The Brandeis Hoot 11/9/2018

Volume 15 Issue 22

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe” www.brandeishoot.com

November 9, 2018

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper · Waltham, Mass.

Waltham community protests

Advocacy group calls for more accessible campus

By Ryan Spencer editor

Several Brandeis students, faculty and staff were among the nearly 150 protestors who gathered in protest of President Donald Trump’s ouster of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the corner of Moody St. and Main St. in Waltham on Thursday night.

Trump replaced Sessions with Interim Attorney General Matthew Whitaker on Wednesday, sparking outcry from critics who say that the move was an attempt to disrupt the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into whether or not anyone on the Trump campaign colluded with Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 elections.

“This move to force Sessions to resign was clearly an act to defend See PROTEST, page 6

By Celia Young and Sabrina Chow editors

The group Addressing Accessibility at Brandeis sent a letter asking for an open forum to discuss accessibility on campus to President Ron Liebowitz this Thursday. The letter questioned whether Brandeis was truly accessible to those within the disability community.

The letter was authored entirely by the members of the disability community at Brandeis. The letter was followed by over five pages of MOODY STREET

Renee Korgood ‘20 holds sign saying “Let Mueller finish.”

Brandeis land had significance to indigenous peoples

By Celia Young editor

The land Brandeis sits on was sacred to the indigenous peoples who lived on it, according to the Mattakeeset tribal Chief. The land was shared among the Massachusett people, which includes four contemporary surviving tribes: the Mattakeeset, Natick, Ponkapoag and Namasket.

Chief Sachem Wompimeequin Wampatuck of the Mattakeeset tribe first visited Brandeis on Indigenous People’s Day this year and spoke about Brandeis’ con-

MATTAKEESET TRIBE Chief

nection with the aboriginal peoples. In an interview with The Brandeis Hoot, he described the connection between Brandeis’ land and the Massachusett peoples.

“What I recognize coming here to Waltham, and especially on the Brandeis campus, is that this was absolutely one of our most sacred places. Whether it be a burial place or whether it be a place of worship, I won’t fully disclose. But I can absolutely tell you one thing: Brandeis is on a very sacred place for the Massachusett people.”

Tribes identify locations where their villages were based on rock

formations and how the land is “built up.” Wompimeequin said he wouldn’t go into further detail to protect the sacred sites.

Wompimeequin described how, coming to Brandeis, he immediately recognized the shape of the land and felt a connection to it.

“Walking through here, the other day when I came for the first time on campus, I recognized what I believed to be some very important rock formations,” he said. “Whether it be sachem seats, whether they be burial grounds of people who held very big sig-

Sachem Wompimeequin Wampatuck (center) poses for a photo.

Inside This Issue:

News: Ex-senator visits Brandeis Ops: Einstein’s workers are family Arts: Panelists discuss art looted by Nazi regime Features: The Bagel spreads satirical headlines Editorial: Hold forum about accessibility

See MATTAKEESET, page 3

PHOTO COURTESY WOMPIMEEQUIN WAMPATUCK

Volleyball

Page 2 Page 7 Impressive win at UAA tournament.

Page 13 Page 10 SPORTS: PAGE 12 Page 9

PHOTO BY CELIA YOUNG/THE HOOT

See ACCESSIBILITY, page 5

Union clashes with Allocations Board on funding, pianos

By Celia Young and Sabrina Chow editors

Two Student Union senators accused the Union of a lack of transparency on Brandeis University class Facebook groups and in an email to the class of 2022 on Tuesday, Nov. 6. In a Facebook post, first-year Senator Alex Chang ’22 proposed amending the Union’s constitution requiring $50,000 of funding, after claiming that the union only had $80 left in its budget.

The Union currently has a benchmark funding goal of $50,000. According to Allocations Board Chair Aseem Kumar ’20, a “benchmark” is denoted as a target amount of money that would be allocated, but it was not a guaranteed amount of money. This fiscal year, the union as a whole was allocated $38,000 with the senate branch receiving $20,000. Kumar explained that the senate had only spent about $1,000 of their budget since the beginning of the school year, but has directed funds at other projects, leaving little mon-

‘Noises Off’ “Noises Off ” plays with layers of theatricality.

ARTS: PAGE 16

ey for extra projects.

The Union plans to release a statement regarding the situation, according to an email to The Brandeis Hoot from Vice President Benedikt Reynolds ’19.

Chang, who was working on a project to provide electric pianos in the first-year common spaces, posted on Facebook about the senate’s funds. “Ten minutes before the [senate] meeting, the Vice President (Benedikt Reynolds) accosted me and informed me that only $80 remained in the Senate’s budget (out of an original $20,000),” he wrote. “I was dumbstruck, not only at the minuscule amount, but at the fact that he delayed telling the senate about our dwindling funds for several weeks.”

Kumar explained that the senate has $19,000 left in their budget but that it plans to spend that money on specific needs. “The way the money is budgeted they don’t have leftover [money] for things such as pianos.”

In an interview with The Hoot, Chang said he would “fully stand See UNION, page 5

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

Brandeis under review for reaccreditation

By Sabrina Chow editor

Brandeis is currently under review by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE). Every 10 years, the university is required to undergo a mandatory review to maintain their accreditation. Accreditation is seen as “constructive feedback” for institutions on areas that can be improved in the future.

In order for a university to be reaccredited, they need to meet the standards set forth by the commission and comply with the policies. NECHE has nine different standards that it follows when determining the accreditation of an university. According to the Brandeis website, “The Standards for Accreditation establish criteria for institutional quality. Each of the Standards articulates a dimension of institutional quality.”

The first standard, Mission and Purposes, makes sure that the mission and purpose of the institution is appropriate with higher education and is implemented in a manner that is consistent with the Standards of the Commission.

“The institution’s mission gives direction to its activities and provides a basis for the assessment and enhancement of the institution’s effectiveness,” according to their website.

The second standard, Planning and Evaluation, states that the institution is able to prioritize and find success in “strategic, academic, financial and other resource planning and the evaluation of its educational effectiveness.”

The third standard, Organization and Governance, makes sure the institution has a sustainable environment that is able to encourage teaching, learning, service, scholarship, research and creative activity, if applicable.

It ensures that the institution is completely independent without

outside assistance from other entities.

The fourth standard, The Academic Program, looks at the institution’s ability to “assure the academic quality and integrity of its academic programs and the credits and degrees awards,” according to their website. It also ensures that there is a systematic method to understand what all students are learning and what can be done to improve the execution of teaching. This encompasses undergraduate degree programs, graduate degree programs and general education requirements set forth by the institution.

The fifth standard, Students, makes sure “the institution sets and achieves realistic goals to enroll students who are broadly representative of the population the institution wishes to serve.” This includes both diversity and an environment that promotes intellectual and personal development of its students.

The sixth standard, “Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship,” states that the institution supports a well-qualified faculty and academic staff who produce quality instruction for its students. This, along with the eighth standard, “Educational Effectiveness,” ensures that the university obtains information from graduates about what students have gained from their learnings and what can be done to improve the university as a whole.

The seventh standard, “Institutional Resources,” states that “through the periodic evaluation, the institution demonstrates that its resources are sufficient to sustain the quality of the academic program and to support institutional improvement now and in the foreseeable future,” according to their website.

The final standard, “Integrity, Transparency, and Public Disclosure,” makes sure that the institution maintains high ethical stan-

dards while managing any affairs with members of their community, including prospective students.

“In presenting the institution to students, prospective students and other members of the public, the institutional website provides information that is complete, accurate, timely, readily accessible, clear and sufficient for intended audiences to make informed decisions about the institution,” according to their website.

The university produces a selfstudy document that was produced by faculty and administrators over the past 18 months with feedback from the Brandeis community. This document is submitted to NECHE prior to the arrival of the Visiting Team.

A committee of professors and officials from other universities assessed Brandeis over the course of three days, meeting with faculty, staff and students to get an inside view on the university. A reporter from The Brandeis Hoot was in attendance at the Open Student Forum, which allowed students the opportunity to voice their personal opinions about the positive and negative aspects of campus.

However, due to the nature of the conversation, and the hopes of maintaining anonymity of the students that were present at the forum and gave feedback, the forum was held off the record. Topics of conversation at the forum included residential and academic life, the accessibility of resources on campus, policies instituted by the university that should be revised, the relationships between faculty, staff and students and the transparency of the administration.

