activities of Brandeis students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty. The Hassenfeld Center will build on that program’s success through the OTL, which provides expertise in technology for licensing, patenting and a variety of other entrepreneurial related
ROSE GITTELL /the Justice
COMMUNITY OF ENTREPRENEURS: The International Business School will be the home of the Hassenfeld Innovation Center. fields. Menapace looks forward to the Hassenfeld Center’s future work with the OTL. “The Center will allow us to take advantage of our Metrowest location and forge relationships with local biotechs, pharmaceutical companies and venture capital firms,” she wrote. In terms of how the Hassenfeld Center will benefit Brandeis students, Menapace sees many technological commercialization related opportunities. For instance, students might learn about the patenting process of new inventions, assessing the commercial viability of new discoveries, as well as helping develop business and marketing plans for potentially commercial discoveries. Students will also have the opportunity to work with industry partners. Along with mentoring programs for students and facul-
ty, the Center might also explore internships and fellowships for students. While the Center will certainly provide resources for greater oncampus research to be conducted, a central tenet will be to increase outreach with outside firms. Menapace described a past example of the benefits of connecting research done at Brandeis with leaders in the commercial world. Prof. Neil Simister (BIOL), in collaboration with a group of doctors from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital, discovered a way to commercialize delivery methods for novel drugs. Simister and his partners founded a firm, Syntonix, based off this new technology. In 2007, biotech giant Biogen Idec bought Syntonix for $120 million. The Hassenfeld Center will
aim to translate breakthrough research in an academic setting into a practical product or service for the public’s benefit. It will undoubtedly face hurdles. But the same vision that led the Hassenfeld brothers to found what would ultimately become the world’s leading toy company extends to Henry Hassenfeld’s grandson Alan Hassenfeld. While speaking at the Nov. 7 announcement of his family’s latest contribution to the Brandeis community, Alan succinctly summed up the Center’s purpose. According to the BrandeisNow website, Hassenfeld said, “The groundbreaking research happening at Brandeis presents an exceptional opportunity to fulfill the deepest values of our university—changing the world through knowledge and action that serves the greater good.”
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To the Netherlands, from Rabb
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BOOK WORM: Prof. Dawn Skorczewski (ENG) plans for her class on Anne Frank, which will be offered this spring. MORGAN BRILL/the Justice
Prof. Dawn Skorczewski (ENG) designed a transnational class, which is a new course this spring In spring 2015, Brandeis English Prof. Dawn Skorczewski (ENG) will teach an innovative class that combines her interest in Holocaust writing and passion for collaborative learning in a course titled “The International Legacy of Anne Frank.” The course is designed to allow Brandeis students to interact directly with students and faculty in the Netherlands. Skorczewski believes that an international perspective is crucial for coming to a complete understanding of the diary. She is determined to take digital learning to a whole new level using weekly video conferences with Dutch students and professors, Skype tours of relevant Holocaust historical sites and a chance to travel to Amsterdam. justFeatures: What about the Anne Frank story prompted you to use her diary as the basis of the course? Dawn Skorczewski: I went to Amsterdam last year on a Fulbright specifically to work with people in Amsterdam on developing this course, in addition to teaching American literature and film on the Holocaust. One really fascinating thing about the Anne Frank story is that Anne Frank, when the diary came out, was not popular at all in the Netherlands. Her dad Otto came back from Auschwitz and found the diary ... he knew the diary existed, but he didn’t know what was in it. What he found actually was a daughter that he had never known. What he concluded from that was he wanted to get her story known to as many people as possible, and he realized most people never know their children. So the story was released as a diary and nobody read it, and then it was brought to America and they started developing a play. The play, The Diary of Anne Frank, in the early 1950’s was a Broadway hit. All of the sudden Anne Frank had an American life and was taken back as a famous person [to Europe] where she is now famous. justFeatures: Why is it important to have a cross-cultural perspective on the diary? DS: The respect for the diary in the Netherlands is not the same as it is here, like it’s not taught to every 8th, 9th, 10th grader the way it is in the States. Though one of the pieces of the story is that the professors who are teaching the book in the Netherlands don’t see the book as great literature, they see it as a young girl’s diary. Whereas I, on the other hand, actually do see it as great literature, and the story is not just paradigmatic of a young girl’s Holocaust story, but for me, it’s the particular story of a brilliant writer during the Holocaust. We are working together in this classroom where the students in Amsterdam can see the students in Boston. We can, from our different cultural positions, encounter the Anne Frank story in all of the versions around the world that we will be considering together. So that’s where I got the idea,
these very different cultural versions and interpretations of the diary and its place in the story of the Holocaust and its story of the Netherlands versus its story in the United States. JF: How did the course come together? DS: Four years ago, I was on leave in Belgium ... That was about four years ago, and I met someone there who asked me to give lectures at the University of Gent, and he told me that there was someone in Amsterdam who did similar work on the Holocaust. I spoke with a number of people, one of them who worked at the Anne Frank House about the possibility of having some kind of connection between courses. Initially I was thinking that we wouldn’t have that the students wouldn’t have that much contact but that they would work together because I thought that an international perspective on the Holocaust was essential. I wanted an international, a transnational approach. And also I’m interested in digital technology. Two years ago, we had a class called “Writing the Holocaust,” in which students from Amsterdam did write papers with students from my class here, so I wanted to continue to develop that relationship. JF: Can you describe the structure of the course? DS: Every Monday and Wednesday morning, we’ll be meeting with students from Amsterdam to discuss a text. A professor from Amsterdam will come here and teach in my classroom for me and I will go back to Amsterdam so that’s happening in April. She’ll be working in the English department but she’s also a historian who works in the Anne Frank House, so she’ll be giving lectures on campus about her work on the Holocaust … For part of the course students in Amsterdam will be visiting a few major Holocaust sites and they will be taking us with them on Skype tours. At the end of this course, two students will win a trip to the Netherlands to look at the Anne Frank House as interns.
tally different experience so I would like to, as much as possible, in an online environment, create opportunities where the bodies feel real. When [Professor] Dienke Hondius appears before my students in the spring she will be a real live person who was on the screen for two months, which is exciting. JF: What do you think is going to be the biggest logistical challenge? DS: Well I think the fact that it’s such an early class is going to be difficult for Brandeis students. The second thing that I think is that there is always the possibility that we’ll have a problem with the technology. We’ve tested it out, it seems like it’s working but you can’t be sure. JF: Do you find teaching classes that relate to the Holocaust difficult because it’s such an emotionally potent topic for a lot of people? DS: We talk a lot in the beginning of the course about how the material is very emotionally charged topic and how it’s one of the most painful events in human history. But you know, I bring Holocaust survivors in to talk to my classes and a lot of what they talk about is
how grateful they are to be alive and how important it is for them to tell their stories. So yes it’s really difficult material ... but we still have to talk about it. So yes, it’s hard. And yes, we still have to talk about it. JF: What do you hope students will take away from the experience? DS: If students want to have an international experience but for some reason or another they can’t go abroad during their time here, this is a really good opportunity. You might not think of it like that. You might think, ‘do I really want to learn about Anne Frank?’ but this is another way to think about the class. It’s an international education experience, that’s a really important piece of it for me. —Jaime Kaiser
JF: Did you model this unique course off of similar courses at other schools? DS: No. It’s so interesting that I’ve always been fascinated with how students working together can create what goes beyond how much they can create on their own. My impression is that when students put their heads together, especially when they’re from different universities ... they create together interpretations of texts, ideas, concepts, that they just didn’t have before they started ... the virtual classroom has exponential possibilities and we don’t know what they are yet. However it’s a lot different to be talking to students from far away than it is to be with them. I feel like if I never sat in the same place as them it would be a to-
HISTORY LIVES: The Anne Frank House—located in Westerkerk, Amsterdam—will be the location for one of the “virtual tours” the class will partake in this spring. CREATIVE COMMONS
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Rachel Hughes, Editor in Chief Tate Herbert, Senior Editor Glen Chagi Chesir, Managing Editor Jessie Miller and Sam Mintz, Deputy Editors Jaime Kaiser, Associate Editor Marissa Ditkowsky and Hannah Wulkan, News Editors Rose Gittell, Features Editor Max Moran, Forum Editor Avi Gold, Sports Editor Emily Wishingrad, Arts Editor Morgan Brill and Grace Kwon, Photography Editors Rebecca Lantner, Layout Editor Brittany Joyce, Online Editor Catherine Rosch, Copy Editor Aliza Kahn and Talia Zapinsky, Advertising Editors
EDITORIALS Review University report card Last Thursday, Brandeis Students Against Sexual Violence released a progress report, grading the University on 11 aspects of its response to recent activism and conversation about sexual assault on campus. The report is comprehensive and specific. This editorial board commends B.SASV for their efforts to hold the University accountable for protecting and supporting survivors of sexual assault, as well as generating discussion about the issue. We encourage students and all other members of the Brandeis community to read the progress report and to talk and think about what they can do to address the problems that remain. The average grade out of the 11 items described on the report was a D- compared to an F on last year’s report, showing that while there has been slight progress, the University is still severely lacking in its resources and support. In particular, we support item number six in the progress report, which states that Brandeis should mandate sexual violence training for every member of the Public Safety department, and improve transparency among public safety officers. It is important that students be able to trust members of the Public Safety department, and there is still more that the University can do to encourage a healthy relationship between students and officers. For example, as per the report, all of the public safety team, and not just their Sexual Assault Investigative team, should receive formal sexual violence training. Further, the University should implement an online system
Mandate bystander training for students to provide feedback on their dealings with Public Safety, which allows them to identify individual officers with whom they have had a positive or negative experience. We also support item one, which calls for more clear and accessible information on existing reporting paths, options and resources. There is still inaccurate and confusing language on various University websites, which might lead students to think, among other misconceptions, that survivors of sexual assault are required to report to University police as opposed to the other options available to them. While this item received one of the highest grades in the progress report, a B-, these problems should be dealt with and rectified immediately. Despite the overall high quality of the report’s analysis and suggestions, we do take small issue with one part of it. In point five, while we agree that bystander interventions should be made mandatory for “student leaders,” we do not agree that any particular group should be singled out, as athletes currently are in the present language. It might instead make sense to propose that all students go through bystander training during their first year at Brandeis. Bystander training is a smart preventative step that should be simple to implement and can help create a climate of awareness about sexual assault at Brandeis.
Support Hassenfeld Innovation Center On Nov. 7, Brandeis’ International Business School announced that it received a $2.5 million dollar donation from Henry Hassenfeld—the great-grandson of one of the University’s founding donors, Alan Hassenfeld—and followed up this week with an announcement about how it plans to use the gift. Thanks to the family’s donation, IBS will be unveiling the new Hassenfeld Innovation Center soon. This editorial board is pleased to hear about the planning for the center and looks forward to what it will bring to the University’s intellectual climate. Entrepreneurship combines the critical thinking and problem solving liberal arts character of the University with the vocational concept of business, and a center devoted to entrepeneurship fits right in on campus. The center will operate in conjunction with the Office of Technology Licensing, using research by faculty, students and post-doctoral fellows to increase outreach within professional and corporate spheres. Newly appointed Provost Lisa Lynch will be in charge of overseeing the center, which will be run through IBS and existing OTL offices. Having a hub for innovation of ideas on our campus that will connect people and resources that the Brandeis community already has in place, and especially one as
Explore entrepeneurship accessible as the center will be, is a wonderful asset for Brandeis. We are optimistic to begin seeing the impact of several specific features that the center plans to offer. For example, the center will integrate the Sprout Grant Program, which currently dispenses grants from $5,000 to $20,000 to students and post-doctoral fellows for entrepreneurial activities. The center will also provide opportunities for students to learn about the process of patenting and the business implications that follow, including creating business and marketing plans for ideas that could reap commercial success. The center will also be exploring the possibility of new internships and fellowships for students. Beyond the exciting new opportunities that the center promises to bring to campus, we are pleased to see it as a representation of a strong relationship with one of the University’s oldest and greatest benefactors, the Hassenfeld family. We look forward to the opening of the center, and how it will foster an opportunity to create connections between the innovation and startup culture that already exists at Brandeis and the greater professional sphere beyond the University.
