Louis D. Brandeis never attended, supported, or even visited the university that bears his name. He died in 1941, and Brandeis University was founded in 1948. The founders thought long and hard about the naming of the university and knew that Brandeis was a name that carried great responsibility. Although the final naming decision was approved unanimously, founding Brandeis president Abram L. Sachar notes in A Host at Last that Albert Einstein cautioned, “Brandeis is a name that cannot be merely adopted. It is one that must be achieved.” In 1956, as Brandeis University prepared for the centennial anniversary of Louis D. Brandeis’s birth, Sachar and his colleagues began to collect, edit, and publish the Brandeis papers. Though never fully realized, the project provided a rich resource for the creation of this book. During the 2006–07 academic year, Brandeis University celebrated Louis D. Brandeis’s 150th birthday. The goals of the sesquicentennial celebration have been to bring the spirit of Louis Brandeis into the lives of our students and to reinvigorate our community with his remarkable life and accomplishments. Brandeis was such a “broad-gauged” man that the celebration encompassed a full year and offered our community many lenses through which to glimpse the man who inspires us always to seek truth— even unto its innermost parts.
It was fitting that we began the year with a question—posed to new and returning students: “What’s in a Name: Who Was Louis D. Brandeis and Why Do We Bear His Name?”
Jewish settlements in what was then called Palestine. The common thread for Brandeis was that each area he explored served to improve the lives and futures of ordinary people.
Each month, we provided students, faculty, and the other members of the Brandeis community opportunities to find out. Brandeisians experienced Justice Brandeis through the eyes of his grandchildren, his biographers, jurists, historians, scholars of Zionism, and filmmakers—even through the eyes of Andy Warhol, whose famous original portrait of the justice now resides in the Rose Art Museum.
If, indeed, a picture is worth a thousand words, this book speaks volumes. A labor of love, it was commissioned by an anonymous donor who was motivated by his knowledge and genuine respect for Justice Brandeis. Over the course of the sesquicentennial year, his enthusiasm has been boundless and infectious. His inspiration has captivated all of us who have worked to create this volume. I am confident that readers will experience the spirit of Justice Brandeis and the same inspiration as they enjoy this pictorial history of the life and times of Louis Dembitz Brandeis.
It has been a wonderful and unforgettable year. This commemorative book, which includes a copy of the documentary film Justice Louis D. Brandeis: The People’s Attorney, and our memories help us achieve another important goal of Louis Brandeis— to be trustees of history. In this case, Brandeis University has been entrusted with carrying forward the history, telling the story of the life and achievements of this revered individual whom we have come to know a little better this year. I hope that students and all who read this book gain something of Brandeis’s gift for living life not only well, but fully. As you read on, you will see that Louis D. Brandeis was able to turn himself into an expert on whatever captured his wide-ranging consideration, whether it was regulation of utilities and railroads, working conditions in the garment and other industries, affordable life insurance for working people, or the establishment of
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Jehuda Reinharz President, Brandeis University