The Visiting Team, and the NECHE, will be releasing a report in the near future about the reaccreditation.

November 9, 2018

IN THE SENATE: Nov. 4, 2018 •

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Board members of the club Active Minds advocated for their club to be chartered. They said that Active Minds plays an important role in regulating mental health discussions on campus as well as in the education of abstract health-related topics, such as the portrayal of mental illness in media.

In addition, they noted the organization’s current collaborations with outside groups at Brandeis, including the Health and Wellness Center, Triskelion and the Department of Community Living. They explained that being chartered would increase their publicity, club membership, availability for funding to distribute more fliers, allow them to offer more food at events and bring in more professional speakers.

After Senator Aaron Finkel ’20 proposed vote by acclamation, the Senate unanimously approved of their request, granting them $1000 as part of a probationary period to assess their long-term sustainability.

Members of the Senate discussed the viability of President Leibowitz’s new framework for Brandeis’ future, released Oct. 29. Topics included were the revision of student facilities, departmental cuts, ways to improve benefits in order to maintain faculty and staff and increasing surveillance systems.

A new template directed at centralizing ideas about studying abroad, proposed by Director of Student Activities, Dennis Hicks, was discussed. The template, if implemented, would consolidate multiple travel experiences and documents to ultimately provide easier access to information.

Senator Finkel reflected on his experience at a vigil held after the shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue and showed his appreciation for the event organizers. He explained that he had partnered with coordinators for Kindness Day, intending to host an appreciation event for police officials between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. In addition, after reaching out to Ed Callahan, Director of Public Safety, he verified that new shuttles will be coming along with tracking devices and that an outgoing mailbox, which would allow students to send mail anytime, will be scheduled for installation in the winter.

Senators Linfei Yang ’20 and Alex Chang ’22 explained that they received approval for the installation of two electric pianos in Massell and North Quad by DCL. Chang noted that the current price set aside for the pianos, which are currently on sale, might not be protected until the next meeting, thereby risking greater payments. Several senate members objected the initiative, however, due to the expectations that prices will remain low as a result of the holiday season, and due to the lack of urgency, the case will be re-evaluated next meeting.

Jake Rong ’21 proposed to make new amendments to remove two irrelevant clauses in bylaw six about service outreach. Senator Yang objected to the decision, saying he didn’t see the urgency of the decision. The decision will be postponed until the next meeting as well.

- David Cohen

Former senator speaks about disability work

By Ryan Spencer and Sabrina Chow editors

Former Democratic congressman of Iowa, Tom Harkin, spoke to the Brandeis community twice on Wednesday discussing the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections, his history as a congressman and social policy related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which he introduced into the Senate in 1989.

“Thank goodness the House will be Democratic,” Harkin said in a Q&A session with Dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, David Weil.

Later in the evening he gave a keynote lecture on meaningful work for people with disabilities.

Tuesday’s midterm elections saw Democrats take control of the House as Republicans maintained a majority in the Senate.

A former representative who served in both chambers of Congress, Harkin said that Democrats reclaiming the House meant that Republican efforts to unravel So-

cial Security, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would be stunted.

He also said that he was surprised by many of the results of Tuesday’s elections such as the loss of Democratic candidates Claire McCaskill in Missouri and Joe Donnelly in Indiana. He criticized President Donald Trump, stating that he doesn’t understand “the depth of support for the most repulsive person ever elected president.”

“I think we’re going to have the next two years as a clash,” he said.

Harkin pointed to a comment by Trump earlier this week in which Trump stated that if Democrats use their majority in the House to launch investigations into his administration, he will take a “warlike posture.”

Harkin said that in the future, “my party, the Democratic party, has to learn how to speak to and represent people in more rural areas.” He stated that he is not surprised that labor unions have turned towards Republican candidates after Democrats failed to pass labor reform on multiple oc-

casions in past decades.

In his keynote address, Harkin spoke to privatization of Medicaid by the governor and legislation in Iowa. “Medicaid has always had an institutional bias,” explained Harkin. “If you qualify for institutional care under Medicaid, Medicaid must pay for that, but if you want to live in the community on your own and get long-term support services, Medicaid does not have to pay for that.”

He went on to describe different ways in which companies have been increasing the number of disabled people on their staff. In a distribution center in Connecticut that Harkin visited, Walgreens hired “persons with disabilities, broadly speaking. Intellectual disabilities, mental disabilities, physical disabilities and any combination thereof,” recalled Harkin.

Out of the 700 employees working at that center, 40% of the employees were people with disabilities.

“Some people you’ll recognize as having disabilities, some people you won’t. Sometimes we had to make modifications in a work space, but we found out many

times when we made a modification to a workspace, the next person that worked there may not have had a disability but found it was better for them too,” said Harkin.

Harkin also looked to the future with the further integration of people with disabilities in the workforce. “My challenge to businesses last year was to double their rate of employment of persons with disabilities in competitive integrated employment over the next 10 years,” explained Harkin.

He also wanted the formation

of “local youth disability employment boards” that would be made up of individuals from various businesses and youth leaders with physical or intellectual disabilities. The purpose of the boards would be to integrate the two groups of people, the employers and the employees, together into one. Finally, Harkin wanted “to make hiring persons with disabilities part of their diversity portfolio.”

There was a signer who signed Harkin’s entire speech for people with disabilities who were audibly impaired.

PHOTO BY RYAN SPENCER/THE HOOT

November 9, 2018

NEWS 3

The Brandeis Hoot

Professor speaks on assisted death in North America

By Sabrina Chow editor

Professor Anita Hannig (ANTH) was joined by members of the Brandeis community to discuss her ongoing research in medical aid-in-dying. Hannig went on sabbatical last semester to pursue her research, mainly residing in Oregon and parts of the West Coast, interviewing and interacting with patients, physicians and lawyers to learn more about medical aid-in-dying and its anthropological significance.

She began this research in 2015 as a project that “asks how legislation that sanctions medically assisted deaths in several U.S. states is transforming the ways North Americans view and manage the process of dying,” according to Hannig’s website.

Currently in the U.S., there are eight states that legally allow physicians to prescribe a lethal cocktail of medication for patients to take in order to end their life.

Among one of the strictest laws in the world, the U.S. requires that the individual must be able to administer the medication either orally or through a feeding tube by themselves. The medication cannot be administered intravenously.

Hannig went on to describe the cultural values that attest to this type of treatment, especially “by protecting the cultural image of doctors as healers,” stated Hannig in her talk. This reflects the contradictory work of physicians, who ride a fine line between medical ethics and ending one’s life and how lives are ultimately deemed liveable.

The idea of assisted dying goes back to the early 20th century with “Chloroform Bills” that were enacted in Ohio and Iowa in 1906.

These bills allowed physicians to give chloroform to terminally-ill patients to end their lives using a quick and painless method. However, these bills did not last long due to protests by local communities. “Something was unpalatable to voters for physicians to end the life of their patient” was the main argument, according to Hannig.

Hannig explained that physicians, after the revoking of the Chloroform Bills, carefully worked with opposers of assisted death, and Oregon passed the first official assisted dying law, the

PHOTO FROM ANITAHANNIG.COM

“Death with Dignity Act,” in 1994.

Since then, six other states (Washington, Vermont, California, Colorado, District of Columbia and Hawaii) have passed similar ones to Oregon which allow for physicians to prescribe medication for assisted death. Montana does not have a law that allows physicians to practice this, but with a decriminalized aid-in-dying law, physicians that do assist in assisted death will not be prosecuted.

The largest proponent that keeps opponents at bay, according to Hannig, are the strict criteria that patients need to meet in order to be accepted in an assisted death. “You must physically be able to administer the medicine yourself,” explained Hannig. This is why so many people are unable to partake in assisted death because their ailments are too disabling to allow them to administer the medication themselves. Hannig recalled talking to an individual whose spouse, who suffered from ALS, rammed their wheelchair into a wall in order to push the syringe with the medication into their system. Physicians and lawmakers use this strict requirement to ensure that vulnerable individuals were not coerced into assisted death.

However, the definition of “self-administration” is extreme-

ly vague. Family members and physicians are able to mix the medication, hold straws up to the patients and even fill the syringes, but the patient must be able to inject or swallow the medication without any assistance.