GABRIELA YESHUA/The Justice
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On Tuesday morning, two Palestinian men stormed an Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem with guns and meat cleavers, killing three rabbis and one scholar, including three Americans and one man from the United Kingdom. The attackers were killed at the scene by police officers, but not before eight other people were injured, one of whom has since died from the injuries. This attack is yet another example of the escalating violence of the past month, with some labeling these attacks as the beginning of a Third Intifada. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “respond harshly” to the events on Tuesday, including demolishing the attacker’s homes. How do you react to the events in Jerusalem, and what effect do you see foresee from the recent spike in violence?
Chen Arad ’15 My English vocabulary lacks words sufficiently poignant to describe this atrocity. It brings back painful memories from the early 2000s, when Israelis had to think twice before leaving their houses. It is thus easy to identify with Israel’s right-wing leadership’s accusations against Palestinian leaders. However, vengeful and careless statements—often driven by political interests rather than well-thought-out strategy—are the last thing the situation needs. Studies of the 2000 Intifada led experts to a consensus that a more calculated response could have reduced bloodshed on both sides. Israel’s leadership would be better off tuning in to statements by security chiefs, like head of the Shin Bet Yoram Cohen, who oppose collective punishments against Palestinians and reject claims that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been inciting to terrorism. Chen Arad ’15 is a cofounder of Brandeis Visions for Israel in an Evolving World.
Tzlil Levy ’17 As the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel is the only country in the region that allows freedom of religion and expression. It is intolerable that Jews cannot enjoy these rights due to terrorist attacks. The attacks are part of a cycle of violence, which breeds more hate and more hostility. The more recent stabbings highlight the escalation of violence in Jerusalem and the rising anti-Semitism. These recent atrocities call for immediate action. It is necessary to prevent the murder of more innocent people. These attacks also affect the United States and the relationship America has with Israel. As more Americans are being persecuted abroad, it is essential for America to stand behind these families in a time of grief. As the violence continues, it is Israel’s right to defend its citizens, country and most of all, its principles of democracy and freedom of religion. Tzlil Levy ’17 is the president of the Brandeis Zionist Alliance.
Rabbi David Pardo My first reaction is despair. For those of us who’ve spent any amount of time in Israel over the years, the “mom’s advice” we haven’t listened to (much like wearing a sweater when it’s cold and getting to bed before 10) is to not hitchhike or spend Shabbat in this or that area. The most recent attacks have happened in undisputed territory, in the middle of harmless acts of day to day life—prayer, travel, celebrating the birth of a baby born after 10 years of fertility treatment (the baby was murdered). Nothing is safe, nothing is sacred. This is not guerilla warfare or freedom fighting; even the word “terror” is losing its edge. As Matti Friedman expertly demonstrated over the summer and Alan Johnson published just recently, the global community must view Palestinians as moral agents who are responsible for their choices. Perfunctory English language condemnations are insulting and unproductive. It’s time for real change. Rabbi David Pardo is the co-director of the Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus.
David Gabriel M.A. ’14 The Har Nof, Jerusalem massacre last week was a deplorable act which deserves condemnation. However, it took place within a larger socio-political context. In order to best make sense of this situation, it is important to remember that only two months ago Israel engaged in a brutal military campaign in Gaza. Ostensibly this war was fought due to legitimate Israeli security concerns, however it failed to ameliorate these concerns and instead wrought collective punishment on thousands of Palestinians guilty only of being within the vicinity of Hamas. For its part, the already tenuous and politically impotent Hamas used its obsolete rudimentary weaponry against Israeli towns and cities. Yet, this war was anything but a war. It was an exchange of fire between a regional power, Israel and lackluster Hamas, in which neither armed force retained concern for the other’s civilian population. The consequences were devastating, both in terms of physical destruction, and the re-emergence of inter and intracommunal hatred. The likelihood of a Third Intifada is therefore increasing, as influential leaders make flagrant remarks regarding the resurgent culture of violence within the affected parties. David Gabriel M.A. ’14 student in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.
THE JUSTICE
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TUESDAY, november 25, 2014
Suppressing religious voices hurts constitutional rights
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Mark
Gimelstein Give me liberty
The First Amendment to the Constitution is rightfully viewed as having a profound influence in shaping modern America. Particularly, the First Amendment has shaped our country’s status as a haven for those persecuted and oppressed on the basis of their religion and faith. But as society has become increasingly secularized, politicians and certain interest groups have systemically sought to disenfranchise the religious in our nation from freely practicing their faith in the name of “equal rights.” And because the amount of credence we give to the views of these so-called “egalitarians” has proliferated in recent years, we have, in turn, thumbed our noses at religious communities across our nation that still have viable, legitimate voices in our society. In the newest instance of tolerant tyranny, the city of Houston recently passed a gender-neutral bathroom bill that institutionalizes unisex bathrooms in the city to accommodate for transgender people—a bill that encountered strong criticism from Houston’s Christian community. In fact, that community, distraught by the perception that the city was approving and endorsing a lifestyle not compatible with biblical teachings, mobilized a petition movement this past election cycle to try repealing it through a vote by the city’s populace. City officials fired back, ruling that the petition drive was inadequate because many of the signatures had been scrutinized and deemed illegitimate. Houston pastors and the religious community responded by filing a suit against the city, claiming that they had garnered three times the minimum number required to place the ordinance on the ballot. This is where the problems begin. Houston Mayor Annise Parker, in a shocking display of authoritarianism, started an operation to target and subpoena five separate pastors as an answer to the suit. The subpoenas, according to the Washington Times, called for communications related to the “mayor, the ordinance, homosexuality and gender neutrality.” The city of Houston was coercing the pastors into handing over the contents of their most common means of relevant communication: prayers and sermons— a chilling effect indeed. While Ms. Parker has since backed off and withdrawn the ongoing subpoenas because of the immense public backlash and has rewritten them to exclusively address the petition in question (effectively placing the petition in bureaucratic
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limbo for now), an unambiguous fact remains: religious liberty in the United States has come under direct attack by leftists in governments across the country. And this incident in Houston is not, by any means, their first offense. The movement to repress and censor religiosity has festered in America for quite some time. Indeed, one of the largest “freethinker” and atheist groups, Freedom from Religion, has incomprehensively achieved serious clout in the battle over religious liberty in the public sphere. One of the most disgraceful controversies surrounding the organization occurred when the group bullied a New Hampshire mother, Lizarda Urena, out of praying on the front steps of Concord High School. This was based on the fallacious notion that even a modicum of prayer or religiosity in the public domain is a violation of the establishment clause in the First Amendment, whereas this was actually a blatant violation of Urena’s individual right to freedom of religion and expression. In the words of Concord High School Principal Gene Conolly, “She’s not teaching prayer; she’s not out there asking kids to come with (her) … she does not promote religion.” Freedom from Religion’s damaging influence in cases like Urena’s, as well as the actions of Ms. Parker and others, has led to a progression
in all parts of the country where religious communities are under threat of repression in a cornucopia of ways. In Colorado, Christian students at Pine Creek High School, during their free time in school, can now “no longer meet to pray, sing religious songs or discuss religious topics during free time,” as per a report by Fox News. This is because of a perceived violation of the separation of church and state. Meanwhile, in Oregon, Aaron and Melissa Klein, devout Christian bakers, refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple because it was in violation of their religious beliefs. They were fined $150,000 by the state as a result, based on anti-discriminatory law applied to the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Queer community—a fine that could potentially bankrupt them. These and other cases share a troubling connection of targeting private, religious citizens. Liberals, who once championed the Bill of Rights in its entirety, have since abandoned these founding principles in favor of an antireligious strain of bullying that holds people’s religious beliefs and livelihoods hostage in the name of a morally bankrupt version of tolerance. When discussing the liberal version of separation of church and state, leftists employ a glaring cogni-
tive dissonance on the matter. They claim to be strong defenders of keeping religion out of the state—even going as far as to crusade against the most minor “offenses,” namely, personal adherence to religious practices in public spaces. Yet, they are noticeably disinterested in and, in some cases, even supportive of and complicit in using the power of the state to regulate, surveil and harass private religious citizens. How is it a public danger if private businesspeople follow their religious practices in their private businesses? Where is the consistency? It appears, in the minds of liberals, that lawabiding citizens should lose their right to freely exercise their First Amendment rights just because they start a business, step outside their homes or say the “wrong” thing. This assumption that has taken hold in our society must be finally put to rest for the sake of salvaging what’s left of our once-vibrant fidelity for religious liberty. America is quickly approaching a point where the religious in our society are subservient to the whims and desires of the secular mob. The question remains:w can this increasingly sustained push to forcibly secularize American society through thuggish tactics actually achieve long lasting success? God forbid.
Palestinian Authority’s incitement tactics impede peace process By JONAS SINGER and dor cohen special to the justice
“I salute Odai and Ghassan for this heroic act. Every Palestinian should strike … Al Aqsa is in danger. The settlers brutally hanged Yousef. We raise our heads high.” These were the words spoken by Huda Abu Jamal, the cousin of the two Palestinians, who, wielding guns and meat cleavers, murdered four rabbis and a Druze policeman and left nine others injured in a synagogue on last Tuesday in the West Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof. This attack came after weeks of tension in the Israeli capital, which included the stabbing of four other Israelis and two instances of cars being driven into crowds, resulting in the deaths of three people, including a three-month-old baby girl. A Palestinian teenager was also killed by Israeli police after he approached their squad vehicle with a knife. Yousef Ramouni, the Palestinian bus driver referenced by the assailants’ cousin, was also found hung in his bus last Sunday. While Abu Jamal and many others have used Ramouni’s death as a call to arms for Palestinians, an official autopsy report, conducted by an Arab coroner, found that the incident was a suicide and no foul play was involved. Most news sources have cited friction over the Temple Mount—the religious site holy to both Muslims and Jews—as the cause of the recent turbulence. Unfortunately, the media and world leaders mostly ignore a major precipitant in the mayhem that has occurred. The incitement against Israel and the Jewish people
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by the Palestinian government stokes the fire of disorder and is not conducive to peace. The Palestinian Authority consistently incites violence against Israel; on the Friday before last Tuesday’s attacks, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas encouraged violence at the Temple Mount, calling Jewish visitors “settlers” and stating that they needed to be prevented from entering the site by using “all means” necessary. Other Fatah officials made repeated statements in recent weeks praising deadly terror attacks on Israelis; in particular, the head of the Media Department for Fatah in Lebanon Muhammad al-Biqa’i praised the terrorists last Tuesday as martyrs, adding that “They came out with their weapons, with the true belief that Jerusalem needs blood to purify itself of Jews.” Hamas, the governing party in the Gaza strip, has stated its full support for the terrorists and has called “for more revenge attacks.” Further, Palestinian Authority TV claimed that the bus driver was lynched by settlers even after there was a clear consensus that it was a suicide. These statements encourage deadly actions and may have motivated the attack that occurred last week. Under the terms of the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority is obligated to refrain from incitement against Israel and to take measures to prevent others from engaging in it. The PA has not followed the terms of the agreement and, in fact, continuously violates them. Further, Hamas’ charter contains clauses devoted to Israel’s destruction, thereby inherently inciting violence against the Jewish state.
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The New York Times’ Editorial Board recognized the threat posed by the Palestinian Authority incitement and denounced it in a statement published on Tuesday. In the statement, the board remarked that Abbas had to be pushed by Secretary of State John Kerry into speaking out after the attacks, that it was the first time in recent weeks Abbas had condemned any act of violence against Israelis and that Abbas “has a duty to make the moral case that such brutality and inhumanity can only bring shame upon the Palestinian people. “Kerry also denounced the Palestinian Authority’s incitement, blaming the attack on Palestinian calls for “days of rage” and demanding Palestinians “at every single level of leadership to condemn this in the most powerful terms.” The increasing awareness of Palestinian incitement as an obstacle to peace is a welcome step forward, but it is not enough. President Barack Obama himself should condemn Abbas’ incitement and have him prove that he is indeed the man of peace world leaders make him out to be. Further, instead of simply condemning this hateful speech, the United States and the European Union countries, who combined donate the bulk of the billions of dollars the Palestinian Authority receives in international aid, need to take wholehearted actions to prevent the indoctrination of hatred in Palestinian society. Such measures should include making aid to the Palestinian Authority contingent on its efforts to prevent incitement and promote rhetoric that supports coexistence. For example, Palestinian officials who incite against Israel must
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be fired, children’s television programs that promote jihad must be removed from Palestinian Authority TV and textbooks that demonize Israel and Judaism, which Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has said “profoundly poison the minds of these [Palestinian] children,” must be removed from schools. Only after these changes are made should aid begin flowing in. Abbas and others are heavily reliant on international financial support; as such, aid should only be granted upon being earned. Much of the world is intent on giving the PA a state of its own, yet handing it a state on a silver platter while ignoring the hateful actions of the government would be a grave mistake. A two state solution will only work if both governments will be able to cooperate with one another and reject promotion of hate of the other side. In the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Palestinians celebrated in the street the deaths of the Jews in Jerusalem, distributing sweets and dancing after the media announced the horrific events of last Tuesday morning. If the international community seeks the end of such displays and the absence of statements such as the one made by Huda Abu Jamal, it will need to take decisive action against Palestinian incitement. Only when the Palestinian leadership decides to lead its people in denouncing hatred can a lasting peace truly be established. —Jonas Singer ’17 is vice president of the Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee. Dor Cohen ’16 is president of the Brandeis International Journal and vice president of Brandeis Republicans.
