ARTS Page 19
FORUM Reject stigma surrounding assault 12 SPORTS Baseball team drops all four games 16 The Independent Student Newspaper
the
JAI WOLF CONCERT of
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 LXIX, Number 23
www.thejustice.org
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
SOCIAL LIFE OF DNA
COMMENCEMENT
University selects Rosalie Abella for commencement ■ President Liebowitz
announced Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella as the 2017 commencement speaker. By ABBY PATKIN JUSTICE EDITOR
Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella, the first Jewish woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada and an expert on human rights law, will address graduating students at May’s Commencement ceremony, according to a press release provided to the Justice by the University. Abella is “such a genuine person,” University President Ronald Liebowitz said in a joint interview with the Justice and the Brandeis
Hoot. Liebowitz noted that Abella has pursued a career her father, a Holocaust survivor, was denied because of prejudice, dedicating her work to looking out for those who “lacked the standing power to defend themselves.” “I think her life message has been — especially in the times we’re in right now — [that] it’s important to fight for what one truly believes, which she did,” he added. Abella, who, in 1976, was the youngest — and first pregnant — person appointed to Canada’s judiciary, helped pioneer the concept of employment equity for women, minorities and people with disabilities, according to the press release. “Justice Abella’s personal story and legal career are an inspiring
See COMMENCEMENT, 7 ☛
CAMPUS SPEAKER
Scholar presents on the history of the eruv ■ Dr. Charlotte Fonrobert
analyzed Jewish law and the eruv for the 53rd Annual Simon Rawidowicz Lecture. By CARMI ROTHBERG JUSTICE EDITOR
The eruv, a ritual enclosure in Jewish law, has a deep cultural and religious significance that often goes unrecognized, Dr. Charlotte Fonrobert argued in the 53rd Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture last Thursday. The lecture, titled “Taking the Talmud to Town: Judaism in the Public Square,” focused on the history of the eruv and the controversies that have arisen around it. Fonrobert, an associate professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University and the director of Stanford’s Taube Center for Jewish Studies, began the talk by explaining why she was so fascinated by the tractate “Eruvin” — the volume of the Baby-
lonian Talmud that lays out the laws of the eruv. The tractate explains that an eruv may be used to establish an encircled area — such as a neighborhood or campus — as a single private domain under Jewish law. As Jewish law prohibits the transfer of items between private and public domains on the Sabbath, the eruv is widely used as a means of permitting Orthodox Jews to carry babies, keys or prayer books with them to synagogue without violating this prohibition. Eruvs encircle residential areas throughout the country — including the Brandeis campus — and, Fonrobert explained, are often perceived as technicalities used to exploit a loophole in Jewish legal tradition. She cited a segment in Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” in which he jokes that “eruv” — which, in fact, translates roughly to “mixture” — is the Hebrew word for “loophole.” Fonrobert, however, sees something more in the laws of the eruv.
See SPEAKER, 7 ☛
ADAM PANN/the Justice
SOCIAL DNA: Dr. Alondra Nelson presented her research at the Wasserman Cinematheque on Thursday evening.
Speaker tells the story between DNA and race ■ Dr. Alondra Nelson spoke
about how DNA research can help enlighten and uncover hidden identities. By MAURICE WINDLEY JUSTICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
In a continuation of the yearlong series of events the African and Afro-American Studies department has proposed to explore race and science in society, returning guest speaker Dr. Alondra Nelson analyzed the connective intricacies between the practice of genealogy and the social construct of race at the Wasserman Cinematheque last Thursday evening. A professor of sociology and the inaugural dean of social science at Columbia University, Nelson was the first African-American to be tenured in the department of sociology at Columbia. Her interdisciplinary social science research focuses on how science frames the social structure of society with regards to personal identity and ra-
cial formation. Nelson uses this to further explore how different social groups are affected by society’s interpretation of race, ethnicity and gender. Nelson’s presentation, titled after her book “The Social Life of DNA,” sought to explore “how and why communities of color have been the objects of scientific scrutiny,” she said, beginning by highlighting science’s abuse of Henrietta Lacks. Lacks was a tobacco farmer whose immortal cancer cell line, known as HeLa Cells, were taken and researched by the U.S. Public Health Service Tuskegee Syphilis study in 1951 without the consent of her or her family. The study, which sought to record the history and effects of syphilis in African-Americans, was notorious for conducting clinical studies without their patients’ informed consent. Nelson explained that these events represented science as a space that was historically dangerous and abusive for people of color. With this in mind, Nelson engaged further in the relationship between science and the communi-
ties of people of color and explored genetic ancestry testing in its early stages in 2003. Nelson explained that she became more interested in how genetic research can be used as “healing,” but also as a way “to answer questions, resolve traumas and to force conversations often in post trauma societies.” Working with a genetic ancestry company called African Ancestry, Nelson sought to use genetic information to evoke questions about “identity” as well as recognize “racial slavery” within America. Nelson exemplified the ways that genetic testing can be both a controversial and progressive way to bring closure to history’s interpretation of racial slavery. She explained this by examining the ethical difference between the work of Dr. Rick Kittles, an African-American geneticist at George Washington University in the early twentieth century, and the methodologies of the Metropolitan Forensic Anthropology team of Lehman College. Nelson noted the importance
See DNA, 7 ☛
Very Vegan
Softball Sluggers
Diversity Exchange
Two students founded the first ever vegan club on campus.
The softball team dominated this past week with three impressive victories.
Students launched a new networking website for young professionals of color.
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INDEX
SPORTS 16 ARTS SPORTS
17 13
EDITORIAL FEATURES
10 OPINION 8 POLICE LOG
10 2
News 3 COPYRIGHT 2017 FREE AT BRANDEIS.