Along with self-administration, patients that qualify for assisted death must have a terminal diagnosis of less than six months, be at least 18 years of age, have the ability to make healthcare decisions, be mentally sound, have approval from two different physicians and two oral requests for medication that are at least 15 days apart and one written request, according to Hannig.

While conducting her research, Hannig noticed that a lot of the patients that decided to utilize assisted death did so relatively quickly after making up their mind. With many terminal illnesses, the patients will have the best chance of administering their medication during their “good days,” when their symptoms are less severe. And since it is impossible to predict the number of “good days” remaining, many terminally ill patients choose to die very soon after obtaining the medication.

Studies also found that since the passing of the “Death with Dignity Act,” almost 2,000 prescrip-

tions have been written by physicians for terminally ill patients.

However, almost one third of the prescriptions were not filled, either from individuals dying before they had the chance to take the medication or deciding not to take it at all. Hannig cited that some patients liked having the medication as backup just in case their symptoms got worse.

In terms of medical ethics, the Hippocratic Oath taken by all physicians states “Above all, I must not play at God.” However, Hannig states that this line of active and passive medical intervention is extremely thin. She questioned when the act of assistance in assisted death is actually helpful.

Hannig went on to state that there is often a misconception about physicians who are prescribing these medications.

“Doctors don’t learn how to kill patients in medical school,” said Hannig. Many of these physicians who prescribe the medications are teaching themselves the pharmacology of drugs in order to find the perfect cocktail to have the most painless passing. With major pharmaceutical companies jacking up the price of common medications used to end life, physicians have found alternatives at cheaper costs. However, these

combinations of medications oftentimes lead to prolonged death, sometimes taking up to 36 hours for the patient to die.

As legislation, and medicine, continue to advance, supporters of assisted death are working to loosen the criteria for assisted death. They are attempting to extend the terminally ill diagnosis from six months to one year, to allow patients some relief without suffering for a few months until their diagnosis has reached six months. Physicians are also attempting to allow for intravenous administration of the medication.

However, this hits roadblocks as people think it is too close to euthanasia, which is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable disease or in an irreversible coma.

Hannig contradicts this with the idea of “independent ethos” and cited manners in which “involuntary euthanasia” is present in our current hospice system in the form of terminal sedation, which can be implemented without legal supervision. This practice is limited to patients who are in a continuous state of pain with no chance at relaxation.

This event was the second in the “Bridging the Two Cultures Lecture Series” held by the university.

Lecture discusses changing perceptions on human rights

By Hannah Wilson staff

A professor at Yale University lectured on human rights and nationalism at the 55th annual Simon Rawidowicz lecture, “Rights and Nationhood from 1948 to the Present” on Thursday. Professor Samuel Moyn, who also works at Yale, focussed on the changing concepts of human rights before and after 1958.

Moyn began his lecture by prompting listeners to consider the Israeli nationality laws and

how they have impacted human rights within the country. He first highlighted the 1948 Declaration, which emphasized equality, and then contrasted it with the first law pertaining to nationality in 1952, which enabled Jewish people automatic entitlement to citizenship and required proof of residency for Palestinians. By reflecting on the discrimination evident in the second law, he discussed the implications of nationhood. “Nationhood protects the rights of some and invalidates the rights of others,” he said.

He discussed the differing perspectives on human rights before

and after 1948. He described human rights before 1948 as human rights 1.0, human rights based on the premise of nationalism.

He suggested that nationalism became a focal point of human rights during the late 18th century, coinciding with the American Revolution and the French Revolution. Revolutionary actions during this period were equated to human rights. However, revolutionary nationalism within human rights enabled violence, often actions that would today be considered violations of human rights, in favor of creating a people’s public, assuming that a gov-

ernment controlled by the people would prioritize human rights.

He next pointed to human rights 2.0, cosmopolitan human rights rather than nationalist human rights. Human rights 2.0 fights for oppressed minorities, favoring them over the state.

Moyn believes that human rights 2.0 is the type of human rights we are most familiar with today.

He attributed the development of human rights 2.0 to the fall of socialism and the beginning of decolonization.

Moyn emphasized that the history of discussion regarding human rights is crucial in con-

sidering continuing globalization today.

The lecture was sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry and the Brandeis University International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life. This is the 55th lecture sponsored by these organization to honor the work of Simon Rawidowicz. Rawidowicz founded the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies program, the first graduate degree at Brandeis, then in 1956 chaired the undergraduate Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department.

4 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

November 9, 2018

Brandeis graduate arrested for hate crimes

By Celia Young editor

Brandeis graduate James Polite ’18 was charged with four hate crimes crime last Friday, Nov. 2, according to articles by The New York Times and CNN. He was charged for anti-Semitic statements written on a temple and fires set at several locations in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was charged for writing on the walls of the Union Temple in Brooklyn, “Die Jew Rats,” “Hitler,” “End It Now” and “Jew Better Be

Ready.” He was captured on surveillance video, according to The Times.

For setting fires at four other Jewish-affiliated places, including a school, he was also charged with hate crimes including arson, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, according to The Times.

Polite was profiled by The Times in 2017. The article profiling him describes Polite’s history growing up in foster care and working as an intern for Christine C. Quinn, a Democrat and former speaker of the New York City Council.

According to The Times, he took

part in Quinn’s re-election campaign in 2009 and when she ran (and lost) for mayor in 2013.

Polite’s foster parents, Jenny Levison and Josh Waletzky, who he began living with six years ago, were quoted in a CNN article saying, “As Jews and New Yorkers, we are profoundly shaken and feel personally impacted by these acts, and our hearts break for all who are impacted.”

“The acts perpetrated in our city come at a troubling time, when violence and acts of intimidation against Jews and other vulnerable communities is on the rise across

the country... we remain committed to building a fair and just New York and country—together with people of all faiths, races, ethnicities and cultures,” they said.

The article quotes Quinn, who called Polite the “adopted child” of her administration. Quinn wrote Polite’s letter of recommendation to Brandeis and called then-President Fred Lawrence to recommend Polite. During a health leave of absence from Brandeis in 2015, he discovered he had bipolar disorder, according to The Times. He applied to return to Brandeis after seven months into

a rehabilitation program but was rejected, according to the article.

Polite was featured in the Brandeis alumni monthly newsletter, “LouieNews.” The newsletter linked the original Times article profiling Polite, saying, “After a difficult upbringing in the foster care system, James now plans to graduate from Brandeis, as chronicled in December by The New York Times.”

Holocaust survivor visits Brandeis

By Rachel Wang staff

One of the few remaining Holocaust survivors who was saved

by Oskar Schindler, Rena Finder, shared her story with members of the Brandeis community on Wednesday night, in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, a turning point in history that is widely regarded as the beginning of the Holocaust.

Finder began her story by recounting her happy childhood in Krakow, Poland, which was suddenly upended when the Germans invaded her hometown on Sept. 1, 1939. She recalls that it was as if she had become an enemy of the state overnight. Yet, Finder emphasized that there was a sense of incredulity among the Jewish community. “We couldn’t imagine that any harm would come to us. It was in a very short time that we realized how wrong we were,” she said.

She recalled the restrictions falling into place one after the other.

Jewish children were not allowed to attend school. Synagogues were burned down. Bank accounts were frozen and businesses taken away. Jewish people had to wear the star of David on their chests.

At the age of 10, Finder and her family were put in a ghetto.

Finder remembered the silence and complicity of the Polish people amidst all the Jewish persecution. She clearly remembered

leaving her childhood home for the very last time to be relocated and hearing a neighbor shout from the street, “Good riddance, Jews! And don’t come back!”

Life in the ghetto was one of constant fear because there were always soldiers on patrol who could shoot and kill at any moment. In one especially bad shooting incident, Finder remembers hiding in a pile of leaves. That day, 3,000 Jews were removed from the ghetto and many in hiding were killed. Finder’s grandparents were taken, and her father was arrested later on.

“How could this happen?” she asked. “How could the world close its mind, doors, windows, hearts, eyes and ears to allow this to happen?”