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TUESDAY, november 25, 2014
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THE JUSTICE
FORUM
Deconstruct common stereotypes of millenial generation Catherine
rosch cynical idealist
Twenty-five years ago this month, a largely student-run movement overthrew Czechoslovakia’s repressive Communist government and established a functioning, multi-party democracy. The nonviolent transition of power is now known as the Velvet Revolution due to the mostly peaceful destruction of Communism and transition of power, as opposed to a “hard” or violent revolution. I bring up the Velvet Revolution for two reasons. The first is that, in today’s messy world of violence, upheaval and repressive governments, it is nice to remember that a peaceful, pro-democratic movement can happen. Uprisings and unrest, whether in Egypt, Ukraine, Venezuela or any other part of the world, do not have to end in tragedy and a state that is worse than the one overthrown. But there is another reason that I want to remind everyone of the Velvet Revolution, and that is for its leaders. With the exception of a small group of older intellectuals and artists—Vaclav Havel and his friends—the Velvet Revolution was a movement by young people and for young people. These young people were the same age as the so-called millennials of today. “Millennials” is one of those buzzwords that people like to throw around, often disparagingly. The word is loosely defined by NPR as the generation born between 1980 and 2000. To hear Time magazine tell it in a May 2013 issue entirely devoted to what is wrong with millennials, they are a lazy generation who don’t want to pay for TV or a college education and are not as successful as their parents or grandparents. To the New York Times Magazine in March of the same year, millennials are well-intentioned kids, college graduates in what some people see as “useless” fields like sociology and gender studies. They are also struggling to thrive in the “real world,” according to a column by economics reporter Annie Lowrey. They are obsessed with materialism and new technology but often can’t afford to get a house or start a family. In Lowrey’s words, “The millennials’ relationship with money seems quite simple. They do not have a lot of it, and what they do have, they seem reluctant to spend.” I think millennials get a lot more flack than they deserve. Millennials came of age during a sluggish economy in a country that was mired in two wars and had lost much of its international prestige. However, millennials are forced to live up to the same expectations of their parents’ generations, of the Baby Boomers and Generation X, who could realistically expect to afford to pay for college and graduate with minimal loans, get a job, buy a
DREW SHENEMAN/McClatchy Campus-Tribune
house, have a family and live the “American Dream” in the same way that their parents did. Never mind the fact that the cost of attending a private university has increased by 250 percent since 1962 and that, according to that 2013 New York Times article, the unemployment rate among 20 to 24-year-olds is at 17 percent, more than three times the national average even though millennials are more educated than any other generation. But I don’t think that my generation, the millennials, is lazy or spoiled or entitled. Some individuals in the millennial generation might expect life to be handed to them on a silver platter, but the same can be said of any other generation. That is not what makes the millennial generation different from the Baby Boomers or Generation X. Rather, the millennial generation is a diverse one; almost a majority of the millennial generation is made up of “traditional” minority groups. This generation is underemployed despite being more educated and paying more for that education than earlier generations, yet are still optimistic about what the future may hold for them. According to a Pew Research Center study, a majority of millennials are ultimately hopeful about the future.
This directly contradicts the popular image of the millennials as selfish and entitled. The actual values and history of millennials include facing economic woes and emerging optimistic, standing united through deep internal diversity and seeking out education despite long-term financial consequences. Millennials haven’t earned a reputation for self-absorption simply because we grew up around technology that encourages interpersonal interactions. Those who would seek to criticize this generation must first acknowledge the facts that millennials are diverse, educated and optimistic about their future and changing the world. It’s unproductive to criticize the millennial generation for not being able to find jobs, for having to take out student loans that can end up in the tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of dollars, or for coming of age in a time when the world has so fundamentally changed. The United States is a slipping global power. Institutions like Social Security are no longer guaranteed. And college is just prohibitively expensive. Rather, our parents and their peers in positions of power should see what the millennials have to offer and how the millennials have the potential to make a change. Millennials are the ones who organized
around climate change and helped lead the largest climate change march in history. Millennials have taken a stand on ending the use of conflict minerals in their beloved consumerist products like iPhones and laptops, even while being criticized as mindless consumers in the one field that has most developed during our lifetime. Millennials constantly lead protests on issues such as immigration reform, minimum wage reform, sexual assault and gay rights. Simply look at the Young DREAMers organization or individual leaders like Debbra Alexis, Emma Sulkowicz and Chris Hughes. Millennials around the world have led the way on trying to end repressive regimes in Ukraine, Egypt, Thailand, Burkina Faso, Serbia and countless other states. It is counter-productive and disingenuous to call all millennials, or the young people of any generation or decade, lazy, self-absorbed or unable to make change. Look back at the Velvet Revolution if you want proof. It was young people who destroyed Communism in Eastern Europe, and the young people of today, the most diverse, least employed and most incredibly optimistic generation, can make that sort of change, regardless of what older generations may say.
Using comedy shows as news sources poses danger to democracy Glen
Chesir chagi’s chop
This past week Jon Stewart appeared on one of the final episodes of his former writer and good friend Stephen Colbert’s show The Colbert Report. The interview was naturally full of levity, stereotypically Republican criticisms of Stewart and Stewart-esque rebuttals grounded heavily in Jewish culture. As a white, Jewish, politically conservative male at Brandeis, naturally I found the segment to be hysterical. There was, however, one sequence that shook me to my overeducated, politically semi-active, core. Colbert poses the following question to Stewart: “Now as a liberal lion, Jon, as the voice of the left, you know more young people get their news from you…” Stewart immediately jumps in, “Most young people. 87 percent of young people get all of their news from me.” The accompanying meme of this sequence promptly made its way around the various social media sites with shares, likes and comments galore. One commenter on the Facebook page for The Colbert Report even describes the research paper she wrote about Jon Stewart’s positive effect on the American democratic process. Perhaps the best way to highlight the inherent yet massive problem that such a statistic
poses to the American democratic process is to quote Stewart himself in his 2006 appearance on the now-defunct CNN show Crossfire. Stewart goes on one of his usual candid yet facetious rants about the harm modern media is doing to America—how ratings-driven, intentionally politicized and polarized programs are breaking the very fiber of a healthy democracy.
“
How, then, do we force the millenial generation to think critically about the “liberal lion” that is Jon Stewart? One of the hosts of Crossfire immediately tries to jump in and call a double standard— after all, says the host, Stewart does the same exact thing. Stewart replies, “If you want to compare your show to a comedy show, you’re more than welcome to.” Excellent point Jon! You are the host of a comedy show, featured at the late night slot, on the premier cable comedy channel Comedy Central. You, Mr. Stewart, are quite realistic and honest with what kind of show you are presenting: a satirical and cynical comedian’s take on the news—not objective news by any stretch of your vibrant imagination. The fact that your audience, the millennial college-aged people you refer to in your inter-
view with Colbert, do not realize this fact is quite disheartening and extremely distressing. In May 2006, two political scientists from East Carolina University, Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan S. Morris, published an extensive research study on what they coin as the “The Daily Show Effect.” They set out to quantify what exactly the effect of The Daily Show, and other similar programs like The Colbert Report, Letterman and Saturday Night Live have on the American political process. Their conclusions are extensive—but overwhelmingly negative. Perhaps most notable, at least for the sake of this op-ed, is their final conclusion: “We found that exposure to The Daily Show increased internal efficacy by raising viewers’ perception that the complex world of politics was understandable. Stewart’s style of humor paints the complexities of politics as a function of the absurdity and incompetence of political elites, thus leading viewers to blame any lack of understanding not on themselves, but on those who run the system. In presenting politics as the theater of the absurd, Stewart seemingly simplifies it.” In summation, Stewart’s viewers think they have a sound understanding of a complex issue, come to an overtly cynical conclusion based on the oversimplified understanding of the issue and then apply the cynicism—again based on nothing but a few minutes of a comedy show—to the overall political process. Let’s then revisit the 87 percent of young people who turn to The Daily Show for their news. If we combine this number with the findings of “The Daily Show Effect,” then presumably 87 percent of the millennial generation, my generation, the generation that is
supposed to pursue a flourishing free marketplace of ideas and academia, is forming their political opinions based on minute clips from a comedy show. Yelp. But let’s give our generation the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Stewart’s 87 percent statistic is simply too high; reasonable argument, since I could not find Stewart’s source anywhere. What I could find, though, is a recent Pew Research Center study from this past October, that places The Daily Show as the only “news outlet”—out of a list of over 35—that is fully trusted by the left, and completely distrusted by the independent and right. So even if the number of millennials that Stewart cites is too high, he is still, at the very least, a trusted news source of the liberal left. With college aged kids statistically identifying as liberals, Stewart’s 87 percent number may not be so far off from the truth. How, then, do we force the millennial generation to think critically about the “liberal lion” that is Jon Stewart? Some have argued for further context on behalf of Stewart and his writers while others have called for Stewart to simply enter the mainstream news media, most notably with Meet the Press tapping Stewart as a potential host. Perhaps though, the answer is far simpler. Instead of forcing Stewart to enter the news space by adding context or altering his medium, maybe we millennials should just realize what we are doing. Form opinions individually, grounded in fact—not based on what a major corporation or network has decided is the easiest way into your pocket. Sounds a lot like the standard Stewart argues our politicians should be following—maybe Stewart’s got me too.
THE JUSTICE
WBBALL: Judges score 45 points in the second half of midweek victory CONTINUED FROM 16 the game. After a pair of jump shots from both teams, Hawks’ freshman forward Mariah Nicholas made a free throw to tie the game at 71-71. Coming out of a time-out with 36 seconds left in the game, Laskaris missed a shot from three, only to have guard Sydney Sodine ’17 grab the offensive board and put in the winning bucket with 16 seconds left. Despite the way in which the game ended, Laskaris still sees controlling the glass as a major point of emphasis for the team going forward.
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November 25, 2014
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RISING UP TO THE BASKET
“[Our] rebounding is definitely something that we want to improve on. We are all athletic enough to get rebounds, but against teams who crash hard we need to do a better job boxing out,” she said. Laskaris is also excited for the team’s prospects for the rest of the season, commenting, “I love this team's style of play, dedication and work ethic.” The squad will look to rebound from the loss against Tufts when they host Emmanuel College tonight at 6 p.m. before taking an extended break for Thanksgiving.
BRIEF Whitaker represents squad in race at NCAA Championships Kelsey Whitaker ’16 represented the women’s cross country team at the NCAA Division III Championships on Saturday afternoon, where the junior placed 210th overall out of 280 runners. Whitaker ran the six-kilometer course at Wilmington College in Mason, Ohio, in 24 minutes, 7.06 seconds, her third-fastest time on the year. Last Saturday’s race was Whitaker’s second-straight trip to the NCAA Championships after placing in 155th in last year’s race. The trip was Whitaker’s third to the NCAA Championships, as she also earned a bid to the indoor track-and-field championships that took place last March. Whitaker’s time of 24:7.06 was a step slower than her time at the New England Division III Regional Championships on Nov. 15. At the meet she earned a bid to last Saturday’s race by turning in a time of 22:30.0. Her time at the New England DIII Regional Championships was the top time of the team and her
fastest of the season, earning her an 18th-place finish. Whitaker also ran a quick race of 24:35.23 on Nov. 1 at the University Athletic Association Championships, where the Judges finished in eighth place. Her time at the UAA Championships was 65th overall out of 77 total runners but set up two successive weeks in which she turned in strong races. Whitaker turned in her second-fastest race of the year at the Connecticut College Invitational on Oct. 18, when she earned a 28th-place finish with a time of 23:33.44 but battled injury after the meet and was unable to turn in a sub24 minute race again until the New England Regional. Whitaker will rejoin the team for the beginning of the indoor track-and-field season next Saturday at the University of Massachusetts Boston Invitational, beginning at 10 a.m. —Avi Gold
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CONTESTED SHOT: Forward Jordan Cooper ’18 (left) shoots against the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth on Wednesday.
