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February 19, 1999/3 Adar 5759, Vol. 51, No. 21
Golden anniversary Brandeis supporters work to preserve libraries, educationTAMI BICKLEY
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Fifty years ago, their dream became reality on a campus in Waltham, Mass., with the opening of Brandeis University.
The institution's premise was clear: to uphold Jewish religious beliefs while reaching the academic heights of its neighbors - Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.; Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa.; and Princeton University in Princeton, N.J.
Brandeis' founders wanted the school to be, in a sense, the "Jewish Ivy League" school. But before that would happen, the founders and their successors would swim in the murky waters of trial and error.
First came questions about its level of Jewishness. Later, some students were mortified by the scent of bacon wafting across the campus cafeteria. Presidents of the school came and went. Students staged protests. Applications stopped pouring in. A school that at one time accepted only the brightest prospects, was relegated to selecting the best of the bottom half of the applicant pool.
In the end, despite a string of presidents with varyingly unsuccessful solutions, and in the face of negative publicity, Brandeis University emerged from the fray to join the ranks of Harvard, Swarthmore and Princeton.
"The man who did it is Jehuda Reinharz," asserts Carol Kern, national vice president of the Brandeis University National Women's Committee and a resident of the Phoenix area since 1983.
Reinharz, 54, was born in Israel. In 1958, he moved to Germany, where he attended high school. He came to the U.S. (Newark, N.J.) in 1961. He succeeded Samuel Thier, a Massachusetts physician, as president of Brandeis in 1994. Over the past five years, Reinharz has worked to restore the Judaism base and original policies at Brandeis, and so far, he seems to have been successful.
"He is very proud of the university's Jewish heritage and what it stands for," Kern says. "Brandeis accepts students from around the world, promoting a co-existence among many different people. (While) most of the students are Jewish, those who aren't can learn what it means to be Jewish."
The university's National Women's Committee, in which Kern is involved, is a network of local chapters throughout the country that support the school and offer members social connections.
When Brandeis opened in 1948, its administrators solicited groups of women to raise the funds necessary to build a library. Their efforts ultimately were so successful that they funded not just one, but three main libraries on the campus. Today, the expanded women's committee sells books and does other fund raising to maintain the libraries, support medical research conducted at the university and pay for academic scholarships.
In the past 15 years, the women's committee, all 108 chapters combined, has raised a total of $68 million for the university.
The Phoenix chapter of the National Women's Committee, formed in 1950, continues to fund the school located 3,000 miles away.
"It's amazing how much we do for Brandeis, being so far away," says Phoenix chapter President Sue Karp, a native of Connecticut who spent time in Boston before moving to Phoenix in 1988.
The biggest fund-raising event for the local chapter is its annual Book and Author Luncheon. This year's luncheon, scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 25, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., will be at the Phoenician and will feature seven authors: Singer Judy Collins speaking on her book, "Singing Lessons"; comedy writer Larry Gelbart on "Laughing Matters"; Peter Craig, son of actress Sally Field, on "Martini Shot"; author Elinor Lipman on "The Inn at Lake Devine"; Shirlee Taylor Haizlip and Harold Haizlip on "In the Garden of Our Dreams"; and Brad Meltzer on "Dead Even."
"It's fulfilling for me to do this luncheon, which raises funds for this great university and gives students the best possible education that we can offer them, so that when they become adults, they will go out into the world and do something for us," Karp says. Aside from boosting membership, funds and the quality of education, Karp would like to see more local satellite groups - suburban regional subchapters of the Phoenix chapter. So far in Arizona, Sun City has the only such group.
Members of the Phoenix local chapter meet on a regular basis at Palo Cristi Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley to discuss books, the university and other studies. Meetings also serve as a way for people to meet others in the community.
Kern, as national vice president, oversees membership. There are 1,200 members in the Phoenix chapter, and virtually anyone can get involved, says Kern. The only requirement is wanting to help Brandeis. And so many people do want to help Brandeis, that men's groups and groups for young women have formed as spin-offs of the women's committee.
"We became gender-neutral several years ago, even though we're still called the women's committee," explains Kern. But, she adds, men's groups are popping up all over the country, including Phoenix's Brandeis Men's Club. While men are always encouraged to join women's study groups, women attend men's club meetings only when invited. The men's club invites women if "the subject is of interest or relevance to the women's group," Kern says. "We support them and publish whatever they're doing in our local bulletin. We help set them up, and now they really want to fly on their own."
Another take-out of the women's committee is the NOW Generation Group, a group of women ages 20-40.
"Very few of the women involved in the women's committee who support the university are alumni," Kern notes. "They do it because Brandeis is the only Jewish-sponsored, non-sectarian university in the United States."
A small percentage of the men and women who support Brandeis have never visited the campus. In an effort to expose members of the various supporting groups to the Brandeis experience, all the chapters in the country meet at the university for an annual conference at the end of May.
"It really makes me realize how special this organization is," Karp says. "I cry when I get there and I cry when I leave. The campus is a beautiful place, and if I could go back and do it again, I would go to college there and I would never leave."