Life improved slightly when Finder found herself in the employment of Oskar Schindler and his ammunition factory. Finder described Schindler as friendly, charismatic and a man who truly cared for his employees. Unlike other factory owners who treated their labor force like slaves, Schindler always made sure his workers were well-fed and received medical care when they needed it. For six months, Finder and her mother enjoyed these humane working conditions, but Schindler’s factory was soon shut down and the women workers were taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

“There are no words to describe Auschwitz,” Finder said. “It was a

horror every day and a horror every night.” She recalled the dehumanizing process of being initiated into the camp: being stripped naked, being shaved and given clothes that belonged to other people. Finder said she couldn’t even recognize her mother after undergoing this process—the bald people dressed in strange clothes around her didn’t look like humans at all.

According to Finder, Oskar Schindler bribed the commander of Auschwitz to give back the women laborers that were taken so he could place them in a factory in Brunnlitz, Czechoslovakia.

Among the names on Schindler’s list was Finder’s. After three and a half weeks in Auschwitz, Finder and her mother boarded a train to Schindler’s relocated factory that was later liberated in May of 1945.

As Finder concluded, she emphasized her hope in the younger generation’s ability to make the world a better place by remembering stories like hers and being an upstander, “as Oskar taught.”

In a world where genocide continues to threaten lives, Finder cautioned listeners against forgetting history because “forgetting is dangerous.” She also urged the young people in the audience to resist hate, and instead realize the courage within themselves.

Moved audience members asked many questions about her life after the Holocaust—how she coped with the trauma, how she started a family of her own and

PHOTO BY RACHEL WANG/THE HOOT

how long it took before she was comfortable sharing her story publically. In response to that last question, Finder said that she was in the United States for 10 years before someone asked her about her experience in the Holocaust with genuine interest.

According to Finder, many Americans in the early aftermath of World War II did not want to hear her story at all, and some institutions even published papers denying that the Holocaust had happened. It was only until then that Finder and her other survivor friends really felt the need to speak out and publicly defend the truth with their life stories.

One student asked Finder whether she felt anti-Semitism was as strong today as it was back then, in light of the recent Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

Finder replied that “Hitler may be dead, but his message is still going.” She further expounded, “Will people realize what’s hap-

pening and do something about it? Or will it be forgotten, just like Kristallnacht was forgotten?”

As the event, which was sponsored by The Center for German and European Studies (CGES) and the nonprofit organization Facing History and Ourselves, closed, Alex Holtmann ’21, an international student from Germany and student assistant of CGES, commented on the importance of having Finder share her story. He shared that while CGES focuses on environmental and sociopolitical issues, part of its mission is also to “further the Jewish-German dialogue.”

Holtmann referred to the German word, “Vergangenheitsbewältigung” to describe the larger effort that this event is a part of; it roughly translates to dealing with and getting over the dark past.

Mattakeeset leader talks on history of Brandeis land MATTAKEESET, from page 1

nificance within our tribes, those were things that stuck out to me as I walked on campus.”

Wompimeequin emphasized that he wanted to have other tribal members come to Brandeis to confirm his beliefs.

Wompimeequin explained that the land was originally shared by his ancestors with the other nomadic tribes. The four modern tribes have genealogically traced themselves back to the Massachusett people, which originally included between 60 and 80 tribes. The contemporary tribes can trace themselves as far back as the 1600s, according to Wompimeequin. They make up what he called the “Massachusett nation.”

The tribes occupied and shared the area of Waltham, including Brandeis, which they called “nonantum,” meaning “the place of the rejoiceful gathering.” Wompimeequin hopes to build a relationship with Brandeis to create a place for indigenous people to visit and be welcomed.

“It’s time for us to be a part of this place again, so that we can fully enjoy our opportunities to the spirituality that Brandeis holds, not just because it has an educational holdings for the students but also because it has a spiritual holding for the local indigenous people here,” he said.

Wompimeequin continued, “You know this for us is also home. And I think Brandeis has to play a very sensitive and culturally sensitive role in the understanding of what that actually

means.”

As Chief Sachem, Wompimeequin represents the Mattakeesets to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and is the tribe’s ambassador to the U.N. But his role goes beyond representation. “What that means to be a sachem means not to dictate to my community what is best for them but to help them by empowering and inspiring them,” he said. “So my role is simply being a brother, it’s being a father, simply being an uncle, a mentor, a cousin, and a relative, and a leader but just one of the leaders amongst our leadership.”

Wompimeequin also spoke about his personal journey to finding his tribe after part of his family was assimilated and separated from the Mattakeeset. He grew up in several foster homes

and only realized he was an indigenous person when he met his great-grandmother. Later, when Wompimeequin was a teenager, he met his uncle for the first time at a pow wow and was able to find the rest of his family.

He was able to find more of his family members and in 2014, resurrected the Mattakeeset tribe.

The decision to resurrect the tribe was difficult: “We knew that there were going to be great obstacles in front of us, but also we understood that there was going to be emotional, historical traumatic obstacles that we would face,” Wompimeequin said.

After the tribe was resurrected, one of the challenges they faced was achieving state recognition.

State recognized indigenous tribes receive certain benefits, according to Wompimeequin, but

there is no clear criteria to petition for state recognition. He also spoke about a lack of transparency in the commission.

The Hoot contacted the commission and confirmed that there is no process in place. State legislation is required to create a formal process for tribes to gain state recognition.

Wompimeequin emphasized that he wanted to create a relationship with Brandeis centered around its social justice mission.

He was hopeful that a dialogue with Brandeis, including possibly hosting a panel discussion with indigenous peoples or academic events about the history of indigenous peoples, could help educate students on the history of the Brandeis land and Waltham.

November 9, 2018

NEWS 5

The Brandeis Hoot

Senators accuse Union of lack of transparency UNION, from page 1

by the accuracy of the information presented in my senate reports.”

In a separate email to the Class of 2022, Senator Linfei Yang ’20 said that the reason for the lack of dedicated funds to the piano project was because of conflict between two branches of the Union, the executive board and the Allocations Board.

“The Executive Board has been in a heated conflict with the Allocations Board since the start of the semester,” he wrote. “The ‘benchmark’ for the Senate budget as stipulated in the Student Union Constitution is 50,000 dollars, but the Allocations Board decided to only allocate us 20,000.”

Yang continued, “Recently, it is understood that the President issued a Presidential Veto to this decision, but the Allocations Board unanimously voted to overturn her veto. Regardless, this has effectively left us with a severely limited budget and greatly hindered our progress. Although the worst part is, throughout this whole process, the branch to which this funding directly pertains to—the Senate— has never been once been informed of this situation, with not a single reason given.”

The Hoot confirmed that the

president of the Union, Hannah Brown ’19, vetoed the Allocations Board’s decision to not give the union an additional $12,000, but this decision was unanimously overturned by the Allocations Board.

Kumar described the decision process in funding the Union, saying that they were allocated $38,000, which can be split among the branches of the Union.

Since the Union is a secured club, they receive the money as a general grant and are able to move money around if necessary to the different branches. The decision to allocate the union that sum was based on how much they spent the last fiscal year: $30,000. The extra $8,000 was given as a cushion if there were any extra unforeseen expenses.

Kumar explained that the Union did ask for an additional $12,000 to reach their $50,000 benchmark but said, “We didn’t think that substantial reasoning was provided for as to why they needed that 12,000 [dollar] increase.” He clarified that if the Union needed money for a specific event, they would be willing to allocate it.

Another member of the Allocations Board, Alan Huang ’21, explained that the reason for the $12,000 being denied was that the Union did not request it to pay for specific items or costs they may

encounter but rather just asked for more money for different events they plan on hosting.

The email by Yang and the Facebook post by Chang come after the plans to install two electric pianos in the first-year common spaces had been continuously postponed by the union during their weekly senate meetings.

When asked about what the next steps would be for the two in an interview with The Hoot, Chang said, “Specifically we would like an apology from Benedikt Reynolds, the Vice President of the Student Union; we would like for him to apologize for his behavior and give him an opportunity to explain it to the Student Union and to the student body.”

Chang discussed possible next steps that part of the first-year class has been taking, saying, “They are in the process of drafting a petition actually to hold a recall vote for Benedikt.” He continued, “I told them that they should hold off on that. We want to give Benedikt the opportunity to apologize for his actions before the student body and if we don’t get that from him, then I personally can’t make any promises about this group of students which has come up to me as a response to the senate report, and who have expressed great distress over the situation.”

Chang and Yang described the series of events that lead to the Facebook posts and email in an interview with The Hoot.