CONTINUED FROM 16
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from behind the three point line about midway through the second half, hitting four threes in five possessions to take a 57-55 lead over the hosts. The game was close for the rest of the way, seeing 12 ties and 18 lead changes over the four quarters. With less than three minutes to play, Brandeis was up 71-70 until UMass Dartmouth scored four consecutive points to put them up by three with 1:50 remaining. Then a Dowden three-pointer and layup put the Judges up by two points with under a minute to play.
After UMass Dartmouth tied the game up in the next possession, the Judges took the clock down and hoisted a failed three-point attempt as the shot clock expired. With 8.7 seconds left in the tied game, UMass Dartmouth went coast-to-coast and hit a layup with .3 seconds left to earn a heartbreaking victory over the Judges. After losing two close nail-biters, the Judges know that they must improve to get over that hump, as both games featured similar problems for the team. “In both games, we shot poorly from the free throw line and had too many careless turnovers,”
commented Dowden. He continued, saying, “[t]hose two things really hurt us but should hopefully be an easy fix.” The Judges have a lot more of the season left to play, and expectations are high, even on a team with six first-years. “I'm expecting this team to improve immensely as the season goes on and we gain more experience and grow as a team,” Dowden said. “We are very young and still have a lot to learn.” The Judges continue searching for their first win of the season today on the road against Lasell College at 6 p.m.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2014
15
SWIMMING AND DIVING
jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS Men’s BASKETBALL UAA STANDINGS
TEAM STATS
Points Per Game
Not including Monday’s games UAA Conference W L Carnegie 0 0 WashU 0 0 Case 0 0 Rochester 0 0 Emory 0 0 Chicago 0 0 NYU 0 0 JUDGES 0 0
Carlin Haymon ’18 leads scorers with 16.5 points per game. Player PPG Carlin Haymon 16.5 Samuel Dowden 14.5 Tim Reale 9.0 Colby Smith 9.0
Overall L Pct. 0 .1000 0 .1000 0 .1000 0 .1000 0 .1000 1 .750 Rebounds Per Game 2 .500 Colby Smith ’16 leads the team 2 .000 with 6.5 rebounds per game. Player RPG Colby Smith 6.5 Tim Reale 5.5 Carlin Haymon 5.0 Connor Arnold 4.5
W 4 4 3 3 2 3 2 0
UPCOMING GAMES: Tonight at Lasell Dec. 2 at Becker Dec. 4 vs. Framingham St.
WOMen’s basketball UAA STANDINGS
TEAM STATS
Not including Monday’s games UAA Conference W L W Rochester 0 0 4 NYU 0 0 4 WashU 0 0 3 Emory 0 0 3 JUDGES 0 0 3 Carnegie 0 0 3 Case 0 0 2 Chicago 0 0 1
Points Per Game
Overall L Pct. 0 .1000 0 .1000 0 .1000 0 .1000 1 .750 1 .750 1 .666 2 .333
UPCOMING GAMES: Tonight vs Emmanuel College Dec. 2 vs. Anna Maria Dec. 6 vs. Johnson and Wales
Niki Laskaris ’16 leads the team with 12.0 points per game. Player PPG Niki Laskaris 12.0 Maria Jackson 11.8 Frankie Pinto 9.8 Hannah Cain 8.2
Rebounds Per Game Sydney Sodine ’17 leads with 6.8 rebounds per game. Player RPG Sydney Sodine 6.8 Hannah Cain 5.8 Maria Jackson 5.2 Kyla Gabriel 4.3
FENCING Results from the Northeast Fencing Conference Meet #1 on Nov. 15.
TOP PERFORMERS (Men’s)
TOP PERFORMERS (Women’s)
SABER Kyle Berney
RECORD 11 wins
SABER Ashley Jean
RECORD 11 wins
ÉPÉE Tom Hearne
RECORD 9 wins
ÉPÉE Liz Feller
RECORD 12 wins
FOIL Caroline Mattos
RECORD 12 wins
FOIL RECORD Guillermo Narvaez 12 wins
Dec. 7 at the Brandeis Invitational in Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. Editor’s note: Guillermo Narvaez ’18 is an editorial assistant for the Justice photos section.
SWIMMING AND DIVING Results from a home meet versus Bentley University last Friday.
50-yard freestyle
SWIMMER Brian Luk Abu Batjargal Evan Thom
TOP FINISHERS (Women’s) TIME 22.01 23.34 23.67
Squads come up short in weekend home meet ■ Brian Luk ’16 won all three of his events, including a two-second victory in the 100-yard butterfly. By COLIN WARNES Justice Staff writer
UPCOMING SCHEDULE:
TOP FINISHERS (Men’s)
GUILLERMO NARVAEZ/the Justice
BETWEEN THE LANES: Joanna Murphy ’17 cuts through the water in a home meet against Bentley University on Friday afternoon.
50-yard freestyle
SWIMMER TIME Sherry Tu 26.71 Margot Farnet 27.79 28.78 Abby Damsky
UPCOMING MEETS:
Dec. 6 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute Invitational Jan. 10 vs. Colby College Jan. 17 at Trinity (Connecticut)
The men and women’s swimming and diving teams hosted their crosstown rivals Bentley University on Friday. While the annual crosstown meet did not end in victory for either of the Brandeis squads, the meet was much closer than the final score suggests. The men’s team dropped its meet by a score of 139-102, while the women’s team lost by a score of 156-74. Brian Luk ’16 was a standout performer for the men’s team, as he won every one of his races. His team in the 200-yard medley relay, which included Edan Zitelny ’17, Richard Avrutsky ’18 and Cameron Braz ’17, finished first with a time of one minute, 42.96 seconds. In the 50-yard freestyle, Luk finished with a time of 22.01, touching the wall ahead of all other contestants. In his final event, the 100-yard butterfly, Luck finished at an impressive 53.77, more than two seconds ahead of second place.
Another positive for the squad was how well the long distance swimmers, led by Max Fabian ’15, competed. Fabian won both of his long distance events, the 1000-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle, with times of 10:06.67 and 4:54.94 respectively. One of the most successful races for the men’s team was the 1000-yard freestyle. With Fabian leading the way, Zach Diamond ’18 and Joey Barr ’18 finished second and third, with times of 10:21.28 and 10:35.16 respectively, completing the sweep for the Judges. Diamond went on to race the 200yard individual medley and finished in first place with a time of 2:02.70. Diamond was content with his performance, noting the difficulty of the 200-yard individual medley and the 1000-yard freestyle in succession. “My 200 was about the same time as last week; especially coming right off of the 1000, it was [a] tough [race], but I am satisfied with my race,” remarked Diamond. The women’s team produced a valiant effort as well, but many of the close contests did not go their way. Joanna Murphy ’17 turned in one of the most impressive performances for the squad. While the team overall did well on its long-distance racing, Murphy lead the way by winning both of her races. In the 1000-yard freestyle
race, she ended 22 seconds ahead of the next contestant, earning a time of 11:02.58. Her second long-distance race was the 500-yard freestyle, which she won comfortably by a five-second margin, ending the race with a time of 5:23.91. Murphy also has begun competing in shorter distance races, racing in the 100-yard butterfly on Friday. Though finishing last, she was not far off the pack completing the race with a time of 1:08.29. “I was satisfied with my race times, mostly proud of my 100 fly time because it is an event I’m not that strong at but trying to improve,” Murphy said. Overall, the team came out with a very good mentality and left with just as much confidence. Both Murphy and Diamond talked about how the team enthusiasm will only lead them to improving. “The team right now is really hyped, and we hope to improve in practices and at meets, especially during the upcoming second half of the season,” said Diamond Murphy added, “our strengths as a team … [are] how we get behind each other and pump each other up for races.” The team will return to the pool at Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Dec. 6.
Boston Bruins BRIEF Boston Bruins fall to the visiting Montreal Canadiens after shutting out St. Louis in games at TD Garden The Boston Bruins welcomed two of the NHL’s top teams to TD Garden this past week and were on opposite ends of shutouts against the St. Louis Blues and Montreal Canadiens. The Bruins netted a pair of goals in a 2-0 victory over the Blues last Tuesday, but were shut out by the same score when goaltender Carey Price and the Canadeins came to Boston on Saturday afternoon. The team was also on the road Friday night, when they defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets in a hard-fought affair, 4-3. Boston holds a 13-9-0 record with 26 points, third in the Northeast Division and seven points behind the division-leading Canadiens, who moved to a 16-5-1 record with Saturday’s victory and have earned 33 points on the season.
Price stopped all 33 shots he faced on Saturday afternoon, snapping a six-game Bruins winning streak. Canadiens defenseman Andrei Markov netted a power play goal 11 minutes, 37 seconds into the first period, slotting a shot past Bruins’ goaltender Tuukka Rask for his second goal of the season. Markov was alone at the top of the faceoff circle after a pass from Canadeins forward Tomas Plekanec, giving him ample room to fire the puck past Rask for a 1-0 lead. Boston had a chance to tie the game with less than two minutes left in the first period when leftwinger Simon Gagne sent a backhand through the goalmouth in the direction of right-winger Milan Lucic, but Lucic was unable to direct the puck over Price’s pads and into
the net. It took the Canadiens less than nine minutes into the second period to double their lead when Plekanec finished a three-on-two breakaway for Montreal. After Rask saved the initial shot produced by the Canadiens’ rush, Plekanec cleaned up the rebound and put it past Rask for the 2-0 lead. Plekanec was denied a second goal late in the third period but Montreal walked away with the 2-0 victory. On Friday night, Boston climbed out of a 2-0 hole to defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets, pushing their winning-streak to six games and setting up the divisional game with Montreal. Center Dennis Seidenberg, right wing Matt Fraser and center Daniel Paille all scored in a three-goal
second period for the Bruins, but the two teams were tied at the end of regulation. In the seventh round of the shootout, newly recalled center Alexander Khokhlachev won the game for the Bruins. The Bruins welcomed the league’s top goalie to town last Tuesday night when goaltender Brian Elliott and the Blues came to Boston. The Bruins needed just six minutes to get on the board, capitalizing on a mistake by Elliott. At 5:45 of the first period, center Patrice Bergeron intercepted a clearing attempt by Elliott—who had tried to send the puck from next to his net through the middle of his defensive zone—and fired the puck into the open net. Defenseman Torey Krug netted
his third goal of the season at 11:31 into the second period, blasting a snapshot past Elliott for a 2-0 lead, while the Bruins relied on Rask’s 33 saves for the victory. “We started off good, but then obviously their [defensemen] are going to join the rush,” Rask said. “We gave them too much room in the middle of the ice to make those cross-ice passes, and they came in and found the late guy too many times. Something we have to fix I think, but ... two-goal leads are the worst ones in hockey, and I feel like I have to stand up, and today myself and the defense did a good job in front of the net.” Boston welcomes the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night at 7 p.m. — Avi Gold
just
Sports
Page 16
CROSSTOWN MEET The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams got a number of individual wins but fell to Bentley University, p. 15.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Waltham, Mass.
mEN’S bASKETBALL
GOING FOR GOAL
Men drop first two contests of season ■ Forward Samuel Dowden
’17 scored a career-high 21 points in his first career start in Wednesday’s 78-76 home defeat. By Noah hessdorf JUSTICE editorial assistant
GRACE KWON/Justice File Photo
POWERFUL STRIKE: Forward Evan Jastremski ’17 takes a shot during the Judges’ 4-0 victory against Clark University on Sept. 13.