Chang initially proposed putting one piano in each of the lounges of first-year quads, Polaris Lounge in North Quad and Shapiro Lounge in Massell Quad on Oct. 12, according to a Brandeis Hoot senate log.

Following discussions with Dr. Tim Touchette, the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, Chang received approval to install two electric pianos in the lounges. In an email sent to members of the Class of 2022 and the MyDeis2022 Facebook group, Chang wrote, “He gave us his wholehearted support and provided us with written approval to install two electric pianos in the first-year lounges.”

But at a recent senate meeting, Yang described feeling that Reynolds was trying to intimidate the two from discussing their project and informed them that the senate didn’t have the funds for the installation of the pianos, which was proposed as a senate money resolution (SMR).

Both spoke about Reynolds, saying that he at times misinformed them and was untransparent on the student budget.

Chang said he repeatedly asked Reynolds about the budget, saying, “Every single time he [Reyn-

olds] responded saying he had no updates for us.”

Several SMRs were passed as the piano project was delayed, Yang said. These resolutions included funding for the Turkey shuttles, which deliver students to and from the airport to ease travel near the Thanksgiving break.

Both Chang and Yang met with Student Union President Hannah Brown ’19 and Chief of Staff Emma Russell ’19 Thursday morning but were dissatisfied with how the meeting went.

Chang said that Brown and Russell accused them of “character assassination” of Reynolds. Yang felt that the two were insensitive and invalidated their feelings that Reynolds was intimidating them.

Chang and Yang explained that it wasn’t the piano project that upset them and that the point of the letter was to be transparent and “to relay to the student body what we have been hearing and what we have been seeing in the senate for the last few months,” Chang said. He continued, “The piano project is just an unfortunate casualty of this greater issue.”

Yang emphasized that they wanted to resolve the situation so that their piano proposal is no longer a “victim” of tensions between the Allocations Board and the executive board.

Brandeis celebrates 9th Kindness Day

By Rachel Saal special to the hoot

The Brandeis community came together to celebrate Brandeis’ ninth Annual Kindness Day this Thursday. Students, faculty and staff set up stations around campus that provided creative ways to recognize and uplift various members within the community.

“I thought the posters and activities were only going to acknowledge students and serve to uplift them and their friends,” said Jennifer Aguilera ’22, a first-year student who attended some of the Kindness Day events. “I was really encouraged to see that many of the kindness initiatives were directed at faculty and underappreciated members of our community.”

The Shapiro Campus Center was the base for the majority of the stations this year. The booths included “Send a Message Abroad,” “Make Your Own Dog Toy Donation” and giving away free reusable utensils. On the second floor of the SCC, the Dean of Students was giving away free t-shirts that say “I am the love that h8 can’t stop.”

Outside of the SCC, different campus services participated in Kindness Day. Free games in the Game Room, “Cocoa and Kindness” in Usdan, “Thank You” posters for the custodial staff members and a food pantry drive in the C-Store were available on campus as well.

Companions to Elders, a community service group within the Waltham Group, partnered with

the Kindness Day committee to table in the SCC and write letters with positive affirmations to elderly residents at the Leland Home.

Kindness Day was started nine years ago by a member of the Brandeis faculty as a way of promoting small acts of kindness and boosting morale. The festivities have since been extended to the rest of the week. This year included activities such as residential quad-wide kindness initiatives, a multi-faith dinner this past Wednesday in Usdan, and on Friday, a “zen zone” will be available in the Peace Room for students to practice mindfulness and participate in a compassionate listening activity.

Free notepads, stickers and other swag were available at some of the events. Many of these gifts said

short phrases that reflected the themes of the day, such as “Kindness...pass it on.” While handing

out many of the free gifts, Kindness Day helpers gave wide smiles and said “Happy Kindness Day!”

PHOTO BY CANDACE NG/THE HOOT

Brandeis and Waltham protest Sessions ouster PROTEST, from page 1

himself from the Mueller investigation,” said Isaiah Freedman ’20, a Brandeis student in attendance at the protest.

Protestors chanted “Trump is not above the law,” waved American flags and held signs with slogans such as “Resist Trump Protect Democracy.”

The protest was planned in conjunction with protests occurring nationwide, according to Emily Saperia, a member of the Waltham community who organized the event. She told The Brandeis Hoot in a phone interview that the event was planned with MoveOn.org, an organization which describes itself as “a force for social justice and political progress,” according to its

website.

According to Saperia, MoveOn. org announced months before this week’s protests that if one of several scenarios took place that might interfere with the Mueller investigation they would announce a nationwide protest.

The site, which allows members to register events in their local area, showed hundreds of protests spread throughout the country.

“The core message is that it is important to us as a group to protect the Mueller investigation and what is at issue here is Matthew Whitaker has made statements in the past indicating that he is not someone who necessarily feels strongly about protecting the Mueller investigation,” Saperia told The Hoot.

Last year Whitaker published

an op-ed on CNN.com in which he stated that if Mueller began to investigate the Trump family’s finances he would be crossing a “red line.” He has also once commented that the appointment of Mueller “smells a little fishy,” according to a radio segment uncovered by CNN. Whitaker has no intention of recusing himself from the Russia investigation, according to a report in The Washington Post which relied on anonymous sources described as “close” to Whitaker. Trump publicly criticized Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation in the months leading up to his firing.

The removal of Sessions came one day after the midterm elections resulted in Democrats win-

ning a majority in the House of Representatives, where they could begin impeachment proceedings when they assume their seats in January.

“The fact that Donald Trump decided to kick out Jeff Sessions the moment he realized that he’s going to have to deal with a Democratic House, to me, is a clear sign that he is guilty and trying everything to cover his tracks,” said Professor Sabine von Mering (ENVS, GRALL, WMGS), who attended the protest. “Democracy depends on the separation of powers, that’s why we have a president and a Congress, otherwise we wouldn’t need both,” she said.

In tweets and public statements, Trump has called the Russia investigation a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.”

Brandeis student Tucker Ahlers ’20 told The Hoot that he attended the protest because “It’s a privilege to attend a higher institution of learning, and it’s our duty as students to take that experience and shape society in the way we feel it should be shaped.”

Other students and protestors framed the ouster of Sessions as a danger to democracy. “There are many people who feel that democracy is currently under threat,” said Josh Hanau ’20, “It feels as though everything that Trump does is strictly to cover his own tracks.”

Sarah Hartman, a Brandeis librarian who chose to attend the event, told The Hoot, “I have no idea what we can really do at this point but at least we can not be silent.”

6 NEWS

The Brandeis Hoot

November 9, 2018

Letter sent to Liebowitz calls for forum to discuss accessibility at Brandeis ACCESSIBILITY, from page 1

signatures from members of the community and advocates. Another document, which includes testimony from anonymous students with disabilities about their personal experiences with accommodations at Brandeis, was also sent to Liebowitz.

The letter begins by describing the disability community, which makes up roughly one tenth of the Brandeis community, according to the letter. It clarifies that the statement doesn’t come out of anger but rather says that the Brandeis community is “hurt, harmed, and demoralized when not everyone has access on this campus.”

The letter continues, “We are baffled at how a school with Brandeis’ mission to be welcoming can be so exclusive of those with disabilities or participation restrictions. More than anything, this is a letter asking for our voices to be heard, seen, or signed.”

It goes on to describe how an open forum to discuss campus accessibility should be held. It states that administrative faculty, the accessibility support team and at least one representative from the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at the Heller school should be present for the forum.

The letter connects improvements in accessibility policy to the mission of Brandeis. “We understand how expensive of a process this is and are asking what we can do now to pave a path for later generations of students,” it states.

It continued, “Brandeis has shown willingness to work with its minority populations time and time again in regards to activism. Conversation has happened through student activists in many Brandeis movements, and we intend for it to happen here. At its core, our message is simple: when access is increased for all students with disabilities, Brandeis will move closer to truly fulfilling its mission.”

In an interview with The Brandeis Hoot, Rachel Steinberg ’20, who contributed to the letter, described her struggle with getting accommodations for her connective tissue disorder. Steinberg asked for medical underload so she could maintain her GPA but was denied.

Steinberg also does not have accommodations for being hard of hearing because for an accomodation letter to be given to a student, they must have a doctor’s note regarding their disability from the last six months. Since

needs and my academic success.