Judges’ season comes to a close in Elite Eight ■ The men allowed three
goals in one game for the first time all season during Sunday’s 3-0 loss. By Avi Gold JUSTICE Editor
The No. 5 men’s soccer team found itself in an unfamiliar position on Sunday afternoon, just 10 minutes into its Elite Eight game with the State University of New York at Oneonta. After an eighthminute goal by the hosts, the Judges were forced to play from behind, the earliest all season the Brandeis defense had given up a goal. Brandeis was never able to find the back of the net against the thirdranked Red Dragons, ending the squad’s run in the NCAA Division III Tournament and closing its season at 19-3-1. “We played a great team,” said coach Michael Coven. “That’s the best tea m we played in a number of years. To give us credit, we played a long, hard game on a bad field the day before. I think that we were beat up, physically our legs were tired … but [that’s] not to take anything away from Oneonta.” The Red Dragons turned an eighth-minute miscue into the only goal they would need on Sunday afternoon. After a failed clearance by the Judges’ defense, SUNY Oneonta junior midfielder Dylan Williams fed the ball into SUNY Oneonta junior forward Jake Sutherland 20 yards in front of the Brandeis goal. Sutherland, the Red Dragons’ second-leading goal scorer on the year, slammed the ball past goalkeeper Joe Graffy ’15 for his 11th goal of the season and gave the
hosts an early 1-0 lead. SUNY Oneonta was not content to sit on the lead and kept the pressure on the Judges, producing three corners in quick succession after the 25th minute, including one that rang off the crossbar. They held the Judges to just one shot in the opening 45 minutes. The Red Dragons’ 1-0 lead was the first time all season Brandeis entered halftime trailing its opponent. A fast-paced sequence in the 49th minute turned from joy to heartbreak and culminated in the Judges conceding a second goal—only the second time all year Brandeis gave up multiple goals during a contest. The sequence started when midfielder Josh Ocel ’17 nearly netted an equalizing goal but caromed his shot off the right post, setting up a Red Dragons counterattack. SUNY Oneonta took the rebound up the right side of the field and worked it into junior midfielder Greg Silvestro. Silvestro—who shook his defender and was left all alone in front of Graffy—slotted home his second goal of the season, putting the game out of reach for the Judges. Even after allowing the early second-half goal, Brandeis did not stop its attack, as Ocel had a 66thminute shot that was punched over the crossbar, and forward Tyler Savonen ’15 knocked a ball off the outside of the post in the 77th minute after dribbling around three SUNY Oneonta defenders. The Red Dragons would put the game away after Savonen’s miss, quickly getting the ball into their attacking third and placing the ball into an open net after Graffy came out to try to intercept a cross. “Ocel had a shot that, if it were an inch lower, would have gone in,”
Coven said. “It’s a matter of inches, and [if the shot had gone in] it would have been closer.” On Saturday afternoon, the Judges needed penalty kicks to defeat Amherst College to set up the top-five showdown with SUNY Oneonta. The 13th-ranked Jeffs held a 17-12 shot advantage but could not crack the nation’s thirdranked defense. Each squad missed a number of opportunities during regulation and the overtime session, including back-to-back Amherst shots that bounced off the post. Amherst grabbed a 3-2 lead in penalty kicks after Savonen missed the opening attempt, but the Judges battled back to tie it up at 4-4, setting up sudden death. The teams traded goals until forward Evan Jastremski ’17 blasted home his seventh-round shot, and Graffy forced the ensuing Amherst shot to go wide, punching the Judges’ ticket to Sunday’s contest with the Red Dragons. Coven pointed to the support the squad received from traveling fans who made the nearly four-hour dive to upstate New York. “We had about 100 fans up there [in Oneonta], and they were great,” he commented. “They were vocal, and their support this year was truly appreciated.” The squad finishes the season tied for a school-record 19 wins and set new records with 17 shutouts, nine goals allowed and a 0.38 goalsagainst average. “I hope the loss does not diminish what the team accomplished [this year],” Coven remarked. “The team only gave up one goal at home.” “The only thing we could have improved on coming down the stretch is we didn’t score goals, … but the attitude of these kids, the work ethic, [it’s unbelievable].”
The men’s basketball team opened its season with two close defeats this week, falling to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 78-76 on Wednesday night at home and at Rhode Island College 66-60 on Saturday night. The week saw the Judges back in action for the first time since ending last season with a 13-12 record overall. The Judges’ second game of the young season, and first road game, was a close six-point loss. Guard Carlin Haymon ’18 led the team with 15 points in the second game of his career. On the strength of Haymon’s shooting, the Judges shot an outstanding 56.3 percent from the field in the first half and went into the second half tied at 23 apiece. In the second half, RIC took a lead and looked poised to run away with the game, but guard Nate Meehan ’18 hit a few big shots, including a three-pointer to cut the lead down to two points with less than three minutes to play. From that point, though, the
momentum shifted back to RIC, who hit all four of their last freethrow attempts to ice the game. The loss showcased impressive individual performances for the Judges, including guard Colby Smith’s ’16 double-double. Smith had four assists as well to go along with his 10 points and 10 rebounds. Forward Jordan Cooper ’18 added 11 points—including two threes— off of the bench. The first game on the 2014 to 2015 schedule saw the Judges squander a six-point lead at halftime and lose by two points to UMass Dartmouth last Wednesday. Haymon once again led the way with 12 points in the first half of his first collegiate game. Haymon was not alone in an excellent first performance of the season, as forward Samuel Dowden ’17—starting for the first time in his collegiate career—had a careerhigh 21 points. Dowden hit 9-13 from the field, including five three-pointers. He added five rebounds for the game, four of them being offensive. Dowden credited the coaching staff for his breakthrough game. “Our coaching staff does a great job of scouting our opponents and finding out their strengths and weaknesses,” he said. The Judges started the second half on fire, hitting their first five shots to take a 48-34 lead before cooling down. UMass Dartmouth then got hot
See MBBALL, 13 ☛
Women’s Basketball
Squad splits pair of opening road games ■ Guard Sydney Sodine ’17
put back up the winning basket with 16 seconds remaining on Wednesday. By Daniel kanovich JUSTICE STAFF WRITER
The women’s basketball team added a win and a loss to their season after a pair of games last week, to start the season at an overall 3-1—a significant improvement over last season’s 1-3 start. On Wednesday, the team traveled to Bristol, R.I., where they came away with a hard-fought two-point win against Roger Williams University. On Saturday, the Judges again went on the road and fell to fourth-ranked Tufts University. Both teams headed into Saturday’s game undefeated, but the Jumbos managed to take control of the game in the second half and avoid the upset, dropping Brandeis to 3-1 overall. The Judges started the game playing stifling defense, something they have relied heavily on early in the season. Brandeis held an early 11-10 lead with 12:12 to go in the first half, but Tufts took the lead back less than a minute later on an 8-0 run over the span of two minutes. The Judges buckled down on defense for the rest of the half and went into halftime only down by four points in a low-scoring 27-23 contest. Trailing 31-27 with 18:23 left in the game, the Judges started to fall behind as the Jumbos put together a 14-4 run behind an efficient offense.
The Judges never managed to cut the gap to below nine points the rest of the way, getting outscored 47-28 in the second half. Guard Niki Laskaris ’16, who led the team in scoring with 15 points, put the onus on the defense to perform better. “Our offense was ineffective in the second part of the second half because our defense was not as strong as it normally is,” she said. “Our best weapon is our defense, and when we do not get stops, it makes offense a little slow,” she continued. Center Olivia Shaw ’18 added nine points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field, as the Judges lost 74-51 to the host Jumbos. On Wednesday, Brandeis came back from a nine-point deficit in the last five minutes of the game to take down Roger Williams by a slim twopoint margin. With just over 10 minutes left in the first half, Brandeis led the Hawks 1913 behind timely three-point shooting from Laskaris and guard Frankie Pinto ’17. The Judges’ defense then started to ease up and allowed the Hawks to take the lead on a 24-9 run to close the half. The Judges took a 46-44 lead with 14:42 left in the game behind strong inside scoring from Shaw and forward Tori Dobson ’16. After taking the lead, the Judges went cold for nine minutes and let the Hawks’ lead grow to nine with 5:54 left in the game. Brandeis converted at the line six times over the next minute and a half of game time and eventually took the lead on a Laskaris three-pointer that made the score 69-68 with 2:56 left in
See WBBALL, 13 ☛
JustArts Volume LXVII, Number 13
Your weekly guide to arts, movies, music and everything cultural at Brandeis and beyond
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Waltham, Mass.
‘CONFERENCE
OF THE BI RDS’
» 21
INSIDE
MELA— Annual show presents an array of acts focusing around Southeast Asian culture » 23
‘The Good Doctor’ Play offers a pastiche of narratives in a comedic light » 21
‘Bully’ Gillian Wearing’s video takes an unconventional approach to the topic of bullying » 19 ‘Art’ BET play in South Campus Commons portrays a discussion among three friends about a work of art » 21
18
justARTS
TUESDAY, november 25, 2014 | THE JUSTICE
CALENDAR
INTERVIEW
$
What’s happening in Arts on and off campus this week
ON-CAMPUS EVENTS Analysis of Elizabeth Murray’s ‘Duck Foot’
Elizabeth Murray’s painting “Duck Foot” is the central work of the Rose Art Museum’s Collection in Focus. “Duck Foot” has been described by the Rose as one of the museum’s greatest treasures. In the latest installement of the Close Looking series, Christian Gentry, Ph.D ’12 (THA) and Brandeis Prof. Susan Dibble (THA) discuss the piece. Tomorrow from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Mildred S. Lee Gallery at the Rose Art Museum. This event is free and open to the public.
Visiting Professor Kate Soper Discusses Her Recent Compositions
An assistant professor of music at Smith College, Kate Soper is an accomplished composer and vocalist. She has recieved awards from various music organizations, including the Guggenheim Foundation and the Music Theory Society of New York State. Soper is also a co-director and for Wet Ink, a New York-based new music ensemble that aims to make music that crosses over aesthetic boundaries. Soper’s discussion adds to the Brandeis Department of Music Colloquium Series. Friday Dec. 5 from 4 to 5 p.m. in Slosberg 212. This event is free and open to the Brandeis community.
Aaron Fischer ’15
Student directs BET’s production of ‘Art’ MORGAN BRILL/the Justice
This week, justArts spoke with Aaron Fischer ’15, the director of Brandeis Ensemble Theater’s production of Art, about the company’s show this weekend. JustArts: What motivated you to join the production of Art? Aaron Fischer: I saw the play when I was much younger, and for a project I was doing about a year or two ago, I reread it. My plan was to read [the play] over a week, but I was so gripped, I couldn’t move away from it. It’s a terrific play. The words just jump off the page, and the characters are so clear—you don’t even need a performance to make it come to life. It’s witty, and it’s interesting. The subject matter is really captivating.
Fafali presents Music and Dance from Ghana
Fafali, the Brandeis Music Department’s Ghanaian Music and Dance ensemble, brings Ghanian music and dance to campus. Faith Conant, a lecturer in music for the Brandeis music department, will direct the performance. Saturday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Slosberg Music Center.
JA: What’s it like working with such a small cast? AF: It was great! I was a little worried about it, because if people don’t like each other—but it turned out to be a really great group! Raphael [Stigliano ’18] and Dylan [Hoffman ’18] and Max [Moran ’17] all just sort of meshed really quickly. As a director, the best part is just seeing the actors like each other. That’s the most fun part of the process.
New Music Brandeis Showcases the Graduate Students’ Compositions
JA: Did you have any challenges as director? AF: It was hard to figure out space. A big part of the vision for the show was to get away from a Proscenium stage and to do a really intimate setting. It was really hard to find an intimate space on campus, because we don’t really have a lot of spaces like that—you know, like a black-box stage. The search was tough, and we ended up with Ridgewood [Quad], which turned out to be a blessing, because Ridgewood is awesome. It has this very sort of “apartment” feel, which is what the [play’s] set is, so that worked out nicely. JA: What was your favorite scene to direct? AF: The show is not really broken into scenes. It literally doesn’t have any scene numbers. It’s just 90 pages. So—the first scene. JA: How did opening night go? AF: It was brilliant. It was just awesome. We had a full house, and the actors just owned it. All the set pieces came together, all the props came together, all the costumes—everything came together really nicely. JA: Was there something that the cast was most excited for? AF: A big part of the idea for the show was to really engage the audience. The script itself has a lot of monologues or soliloquies, and they really encourage you to engage with the audience. We took that idea and expanded on that, and that was what we were doing with the intimate space. It can be kind of tough to rehearse—I’d give the actors notes, like make sure to say that line to the audience, and when I said the audience, what I meant was like those 12 empty chairs over there. And that can be really tough. [The actors] dealt with it really well in rehearsal. But I think it was just awesome for them to have an audience. JA: Was there one thing you wanted the audience—those 12 chairs—to take away from the show? AF: Yes and no. There’s didactic theater, which is theater where there is a message and you’re supposed to come away with some sort of new information. I think [in Art] there is a moral to the story, but I think it’s really bad practice to preach. I think of it in terms of like the difference between normative and descriptive: I’m not trying to tell the audience anything, but you sort of have to know what’s happening. And I hope the audience understood what was happening. To me, the show is about—and the way I phrased it in the description was—how small arguments can end friendships. It basically boils down for Yasmina Reza, the playwright, to the idea that we put people into boxes and we sort of limit their roles. We assign them roles in our lives, and when they suddenly stop playing those roles, we start having a problem with them. I hope people saw that that was what was going on, but I hope that no one felt like they were being preached to. The play does a really good job of that. [In] the ending, it’s hard to tell what [Reza] is trying to say. There’s a final moment where each of [the characters] has a monologue and it’s not really abundantly clear what she’s trying to say, and I think that’s part of the avoiding getting to preach-y. —Brooke Granovsky Editor’s note: Max Moran’17 is the forum editor of the Justice.
Brand New Music / New Music Brandeis is a contemporary music concert series that highlights work from Brandeis student composers. The Music department composer’s collective brings together music students and the Lydian String Quartet. The quartet will perform works that the graduate students composed. Saturday Dec. 6 from 8 to 9:30 p.m. at the Slosberg Music Center. This event is free and open to the public.
Boris’ Kitchen presents ‘Big Show’
Brandeis’ sketch comedy group Boris’ Kitchen presents its annual fall festival show, “Big Show.” The show aims to get students laughing before finals and the end of the fall semester. The performance will feature Boris’ Kitchen members performing alongside visiting comedy troupes from Yale University and Tufts University on Friday and Emerson College and Skidmore College on Saturday. Friday Dec. 5 and Saturday Dec. 6 from 8 to 11 p.m. at the Shapiro Campus Center in the Carl J. Shapiro Theater. This event is free and open to the Brandeis community.
Brandeis Early Music Ensemble and Brandeis Chamber Choir present ‘(a Holy and a Broken) Hallelujah!’
The Brandeis Early Music Ensemble and Brandeis Chamber Choir will sing music that draws on the theme of Hallelujah, which means praise in Hebrew. The Music department partners with these groups to demonstrate how this theme of Hallelujah/praise changed throughout different musical eras. Sunday Dec. 7 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Slosberg Music Center. This event is free and open to the public.
The Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women presents Sharsheret (PINK) Fashion Show
The Student Union and the Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women are having a fashion show in
order to raise money for Sharsheret, a Jewish non-profit that provides support for women suffering from breast and ovarian cancer. Sunday Dec. 7 from 7 to 9 p.m in the Hassenfeld Sherman Hall. Tickets for the event are $5 at the Brandeis Tickets office. Tickets at the door will be $7.
Brandeis Ensemble Theater Presents ‘Quickies’
BET’s Quickies features studentwritten one-act plays in the campus’s last theater event of the semester. This fast-paced series of shows provides a welcome study break as finals approach. Sunday from 8 to 11 p.m. at the Shapiro Campus Center Theater. This event is free and open to the Brandeis community.
Deptartment of Theater Arts presents the Undergraduate ‘Singing Party’
Soprano and Prof. Nancy Armstrong’s (MUS) undergraduate singing class will perform and showcase what they have learned this semester. The undergraduates will perform a wide range of songs as part of the informal cabaret-style party. Monday Dec. 8 from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Spingold Theater Center in the Laurie Theater. This event is free and open to the public.
OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS Speakeasy Stage Productions Presents ‘Necessary Monsters’
John Kuntz’ Necesssary Monsters showcases sex, murder and danger in a reality-bending comedy. Kuntz uses a series of intricately connected stories to expose the human psyche in a dark but funny way. The show’s runtime is just over one and a half hours. Kuntz has won awards for his other plays, The Salt Girl and The Hotel Nepenthe. Performances start on Dec. 5 and end on Jan. 3. The show plays at different times each day. Student tickets are $56.
Pop Culture n !
ww Pumpkin spice lattes have given way to peppermint mochas and gingerbread men. Holiday decorations are out in full swing, and you can’t escape the Christmas commercials on TV. It’s officially holiday season, and it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet. This year brings the usual crop of holiday television and songs, with some 2014 updates. The 88th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will march down 34th street in New York City and on television screens. This year’s parade will feature balloon favorites including Hello Kitty, Spiderman and Spongebob Squarepants, as well as floats with performers such as Idina Menzel, Megan Trainor and a cappella favorite Pentatonix, according to the Macy’s Parade website. Once Santa closes the parade, you can expect the usual holiday specials on TV, from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. There are, however, several new network specials ready to shake things up. NBC is trying its hand at the live musical again after last December’s The Sound of Music Live! This year, the network will premiere Peter Pan Live! on Dec. 4. The musical will star Allison Williams, from HBO’s hit Girls, as the titular character, while screen legend Christopher Walken will play the villainous Captain Hook. Fans will recognize songs from the 1954 stage production starring Mary Martin, along with new and adapted musical numbers to suit the new cast and era. NBC will also be showing the animated Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas, based on the 2003 live-action comedy Elf, as well as its Broadway adaptation Elf: The Musical. The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons will voice the role of Buddy, previously played by Will Ferrell. The hour-long special, airing on Dec. 16, is made with stop-motion animation like the older television specials but geared towards a younger audience. This year also brings a fresh crop of holiday tunes, including remakes and originals, to replace the tired, overplayed songs that come back every year. Kristen
By Ilana Kruger
CREATIVE COMMONS
LET IT SNOW: Major music artists (like Menzel) have started to release their holiday albums. Bell, of Veronica Mars and Frozen fame, released the cheeky “Text Me Merry Christmas” with a cappella group Straight No Chaser last Monday. With timely lyrics like “Please remember this December to fully charge your phone” and “A snap on Snapchat doesn’t last,” the song appeals to and pokes fun at today’s smart phone obsessed culture. Bell’s Frozen costar and Broadway star Idina Menzel and crooner Michael Bublé released a version of the classic “Baby It’s Cold Outside.” The duet, which appears on Menzel’s album Holiday Wishes, released in October, has been referred to as a “kid-friendly” version of the original, which was written in 1944 by lyricist Frank Loesser. Questionable lines such as “Hey, what’s in this drink?”
have been replaced with “Hey, was that a wink?” The music video, fittingly, features two children lip-synching to the adult vocals. Finally, if you’re looking to do some good this holiday season, you can purchase the most recent version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid 30, the 2014 incarnation of super group Band Aid. The original song was recorded in 1984 and featured artists such as Phil Collins and David Bowie. The song raised money for those starving in the Ethiopian famine at the time. Today’s version features current chart toppers including Ellie Goulding, Chris Martin, Rita Ora, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, One Direction and Bono and will benefit the Ebola crisis in Africa.
ARTS COVER IMAGES: HANNAH CHIDEKEL and MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice and courtesy of Mike Lovett and Gillian Wearing. DESIGN: JEREMY PERLMAN and GUILLERMO NARVAEZ /the Justice.
ON CAMPUS
THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014
19
ART TALK
Tufts professor speaks about Kahlo exhibit By JESSIE MILLER JUSTICE EDITOR
Most Frida Kahlo exhibits focus on the artist’s work as a reflection of her life, but curator Adriana Zavala, associate professor of art and art history at Tufts University, has taken a different approach in her upcoming exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. The exhibit, which will run from May 16 to Nov. 1 2015, instead views Kahlo’s art through a botanical lens, focusing on the nature and plant aspects of her prolific work. Zavala spoke to a group of Brandeis colleagues and students last Thursday as a guest lecturer for Prof. Gannit Ankori’s (FA) class on Frida Kahlo this semester. The upcoming exhibit is titled Frida Kahlo—Art Garden Life and takes advantage of the botanic garden’s nature-inspired setting. When the New York Botanical Garden asked her to curate the exhibit, Zavala saw it as an “opportunity to do something a little different with Frida,” she said and instead focus “on Kahlo’s relationship with the natural world.” Overall, Zavala explained that the exhibit seeks to “bring forward to the public a more profound understanding of Kahlo’s appreciation of indigenous Mexican history, culture and plant life.” Zavala started her talk by discussing one of Kahlo’s most famous works—“Self Portrait with Necklace of Thorns.” This painting, which will be featured in the exhibit, is the perfect example of Kahlo’s relationship with nature. The background depicts incredibly detailed large tropical plant leaves as two monkeys sit on her shoulders and a dead hummingbird on a necklace hangs from her neck. Zavala moved on to discuss La Casa Azul, Kahlo’s blue house in Coyoacán, Mexico, where the gardens held an important role in her famiy’s
life. Kahlo’s home is an architectural representation of her artistic creativity, from its painted exterior to the artwork on its walls to the Mexican and European plants in the garden. Kahlo also owned and studied botanical books and other works, such as Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, that often influenced her paintings. Zavala explained that the book contains actual plants pressed onto the pages that Kahlo herself put into the book. Zavala next discussed the work “Portrait of Luther Burbank,” a prominent horticulturist. In the painting, Kahlo painted Burbank as if he—like a plant—was rooted into the ground. Zavala also pointed out that “Burbank was a hybridizer of plants, and of course, Kahlo was herself somebody who thematized hybridity quite a bit.” Kahlo represented hybridity in many ways in her work, most notably in the ways she imagined the balance between indigenous culture in Mexico and the influence of Europe. This clash of cultures was especially prevalent in the post-revolutionary period of Mexico. The next slide of Zavala’s presentation featured three still life paintings of fruit, including “Still-Life with Parrot and Flag”—a piece that will also be featured in the exhibit. The fruit in all the works is incredibly detailed and precise and represents Kahlo’s interest in nature. When many people think of Kahlo as an artist, they sometimes only consider her more famous self-portraits; however, the still life works add another dimension to understanding Kahlo and her style as an artist. The centrality of La Casa Azul to Kahlo’s work and life is also very important, and the house changed over time as Kahlo’s interests evolved. For example, the garden featured more Mexican plants at some points. Zavala also explained the importance
of the house through the painting “My Grandparents, My Parents, and I (Family Tree)” that features portraits of her family members, a Mexican landscape and La Casa Azul. The painting shows Kahlo’s genealogical background that is rooted in her family home. The exhibit features three paper works and 11 paintings, Zavala said. This exhibit’s selection was limited
by multiple other exhibits of her work occurring simultaneously. However, the exhibit will also include various public programming throughout the year, such as cooking workshops and film screenings and a poetry walk featuring the works of Mexican poets. As well, because of the large Latino population in the Bronx, Zavala also added that the exhibit will have bilingual interpretation to make it
more accessible to Spanish-speaking individuals. Zavala’s guest lecture offered a teasing hint at the fascinating exhibit that will soon take place at the New York Botanical Garden. Popular culture frequently diminishes Kahlo’s capacity and impact as an artist, but this exhibit recaptures Kahlo’s intellect and talent by taking a non-traditional approach in displaying her work.
ABIGAIL ROTHSTEIN/the Justice
EXAMINING AN EXHIBIT: Adriana Zavala spoke about an upcoming exhibit on Frida Kahlo at the New York Botanical Garden.