I’ve had a professor in my chemistry class tell me to just quit because I just couldn’t do it.”

Finkel described how the idea to write the letter began, with a post on Facebook talking about how inaccessible the Brandeis campus is. After she got comments with similar complaints, Jack Rubinstein ’20 formed a Facebook group chat and Leah Channen ’20 formed a Facebook group shortly thereafter in September.

From there, many students contributed to editing the letter and

one to put their story in or being the one to stand up,” she said to The Hoot.

Steinberg also emphasized that “we’re not here to be angry” and that the letter was meant to create a better future for students with disabilities. Dana reiterated this point, saying, “We’re hoping for a better tomorrow, not a better today.”

Dan Parker ’21, a student with disabilities, told The Hoot that there is an accessibility support team on campus that assists students with disabilities to ensure

“I want other people to see that

someone is fighting for them even if they don’t feel comfortable being the one to put their story in or being the one to stand up.”

Steinberg’s hearing is not expected to improve, she does not have a recent doctor’s note and no longer has access to the doctor who diagnosed her.

Another contributor, Shoshannah Finkel ’20 described how the accommodation letters don’t always help. “If you look at the wording of those letters, it’s actually a suggestion to the professor.

They don’t have to follow what it [the letter] lays out. The only thing they are bound to is giving students extended time for tests,” she said in an interview to The Hoot. “I’ve had a lot of professors not even look at the details of my letter.”

Finkel continued, “It just feels that they are so apathetic to my

then signatures were collected after Oct. 22. Rubinstein emphasized that they tried to circulate the letter through different cultural communities at Brandeis, as disabilities affect everyone. He also said that he understands that money can be a obstacle to making Brandeis more accessible but knows that there are some cheap and free options, like a public forum, that can help.

Emily Dana ’19, a contributor to the letter, emphasized that part of the purpose of the letter was to show that students who felt they couldn’t stand up for themselves were being fought for. “I want other people to see that someone is fighting for them even if the don’t feel comfortable being the

that all their needs are met and able to navigate campus more easily.

“They make sure that students can have access to their work, make sure that the school is accessible, make sure that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is being followed at the school, making sure that school has accessibility in mind and making sure that students have practical access to other aspects of campus life.”

When asked if he believed that the university was accessible to students, Parker stated that, “I think that the school tries to but fails to.”

Parker highlighted on the issues of accessibility, especially for first

years. He noted that Massell Quad was the only area on campus that was wheelchair accessible, yet the accessible suite had no hot water or heat during the winters. He also described how the entirety of North Quad is inaccessible to some students with some disabilities because of the stairs.

He also stressed the fact that accessibility is a very generalized term. The accessibility for a blind individual is very different than an individual who is wheelchair-bound.

The letter included an attachment of five pages of testimony from anonymous students about their personal struggles with disability access on campus.

One student described their experience with Gastroparesis, a chronic illness that causes them to become very weak and unable to get around campus easily. They requested that they be allowed to park behind their residence hall to ease this struggle with transportation but received a delayed refusal from the parking office, and when they tried to take the disability van, they discovered it was “extremely unreliable and hard to get in touch with.”

A student described how they were told to give up on their college career because they were “clearly incapable of finishing [their] college degree,” and another student described how they hadn’t heard from the new accessibility advisor and hadn’t received their disability letters this semester.

One student, who described themselves as legally blind, said that professors had repeatedly ignored their accommodations for large print materials and their difficulty getting to the Health Center and Brandeis Counseling Center due to the cracked and uneven pavement.

The authors hoped that these personal accounts would exemplify the shortcomings of accessibility accommodations at Brandeis, said the letter.

Students discuss facilities, improvements and accessibility at campus conversations

By Sasha Skarboviychuck staff

Students discussed campus living, including work orders, recycling, laundry facility access for students with disabilities and the possibility of installing pianos in first-year dorms at a conversation about community living Nov. 8.

Hannah Brown ’19, the Student Union President, and Jamele Adams, the Dean of Students, led the conversation in Skyline Commons. Various members of the Department of Community Living (DCL), Campus Operations and the Counseling Center answered student questions.

Students brought up concerns of work orders not being addressed and were wondering what they should do if this occurs. They were told that work orders are prioritized in the manner of urgency and available manpower, which

may cause delays. However, if a work order is not addressed for a long period of time, students should put in the work order again.

A large concern was the fact that laundry facilities are inaccessible to students who are visually impaired, particularly due to the card swipe machines. DCL responded by saying that they would look into this. The issue of poor maintenance of the machines was also brought up. Student were told that the machines are all new and there should not be systematic issues. If issues do occur, students were told to report them to DCL. Students also asked about where they should go if they have an idea of something that could improve community living. In this case, students should go to the area coordinator to see if this idea is not already being implemented.

The Community Emergency and

Enhancement Fund (CEEF) has an initiative where, in September, students can bring ideas and some of them will be implemented. The Sustainability Committee of the Senate can also help with such initiatives. Alternatively, students can go to quad senators and community councils.

The issue of the installment of pianos in freshman dorms was also discussed. Tim Touchette, the Director of DCL, explained that, although accessibility was originally cited as the reason for the denial of the request for pianos in the lounges, it was a miscommunication between Senator Alex Chang ’22 and DCL. The current issue with the installment of pianos is the lack of funds; however, it is still in the process of being discussed. Touchette brought up the issue of the high costs of maintenance of pianos as well as the fact that the pianos that are currently in lounges are

not frequently used.

The question of recycling signs being printed on paper was brought up. The Head CA responded saying that they will order recycling stamps to replace the current signs, and mentioned the fact that digital signage is currently a project in the works. He also highlighted that the reduction of paper usage is a high priority for the university as a whole.

A student asked if there were any plans to increase options for senior housing, as only 76 percent of students live on campus. DCL explained that the issue regarding the lack of housing for upperclassmen is that sophomores declare their intent to live on campus and then release their contract not long before move-in. This leaves DCL with not enough time to address these issues and leaves many open rooms that could have been occupied by upperclassmen.

The panelists talked about cur-

rent discussions about making the on-campus living requirement for sophomores as well. It was decided that this will definitely not be implemented for the next academic year. The intent to send out the survey of whether students would prefer to have housing separated by graduating class or not was also declared.

Another project mentioned was the installment of monitoring to all entrances to residence halls. At the beginning of the next academic year, most halls should have them. The Head of the Sustainability Committee said that they are currently working on making a plant room in the library. Another idea was to put art around campus. Better ways of community building were also discussed.

The event was sponsored by the Student Union and the Dean of Students Office.

OPINIONS

November 9, 2018

The Brandeis Hoot 7

Who gave anti-Semitism permission to crawl out from under its rock?

By Jacqueline Breines special to the hoot

Our hearts are broken. We’re desolate. We’re angry. We’re even a little bit surprised. Who gave American anti-semitism permission to crawl out from under its rock? Oh. Right.

With regard to terrorism hitting home, American Jews’ innocence has been crushed in the same way that all Americans’ innocence was shattered on 9/11.

The Pittsburgh shooting has harshly reminded us that white nationalism threatens us all. The past two years have imparted a false sense of relief for Jews at not being the top target for hate this time around, with refugees and/ or Muslims claiming that dubious honor. Many Jews have stepped up to defend those attacked, in part because it’s the right thing to do and also because we know

that our turn will inevitably come.

And our turn came. We didn’t need to wait very long. After all, we live in a time when Jew-hating can be put on public display, just as it was in Charlottesville, and our president musters up a big shrug in response.

We find ourselves torn between heartbreak and anger, though they can feel like the same emotion traveling in opposite directions, with heartbreak focused inward and anger focused outward. When we focus on our heartbreak, we are often reduced to tears. This is fine as an immediate release of emotion but unsustainable as a long-term response.

Anger, on the other hand, is an excellent long-term response, as it can drive action. So as the shock wears off and your heartbreak dulls, I ask you to hold onto your anger. I ask you to let it rise. I ask you to stand up to the hatred behind the heinous

acts that took place in Pittsburgh.

Is this a call to violence? No. Gandhi admonished us that “an eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind,” and he was right. “Eye for an eye” creates a connection to those against whom we desire revenge, rather than a connection to their victims.