ROSE ART MUSEUM
Video takes atypical approach to topic of bullying By EMILY WISHINGRAD JUSTICE EDITOR
Gillian Wearing’s video Bully (2010), currently on view at the Rose Art Museum, is an emotional roller coaster—mostly running downward. The eight-minute installation in the Rose Video Gallery is not your typical representation of the effects of bullying. Instead of portraying a scene of bullying in action, Wearing depicts a reenactment by some sort of improvisation group (it is not clear who they are) of an event that happened in one of the mem-
bers’ childhoods. But this reflective reenactment is perhaps more heartwrenching than if the video had been portrayed a scene in real time. The video is set in what looks like a warehouse and opens to a scene with people standing against a wall, listening to an instructor. The instructor describes the improv they are about to put on as an “active tableau of a common experience [the man standing next to him—James] had of a bullying experience when he was young.” He tells the participants that James will act as a director in order for them to recreate the scene. “He’s gonna work with
it until such time when he actually believes in it,” the instructor said. After James tells each person which character to be and how to embody that character, the acting starts almost immediately. There are the bullies, the victim and the bystanders. The scene progresses from some hurtful language thrown around at a kid on the playground to physical and verbal abuse. The bullies end up following the victim as he tries to leave the situation—trailing him very closely while yelling expletives and insults at him. Finally, one kid starts throwing a tennis ball at him.
After a few throws of the tennis ball, James ends the skit and takes the participants assigned as bystanders and the bullies and lines them up facing each other. James is then so overcome with emotion that he walks slightly away from the group. The instructor tells him to talk to the bullies and bystanders as if they were his own bullies all those years ago. “I don’t think you realize how sh*tty you made me feel and how you affected the rest of my life,” he said to the bullies. The video was incredibly uncomfortable and heartbreaking—a huge achievement on Wearing’s part. The
act-within-an-act somehow made the message of the video more moving. It wasn’t preachy. It was just displaying a rendering of an event that occurred—and it felt earnest. The camera, which slightly shook all the while, added to the informality of the performance and made it feel less staged. The very short but very powerful Bully is definitely worth a visit. It takes a topic that is very prevalent in today’s society—something most people can relate to in some way— and makes the subject estranged and nuanced in a way that makes you think.
IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARTIST; TANYA BONAKDA GALLERY, NEW YORK; AND MAUREEN PALEY, LONDON
RELIVING THE PAIN: In Gillian Wearing’s eight-minute video, a group reenacts an episode of bullying that one of the members went through as a child.
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014 | THE JUSTICE
theater
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MIKE LOVETT
A BURST OF COLOR: The production’s creative sets and inventive costumes helped the dancers and actors capture the crowd’s attention.
BTC play brings epic Persian poem to life By Vanessa alamo justice Staff writer
This semester’s director-in-residence, Hafiz Karmali, worked with Brandeis undergraduate students on his version of Jean-Claude Carriere and Peter Brook’s production of The Conference of the Birds. From the various elements incorporated into the production, Karmali demonstrated an impeccable sense of space and actor and audience connection. The performance’s creative set included levels and dimension and musical interpretations that captures the audience’s emotions. Karmali presented the story of the Hoopoe bird and her arduous journey in search of Simorgh, (which means thirty birds in Persian) to be their king. The story was part of Karmali’s continued attempts to free audiences from misconceptions about Islamic culture, and especially religion. The Hoopoe bird, played by Samantha Levangie ’15, urges her fellow birds to embark on a journey across a long desert, over Mount Kaf—a threshold between life and death in Persian mythology—and past the seven valleys (Quest, Love, Understanding, Annihilation, Unity, Amazement and Death). After a thrilling expedition, the Hoopoe bird and 29 other birds arrive at the court to discover the profound secret of the king: “together as one entity, they form the divine King whose essence has always been present within them.” Before the show even started, the Laurie Theater was filled with the sound of a tambur, a Turkish instrument that resembled a banjo with a longer neck. Suddenly, at the inception of the play, the audience is introduced to a silhouette of an actor dressed in a long skirt performing the Sama—a dance that entails whirling as a form of praise toward God. Men wear long white skirts while raising their right hand, in a cupped shape, up toward the sun and their left hand down towards the earth. The dancers tilt their heads down as if looking at
their hearts. In maintaining this position while spinning in circles towards the left, the dancers are demonstrating the energy of the sun and the earth meeting in their hearts. Sama is translated throughout the production when the birds showcase travel and unity.
“
It was the unity of the birds that made their journey through the desert and the seven valleys a possibility and success.
Karmali included a balanced and smooth transition between Turkish folk music and modern pop music. This allowed audience members to connect with the fusion of a culture they might not fully understand and the mainstream American culture. The scene of the peacock dance, where the birds encounter a beautiful peacock attempting to attract females through his dance, is a great example of Karmali’s attempt to bring the audience closer to the production. Ryan Millis ’15 (Waiting Woman/Peacock/Penguin/Man in Search) performed a hysterical dance as the vain peacock to “Booty” sung by Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea. The balance between both genres of music gave an eclectic feel to the production, which I would claim as an unusual experience. Because Karmali did not use Islamic songs exclusively, the audience was able to relate to the play without having to observe from a distance. Black box theaters are limited in space and are known for their small, intimate atmospheres. Because the play was in such a space, I feared the actors would be limited and become repetitive in their travel patterns. Karmali overcame this challenge by creating a set with depth and levels, which was inspired by
the Taziyeh form of theater. From last week’s presentation on Islamic performing arts, Karmali stated this style of performance re-enacts the death of a religious leader. Because Taziyeh uses a round stage in the center, many actors ran around the platform to show the act of traveling long distances. Karmali placed a large wall with a circle cut out in the center right in front of the wings, the area on the side of the stage where there would normally be curtains. In front of this wall was a slanted, round platform that resembled the hole in the wall. When the actors in The Conference of the Birds demonstrated acts of traveling, they oftentimes circled the stage like the actors that perform in Taziyeh. This was an inventive and intelligent way to create more space because the actors were able to change their path every time they walked on and off stage. During a lecture that Karmali gave last week about the play, he expressed his belief of “one sun and many rays,” which is what I think he was trying to communicate throughout the entire production. The birds flew together, regardless of their strengths and weaknesses, to accomplish one goal. It was the unity of the birds that made their journey through the desert and the seven valleys a possibility and success. Karmali’s interpretation of the production was phenomenal. Despite the actors’ existing talents, Karmali made sure he showcased everyone’s special skill. The Parrot/Princess #1 (Samantha Lancey ’16) displayed her peculiar yet exciting parrot voice while the Exotic Bird/ Hermit (Miriam Goldman ’14) and the Nightingale (Rebecca Myers ’18) used their mesmerizing voices to sing opera-styled pieces including “Ave Maria.” Many of the other actors enhanced the show through their wit and commitment to their characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the various elements Karmali and all the actors brought to this play, and I look forward to his future projects.
FLY AWAY: The Hoopoe bird (Samantha LeVangie ’15) tried to convince others to come with her on a journey to find the legendary Simorgh to be their king.
A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME: Rebecca Myers ’18, playing the Nightingale, was one of the actors who sang in the performance.
THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014
21
theater
Play makes good use of comedy, but drags By brooke granovsky justice editorial assistant
Tucked away in the corner of the stage sat a plain brown desk. With the houselights up, an actor in a dark brown suit calmly wrote at the desk as the audience filtered in. People slowly took stock of his presence, but the actor kept his eyes trained on his writing and did not acknowledge the audience. As the house lights dimmed, the play began; the man at the desk (Jose Castellanos ’18) introduced himself as the narrator and established the structure of the play. Brandeis Hillel Theater Group staged its final performance of Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor, directed by Brian Dorfman ’16, on Sunday at 8 p.m., following three other shows earlier in the week. The show was broken into a series of vignettes that mirrored the stories that the narrator is writing. Each cast member played various characters whose sketches were strung together by the narrator’s monologues and introductions. This unusual structure of the play complemented what was overall a very quirky show. The eight-person cast frequently broke the fourth wall by looking at the audience each time they said the words “doctor” or “good doctor.” The narrator’s friend’s wife (Jade Garisch ’15) broke the fourth wall by mentioning and being momentarily aware of her presence as a performer on a stage. During a scene in the first act, the narrator’s alter ego, a self-proclaimed master of seduction, commented on his friend’s wife’s beauty. He remarked that a woman like her belonged on a stage. When the wife learned of this compliment, she repeated the phrase “a stage?!” as she looked around edges of the stage. As she looked around the stage, she recognized her place as an actor in a play and signified this realization with a wink to the audience. Sunday evening’s performance also featured some less deliberate breaks in character. The third
vignette in the first act followed a woman with a toothache (Maggie Ziegel ’18) who got into a disagreement with her dubiously qualified dentist (Jade Garisch ’15). The pair’s conflict escalated and the two women found themselves wielding toothbrushes against each other like swords or light sabers. The characters knocked their toothbrushes behind them over the course of the fight before falling to the ground, a pose that allowed for a brief moment of quiet after the animated fight. In this moment, an apparently electric toothbrush was accidentally turned on, and it buzzed loudly enough for the audience to hear. Both women started laughing almost uncontrollably at the mistake, and the audience followed. Ziegel was supposed to transition into a serious plea to God for a healthy recovery from dental surgery, but she struggled to get the words out through her laughter. The toothbrush continued to buzz until the scene ended; a member of the stage crew tried to look for the toothbrush after the scene finished but struggled to do so in the darkness, which elicited even more laughter from the audience. The play had its comedic moments, and many of the scenes in the first act were particularly strong. However, length was one of the play’s major shortcomings the production ran for two and a half hours (including a ten-minute intermission), which in my experience—is longer than most Broadway comedies, including The Book of Mormon. From a viewer’s perspective, it seemed like the play’s younger cast of mostly underclassmen (only one cast member was a senior) struggled to hold the audience’s attention. The play’s length made the longer, slower-paced scenes at the end of the second act more challenging to focus on. The characters also frequently switched or dropped their accents. Most of the scenes took place in Russia, so it would be expected that they would have Russian accents. The
RISKY BUSINESS: A father (Jose Castellanos ’18) (left) hands condoms to his son (Riely Allen ’18) to prepare him for his first encounter with a prostitute. MIHIR KHANNA/the Justice
narrator held his accent pretty reliably in the first act, but it had fallen by the second act. Characters in scenes set in Russia either lacked accents, used other countries’ accents or switched between Russian accents and American ones. It was challenging to determine whether or not these changes were intentional. The fact that characters within a vignette spoke with different ac-
cents made the scenes harder to follow. More consistent accents or clearer transitions between accents would have clarified the play’s setting and put the focus back on the plot. The Good Doctor was an exciting play that detailed a variety of comedic situations. Its many wellacted scenes deserve their due. The show’s clever plotlines and interest-
ing blocking choices, such as having the narrator lie on the floor and mime words as his friends quoted him, helped enhance the quality of the play. Breaking character and having prop malfunctions are almost unavoidable, and while some audience members may disapprove of these unscripted moments, most audience members only saw them as reasons to laugh harder.
theater
‘Art’ excels with nuanced characters and dialogue By karl hakmiller justice Staff writer
Entering South Campus commons, I saw two rings of chairs in the center of what I would soon learn was the stage. The actors, dressed in the chic wardrobes of well-off 30-somethings, meandered from chair to chair, introducing themselves to the audience, entertaining those around me and making me a little uncomfortable. This past weekend, Brandeis Ensemble Theater presented Art, written
by French playwright Yasmina Reza. The play, directed by Aaron Ficher ’15, follows three old friends, Marc (Raphael Stigliano ’18), Serge (Dylan Hoffman ’18) and Yvan (Max Moran ’17), who find their 15-year-old friendship thoroughly shaken after Serge purchases a $200,000 modernist painting. Arguments erupt between the three regarding their tastes, temperaments and cultural paradigms as they realize more and more that they really seem to hate each other. The plot, which is essentially one
HANNAH CHIDEKEL/the Justice
WHAT IS IN A PAINTING?: From left to right, Sege (Dylan Hoffman ’18), Marc (Raphael Stigliano ’18) and Yvan (Max Moran ’17) played three friends engrossed in a discussion about a piece of art.
giant argument, and the setting, the various apartments of Serge, Yvan and Marc, never actually change. The combination of a less than concrete plot and a less than mobile setting can often lead to a less than thrilling show, but with the help of quick, biting dialogue, this wasn’t the case at all. There was an excellent turnout for the closing show, which was at 8 p.m. Sunday night. It wasn’t hard to see why so many people wanted to see the show; the three actors performed their dialogue well, and their poses, hand
gestures and voices flowed as naturally as a casual conversation. Hoffman and Stigliano’s portrayal of Serge and Marc must have been particularly challenging. These two alpha characters demanded a range of emotions that swung from extreme anger to sadness to disbelief. Their dialogue was scholarly, bordering on pedantic, which can make believable and wellspoken execution difficult. But this wasn’t a problem for the two actors, who captured their characters perfectly. Their performances were spectacu-
larly casual and seemed entirely real. Moran’s portrayal of the neurotic Yvan presented its own challenges. Yvan is a character immediately presented as peripheral. The other characters describe him as “too tolerant,” saying that such a tolerance makes individual opinion impossible. The universal punching bag, Yvan seems to be bullied by every other character in Art. This dynamic called for a more eccentric but equally powerful array of emotions in Yvan’s performance, and Moran delivered. Holding the play in South Campus Commons gave the entire show a more relaxed atmosphere than it would have, had been held in a dark theater. The audience members felt free to chat with each other before and after the play. The director’s note on the first page of the program asks the question, “Why do we bother with theater?” In this note, he compares theater to film and finally settles on the unique quality of theater: the relationship between actor and viewer. This relationship was strong in the interactive format of this production. As the actors wandered around their stage, the audience became the furniture of their various apartments. We were part of the set. The connection with the artists and the audience made the show exciting and believable, but most importantly, it made the show affect me. As one character insulted another, I felt true sympathy for a truly fictional character, as if said character were my real friend. As the show ended, the audience gave a huge round of applause. The characters left the stage but also left the audience with a lot to think about. In the end, Art was a well-directed, well-acted and well-received production. Editor’s note: Max Moran ’17 is the forum editor of the Justice.
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014 | THE JUSTICE
CULTURe
B-NAT: The Bharatanatyam dancers’ (B-nats for short) complex footwork mesmerized the audience as the copper bells wrapped around their ankles added to the music. PHOTOS BY JEREMY PERLMAN/the Justice
MELA celebrates passion and tradition By ILANA KRUGER justice Staff writer
The music, colorful costumes and overflowing energy of MELA 2014 could be felt before stepping into a packed Levin Ballroom on Saturday night. MELA, which means “celebration” in Sanskrit, is an annual student-run cultural show. The event is put together by the South Asian Students’ Association (SASA) to bring cultural awareness of the eight countries of South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. SASA’s co-presidents Anuj Vadalia ’15 and Lekha Grandhi ’16 and events coordinators, Meher Irani ’16 and Apoorva Polavarapu ’17 organized the show. This year’s MELA featured over 150 performers and drew an audience of over 700 students, faculty and family members, according to the event coordinators. Radhika Jangi ’18, Sid Srivastva ’17 and Priyatham Venupasa ’17 were this year’s emcees. The three introduced the acts, poked fun at each other and entertained the crowd. This year’s theme was Junoon: The Power of Passion!. Passion is a motivation and inspiration that drives creativity, and this was apparent throughout the show. The performers expressed their passions for dance, music and the different South Asian cultures onstage. “Junoon essentially means what pushes you to be your best, what inspires you and what makes who you are,” said Meher Irani ’16, one of SASA’s events coordinators, in an email to the Justice. “We thought it’d be an ideal theme for MELA since MELA is all about following your desires and doing something different.” Irani said.
Every year the proceeds from MELA go toward a different South Asian charity. This year’s organization was Asha for Education, which works to educate underprivileged children in India. The volunteerbased organization has chapters in the United States, Europe, India and Canada. The core of MELA is dance. A performance by MELA of Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance, opened the show with a mix of grace and liveliness. Stop Motion, a hip-hop group, danced to several remixes of Pharrell’s “Happy,” and So Unique Step Team performed a creative routine involving a group of wayward students challenging their teacher in detention. The Brandeis Belly Dance Ensemble performed the Egyptian saidi style of belly dance, incorporating elements of Egyptian folk dance and shaking their jangling costumes to the hypnotic music. Boston College’s Masti, a competition-winning dance troupe that combines different South Asian dance styles, opened the second act with enthusiasm and talent. The unexpected addition of a non-Brandeis team surprised the audience and drew students from Boston College to the event. According to Vadalia and Grandhi, this is the first time the show has had performances from outside groups. Chak De!, Brandeis’ Bollywoodfusion dance team, performed a creative “Freaky Friday” routine— labeled thus by the introductory video—in which two of the choreographers, Urann Chan ’16 and Pooja Gupta ’16, danced as if they had switched bodies, with audio that allowed Chan to mouth Gupta’s words and vice versa. Students also showed their tal-
ents beyond dance with other acts, including two slam poems. The first was “The Brown Identity” by Rohan Narayanan ’15, which described his struggles as an aspiring filmmaker dealing with how Indian people are portrayed in Western media, including film and television. Later in the show, Naman Patel ’15 presented his spoken word piece “Anagram.” The piece explored Patel’s Indian identity, comparing his two eyes to the two Is in the word “India.” Jangi took a break from her emcee duties to perform the song “Suraj Hua Maddham” with Karan Malik ’15 from the popular Bollywood film Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. Malik sang the part of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Kahn while Jangi sang Kajol’s. Jangi’s clear and melodic voice blended perfectly with Malik’s alternately quiet and powerful vocals, and judging by the crowd’s enthusiastic response, the audience loved it. The seniors closed the show with an emotional culmination of their time at Brandeis and with MELA. The 44 seniors were the largest group to perform and their bouncing Bollywood routine had the audience clapping along. There was also a dance routine showcasing Brandeis’ graduate students’ dance talents, with moves and music telling the story of falling in love, which was in line with the night’s theme. The show’s organizers were impressed by the end result. “There were certain small mishaps we had to deal with throughout the show, but for an event of this magnitude those little issues were not only expected but inconsequential,” Vadalia wrote in an email to the Justice. “We were so ecstatic that the show went the way it did: flawless!”
HIPS DON’T LIE: One of the dances that the
Brandeis Belly Dance Ensemble performed was an Egyptian saidi style of belly dance.
NEWCOMERS: One of the first dances of the show, the freshman dance’s energy and enthusiasm gave the start of the show an upbeat tone.
STRIKE A POSE: Models in the fashion show blended cultural dresses and modern-day outfits.
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014 | THE JUSTICE
TOPof the
ARTS ON VIEW
Brandeis TALKS
CHARTS
Quote of the week
for the week ending Nov. 23
“Many of the changes made so far from the petition were done because members of B.SASV initiated meetings, made budgets and decisions or publicly advocated for them. The University needs to take more proactive action for the community.”
BOX OFFICE
1. The Hunger Games: MockingjayPart 1 2. Big Hero 6 3. Interstellar 4. Dumb and Dumber To 5. Gone Girl 6. Beyond the Lights 7. St. Vincent 8. Fury (2014) 9. Birdman 10. The Theory of Everything
—Ava Blustein ’15 on the B.SASV progress report and the progress of the University’s sexual assault policies.
What is your most unique Thanksgiving tradition?
NYT BESTSELLERS
MICHELLE BANAYAN/the Justice
FROZEN GROUND: Justice photographer Michelle Banayan ’18 took this photo in mid-November next to Massell Pond, excited that it was the first snow that stuck to the ground—Banayan is from Los Angeles.
THE JUSTICE WANTS TO SEE YOUR ORIGINAL ARTWORK! Fanny Zhou ’16 “I don’t really have any. We always have a hot pot instead of turkey because we hate having turkey leftovers. We’d be eating turkey for like weeks afterwards, so for the past three or four years, we were like, ‘Let’s do a hot pot.’”
Ian Christie ’16 “We get drunk and play pool upstairs.”
Melissa Feitosa ’15 “We don’t really have a tradition. It’s not unique, but it’s what I look forward to going home. My mom makes the best stuffing ever. So if that was all we had for Thanksgiving dinner, I would be happy and that’s the reason I go home.”
Send works to photos@thejustice.org for a chance to be featured in next week’s issue.
CROSSWORD
1. Taylor Swift—“Blank Space” 2. Mark Ronson—“Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars)” 3. Hozier—“Take Me to Church” 4. Selena Gomez—“The Heart Wants What It Wants” 5. Meghan Trainor—“All About That Bass”
BILLBOARD
1. Taylor Swift—1989 2. Foo Fighters—Sonic Highways 3. Pink Floyd—The Endless River 4. Garth Brooks—Man Against Machine 5. BIG K.R.I.T.—Cadillactica 6. Nick Jonas—Nick Jonas 7. Various Artists— Now 52 8. Pentatonix—That’s Christmas to Me 9. Sam Smith—In The Lonely Hour 10. George Strait—The Cowboy Rides Away: Live from the AT&T Stadium Top of the Charts information provided by Fandango, the New York Times, Billboard.
31 “I can’t believe I __ the whole thing!” 33 Furry swimmer 34 “__ Meets World” 36 Albacore or bluefin 37 Weathercock 39 Rower’s need 40 Cushion
STAFF’S Top Ten
SONGS FOR AN ALL-NIGHTER Solution to last issue’s crossword Crossword Copyright 2014 Tribune News Service, Inc.
SUDOKU Becky Israel ‘17 “We have six course dinners. That’s one thing that’s strange about us I think. We go and we’ll eat, right? ... But this year we’re also going to look at each other in the eyes for like a minute straight when we do cheers and it’s going to be really creepy.”
—Compiled and photographed by Grace Kwon and Guillermo Narvaez/the Justice.
Nonfiction 1. 41—George W. Bush 2. Killing Patton—Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard 3. Yes Please—Amy Poehler 4. The Andy Cohen Diaries—Andy Cohen 5. Small Victories—Anne Lamott
iTUNES
ACROSS 1 Actor on “Law & Order: SVU” 5 Network for news anchor Scott Pelley 8 Kill 9 Excuse 12 “Dancing with the __” 13 “__ Fear”; Richard Gere thriller 14 “Flip __ House”; A&E series 15 Actor Robert __ 16 “El __”; Charlton Heston movie 18 Suffix for musket or auction 19 “Hard __”; news journalism series of the ’90s 20 Actor Everett 21 Cheese from Holland 23 “Blue __ Shoes”; song for Elvis Presley 24 Show boldness 25 Rob Reiner’s dad 26 “The __ of Music”; Julie Andrews film 28 Woody Guthrie’s son 29 Annapolis academy, for short 30 “__ Hari”; Greta Garbo movie 32 Actor __ Estes 35 Illegal hallucinogen, for short 36 __-à-tête; private conversation 37 Presidential power to forbid 38 “Life as __”; Kevin Kline movie 40 “The __ Duke Show” 41 “__ Hope”; old daytime serial 42 Opening poker bet 43 Role on “Everybody Loves Raymond” 44 “The __ Hunter”; Robert De Niro movie DOWN 1 “This __ End”; James Franco film 2 Role on “Modern Family” 3 Dumbo’s “wings” 4 Cobb and Burrell 5 Singer __ Simon 6 Radar screen image 7 Scottish actor Alastair __ 10 “The __”; reality dating game 11 Classic Greek epic 12 Sault __. Marie 13 “A __ Named Scooby-Doo”; old cartoon series 15 “Here __ the Brides” 17 ...FDR, HST, __, JFK... 19 Joker or jack 20 Ringlet of hair 22 Actress Delany 23 Gilbert or Rue 25 Actress Blanchett 26 Eat dinner 27 Grouch of “Sesame Street” 30 Sloppy
Fiction 1. Revival—Stephen King 2. Gray Mountain—John Grisham 3. Flesh and Blood—Patricia Cornwell 4. The Burning Room—Michael Connelly 5. Blue Labyrinth—Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
INSTRUCTIONS: Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.
Solution to last issue’s sudoku
Sudoku Copyright 2014 Tribune News Service, Inc.
By ABBY PATKIN
JUSTICE EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
As finals, papers and projects loom, a lot of Brandeis students are looking at some all-nighters. Here are ten songs so you can jam while you cram. 1. “I Gotta Feeling”—Black Eyed Peas 2. “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” —Donny Osmond 3. “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”—Pat Benatar 4. “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” —Randy Newman 5. “Closing Time”—Semisonic 6. “All by Myself”—Eric Carmen 7. “I Dreamed a Dream”—Susan Boyle 8. “I Will Survive”—Gloria Gaynor 9. “Chariots of Fire”—Vangelis 10. “Here Comes the Sun”— George Harrison