No, the way we should stand up is to be openly proud and tolerant Jews. This, in and of itself, will cause pain to white nationalists. Pittsburgh’s victims were killed because they were Jewish and because they were hated for their support of today’s refugees. If you’re Jewish, rise up by living your Judaism openly and boldly. Whether you’re Jewish or not, rise up by fighting on behalf of today’s refugees.

It matters when we stand up for others; it matters when others stand up for us.

It’s important to remember that although we live in a time of hate

speech and violent acts, we are mostly surrounded by people who are as appalled as we are. Pittsburgh’s Jewish leaders have been inundated with offers of help from Jews and non-Jews alike, to the point where they can barely field the onslaught of overtures. It is striking that out of an evil act can come such a barrage of blessings.

When we feel overcome by despair, it’s important to remember that love trumps hate, and light trumps darkness. It’s trite but true.

When good people shine their light, when good people stand up strong and tall against evil, then hate and darkness recede. Let your Jewish light shine. Let your Muslim light shine. Let your refugee light shine. Let your transgender light shine. We are stronger together when we loudly and proudly exude those traits that also make us a potential target.

In Judaism, it is said that the whole world is a narrow bridge,

and the important thing is to not be afraid. We must have courage, even when the narrow bridge is suspended over a river of hatred. We must confront those who promote intolerance and spread fear of the other, even as we comfort the most recent victims of hate. This is the healthy response to such a tragedy.

Stand together with all victims of hate, regardless of which group is the target-of-the-week.

Call out hate at every opportunity; make it feel unwelcome.

I harbor no illusions that we can drive hate completely out of our America, but let us at least drive it back under its rock where it feels less emboldened.

Editor’s Note: Breines is a Cantor and Spiritual Leader at Ahava: A Spiritual Experience in the Jewish Tradition in Newton, M.A. She has also officiated independent B’nai Mitzvah ceremonies in Berlin Chapel.

Outrage in the face of oppression

By Alex Kougasian staff

American culture has found itself in an age of outrage. It can be found, in some form, in every group, and the more broadly defined the group is, the more room there is for outrage. I believe this outrage has its roots in many different phenomena, including the dawn of social media as a universal tool and the polarized nature of current American politics. Outrage on the political front seems to be the main mode in which those on opposite sides of political discussion conduct discourse. This issue has led to many being frustrated with the current state of political thought.

While two angry, polarized sides are nothing new to American politics, this outrage seems

to be amplified in recent years.

The Democratic party is currently facing a rough patch, and although it will likely find itself on the road to recovery soon with the midterm elections, it is important to understand what brought the liberal movement to the place it is now. There are countless factors that have gone into the current state of the liberal movement, but I believe part of understanding the liberal movement’s shortcomings as of late is understanding the outrage culture that surrounds our political discourse.

It seems as if political interactions between the conservative and liberal movements are generally reactionary. Perhaps a conservative figure will say something provocative at a public gathering or on the news, and a corresponding liberal figure will give an impassioned response. Or a leader of a minority group will voice the op-

pressive nature of the status quo, and conservatives will attempt to dismantle it with statistics that do not always convey the full gravity of the subject matter. No matter what the instance, it always feels as if the group that takes a progressive stance is merely pointed to and laughed at for being hysterical or too emotional. Much of the liberal movement is outraged by injustice that many of its members are forced to face, meanwhile the “hysteric nature” of liberals is what outrages conservatives.

In general, I believe this conservative outrage is unjustified.

While many liberals do get somewhat emotional over the injustices that they face, it is because they are attempting to alert people to the oppression from which they suffer. The conservative movement hails itself as being the calm in the face of the liberal storm.

But the nature of the liberal argu-

ment requires emotion because it is partly an emotional issue.

Alongside this, many contemporary conservative political figures bring a slew of outside knowledge to attempt to shut down liberals.

While this is not necessarily a bad thing, statistics and scientific studies are largely interpretable. With much of the conservative ideology, the facts are given a falsely expedited clarity when the other side is merely trying to make their voices heard. When these pseudo-facts are brought into a discussion, it shifts the discussion from one about society to one about statistics or science or economics. Ideally a political discussion should involve many other fields, but when none of the participants in the discussion are well equipped to talk on those other fields, the debate is halted and the oppressed voices can no longer be heard. Often, the use of

this tactic by conservatives enrages progressives even more, which merely intensifies the exemplification of liberals as single-minded people who are too emotional to have a real discussion.

I do not believe this problem has an easy solution for liberals.

Both cultures are entrenched in equal and opposite directions, and at the moment, it is hard to find middle ground. The way that conservatives perceive the liberal movement is something that is impossible to shake. In many ways, fighting against this issue would force liberals to fight on conservative terms. But political culture is a volatile beast, especially now. It might be the case that time is the only thing that will restore constructive and accommodating discussion. The future of political culture will hopefully also bring with it an amicable future for discourse.

Sodexo workers treat students like family

By Brandeis Labor Coalition special to the hoot

The Brandeis student body is populated with students from all over the world. We have students from Tajikistan, Turkey, Australia, Montana, Singapore, South Dakota, India, California—the list goes on. Even if you are a student from Massachusetts, or five minutes away from Brandeis, a just-about universal part of being a student at this university is living away from “home.” The majority of students live on campus, and we spend around eight hours a day on campus if we don’t.

There are workers on this campus that care about making this place feel like home, caring for us with our best interest in mind, as our friends and family at “home” would. They treat us as they would treat their own children, far beyond their job description, and spend their time at work thinking of and trying to remedy our

struggles, stress and tribulations.

Michelle Pallone has worked at Brandeis for 21 years and currently works at Einstein’s. Michelle expressed to us that, although she has six kids, “You guys are like our family. We have a family at home but we come to work and you guys are like our family here...I have like 3,000 kids!” This sentiment not only showcases Michelle’s immense care for our well-being but also a larger philosophy in which the workers’ treatment of students actually reflects the often thrownaround phrase “Brandeis community.” This care is reflected in the exceptional service and care provided by workers; workers like Michelle, Sofia, Nikki, Raisa and Marie at Einstein’s Bagels. As Michelle notes, “I know you guys are in classes struggling…we are working as fast as we can.” The workers on our campus, noting the humanity and stress of us students is a testament to the quality of their care. They do this without always getting the same amount

of care back from us. As students, how many of us can honestly say we treat the workers on campus with as much compassion as we treat our friends, family, friends of friends? Though I am sure many of these readers will answer yes, in light of a recent article, it is clear that this sense of community is not a unanimous feeling.

We must, as the student body, commit ourselves to change.

There are many students here that appreciate the workers on our campus, students who see the family-like environment behind the cash register and recognize how foundational that sense of care is to our community. Jared Yaghoubian ’21 looks forward to seeing David Wong at Einstein’s because “he gets to know me and he cares.” These stories provide a small glimpse of the many unique friendships between students and workers on this campus. Students can see the “family-like” environment behind the cash register, that everyone is helping each other

out. Michelle values this work environment, saying, “If the cashier sees the sandwich person struggling, they’ll go over and help. It’s good teamwork. We all get along.

Everybody helps everybody.”

It is clear that everything Michelle says is driven, first and foremost, by compassion for us, even when—especially when— responding to our apologies that some students do not adequately appreciate them. Michelle’s compassion must also be our compassion. The workers are human, bogged down with their own stressors, yet still trying to “come in with a happy face and serve our family.” Our students care about human beings, care about injustice and exude warmth. This oped is a call that we also carry those characteristics to involve every member of our community, not just our professors, students and alumni. Michelle and other workers love working here and love the students. It is the Brandeisian way to extend our thanks, give

appreciation back to the workers and take an extra moment to soak in everything they do for us.

Not only are the workers genuinely caring, but they are also extraordinarily talented at what they do. From Einstein’s specific bagel and coffee combinations to Currito’s demanding burrito structure, the workers have boundless knowledge of their craft. This can be seen in the care they take with each meal and the way that they can juggle thirty or more hungry students during their busiest times. Even when they forget an order—as is bound to happen with so much going on—they immediately take the time to rectify that and send the student on their way satisfied.

If we place more care into our understanding of our workers “behind the uniform,” if we look up instead of down, and ask them about their day, as they do for us, the Brandeis community can move towards truly personifying its “social justice” values.

8 The Brandeis Hoot

WEEK IN PHOTOS

These “Be Kind” balloons were a part of the decorations spicing up the Shapiro Campus Center in celebration of Kindness Day on Nov. 8, providing a prime spot to take photos with your friends and spread the kindness message.

SPREAD KINDNESS

Miriam B. Krugman ‘20 and Michaela Cabral ‘19 pose next to some of the many donuts and apples found on campus as part of the Kindness Day intiative.

KINDNESS DAY COORDINATORS

PHOTO BY CANDACE NG/THE HOOT

PHOTO BY CANDACE NG/THE HOOT

Kindness Day inspires Brandeis students to send positive notes to their friends while getting creative with happy doodles.

SPREAD THE LOVE

PHOTO COURTESY MIRIAM B. KRUGMAN

PHOTO COURTESY MIRIAM B. KRUGMAN

PHOTO BY CANDACE NG/THE HOOT

Students write notes to custodial staff to thank them for all their hard work in the residence halls.

THANK YOU

November 9, 2018

In the spirit of Kindness Day, various groups across campus handed out students’ favorite fall treat, apple cider donuts!

SO MANY DONUTS

EDITORIALS

November 9, 2018

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

Editors-in-Chief Abigail Gardener Sarah Terrazano Senior Managing Editor Elianna Spitzer Senior Editor Ryan Spencer Copy Editor Natalie Fritzson Deputy Copy Editor Jennifer Cook News Editor Celia Young Arts Editors Ben Beriss Noah Harper Opinions Editor Sabrina Chow Features Editor Polina Potochevska Sports Editors Zach Cihlar Shea Decker-Jacoby Layout Editor Candace Ng Editor-at-Large Emily Botto

Volume 15 • Issue 21 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

Y

The Brandeis Hoot 9

Host an open forum on accessibility

esterday, students in the advocacy group Addressing Accessibility at Brandeis emailed a letter and personal statements to President Ron Liebowitz.

The documents were written by students with disabilities and were accompanied by a list of about 270 signatures from advocates. In light of this letter, our editorial board would like to voice our support for this group and their goals of addressing accessibility.

The group’s official request is for an open forum to discuss accessibility on campus with the administration. According to the letter, “our message is simple: when access is increased for all students with disabilities, Brandeis will move closer to truly fulfilling its mission.” Various personal statements from students who have struggled with the way Brandeis handles their disabilities point out that one of Brandeis’ mission statements is to “safeguard the safety, dignity and well-being of all its members,” and they don’t feel that Brandeis is living up to its mission.

Having a disability or requiring accommodation includes, among other things, chronic illnesses, wheelchair users, being deaf or

hard of hearing, being visually impaired and having a learning disability. There are many ways in which Brandeis could make life not only easier but simply livable for students who experience these disabilities.

Some of their suggestions are implementing ramps into buildings; adding and improving captions and transcripts for classes; putting reflective tape on stairs; and more prompt responses from the accessibility office.

Brandeis’ Student Accessibility Support (SAS) webpage lists a wide variety of services and support systems for students with disabilities. A prospective student might look at this website and feel that Brandeis will be helpful and accommodating with their disability and decide to enroll. But when they get to Brandeis, they will be met with a very different follow-through and a false representation of these claims.

We urge the administration to do better. SAS needs to give prompt responses to students, and Public Safety and DCL should show more understanding in their decisions regarding parking and

living situations. The disability van must be more accountable; captioning better implemented in classes; microphone usage more strongly encouraged.

It is unacceptable that some members of our community do not have the same accessibility on campus as others and that the needs of these students are not being met.

From the SAS website, and from the various student accounts, it seems like there are already many structures in place to accommodate disabilities. The problem is in the implementation and regulation of these policies. For example, students should not have to wait weeks on end to receive their letters of accommodation when the semester is quickly passing by and students have to take exams.

We strongly support the call for an open forum and widening the discussions and transparency around these issues. Everyone deserves to have an accessible campus.

Editor’s note: News editor Celia Young and Opinions editor Sabrina Chow did not contribute to this editorial.

STAFF

David Aizenberg, Caleigh Bartash, Lucy Braverman, Emma Belkin, Camila Casanueva, Kevin Costa, Chris DeMena, Olivia Ellson, Daniel Freedman, Ariella Gentin, Kevin Healey, Jonah Koslofsky, Jackie Kostenko, Alex Kougasian, Emma Lichtenstein, Jenna Lifschitz, Ruoshi Liu, Shruthi Manjunath, Gillian O'Malley, Thalia Plata, Sasha Skarboviychuk, Zachary Sosland, Sophie Trachtenberg, Rachel Wang, Hannah Wilson, Helen Wong

MISSION As the weekly community student newspaper of Brandeis University, The Brandeis Hoot aims to provide our readers with a reliable, accurate and unbiased source of news and information. Produced entirely by students, The Hoot serves a readership of 6,000 with in-depth news, relevant commentary, sports and coverage of cultural events.

Recognizing that better journalism leads to better policy, The Brandeis Hoot is dedicated to the principles of investigative reporting and news analysis. Our mission is to give every community member a voice.

SUBMISSION POLICIES The Brandeis Hoot welcomes letters to the editor on subjects that are of interest to the community. Preference is given to current or former community members and The Hoot reserves the right to edit or reject submissions. The deadline for submitting letters is Wednesday at noon.

Please submit letters to letters@thebrandeishoot.com along with your contact information. Letters should not exceed 500 words. The opinions, columns, cartoons and advertisements printed in The Hoot do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.

CONNECT phone • (781) 330-0051 e-mail • eic@thebrandeishoot.com online • brandeishoot.com twitter • twitter.com/thebrandeishoot facebook • facebook.com/thebrandeishoot

ADVERTISE Advertising in The Brandeis Hoot helps spread your message to our readers across the Brandeis campus, in the Waltham community and beyond through our website.

All campus organizations receive a 25-percent discount off our regular prices. We also design basic ads for campus organizations free of charge.

To reserve your space in the paper, contact us by phone at (781) 3300051 or by e-mail at ads@thebrandeishoot.com.

GIVE A HOOT, JOIN THE HOOT! Writers, editors, photographers and graphic artists wanted to join The Brandeis Hoot, your weekly community newspaper.

To learn more, send us an e-mail at join@thebrandeishoot.com, or visit our website http://brandeishoot.com/join.

UNSOLICITED SUBMISSIONS We welcome unsolicited submissions from members of the community sent by e-mail to eic@thebrandeishoot.com. Please limit submissions to 800 words. All submissions are subject to editing.

Correction: An article from Nov. 2, titled "Hookman has Brandeis hooked" incorrectly spelled Seth Wulf 's '21 name.

FEATURES

10 The Brandeis Hoot

November 9, 2018

The Brandeis Bagel ‘schmears’ memes across social media

By Sabrina Chow editor

Step aside, Gravity magazine— there’s a new satirical platform on campus for all the latest memes.

“The Brandeis Bagel,” started by Dane Leoniak ’20 and Perry Letourneau ’20, posts daily on Instagram and Facebook with joking headlines formed by the creative team at The Brandeis Bagel.

The Bagel is “an Onion rip-off for Brandeis humor,” said Leoniak in an interview with The Brandeis Hoot. Letourneau put it more eloquently as “an outlet for Brandeis-focused satire,” in an interview with The Brandeis Hoot.

The staff at The Bagel follows the style of The Hard Times newspaper, another news outlet known for its satirical and quirky articles depicting news with a funny twist.

The Onion and The Hard Times are news outlets that publish fic-

tional, comedic stories in a news format for readers to enjoy. While The Onion and The Hard Times publish full-length articles, The Bagel just publishes headlines.

“And really it emerged out of us thinking there were jokes about Brandeis culture that needed to be made, and no one was making,” explained Letourneau. “Brandeis is weird. There’s a lot of weird, funny and annoying things about this place to tackle...but I think our goal with every headline is to try to find a new angle or ideally something which no one’s even talking about yet, but which is on people’s minds.”

Even though Gravity magazine, another satirical journal on campus, has a popular following, Leoniak and Letourneau highlighted the key difference between The Bagel and Gravity. “That’s why The Onion and The Hard Times and stuff like that do well, because you see a funny headline are like

PHOTOS FROM FACEBOOK.COM

‘yeah, that’s relatable.’” He noted that while Gravity publishes full length articles, The Bagel produces just headlines with photoshopped photos to go along with the headlines.

“A friend told me that we’re funny while Gravity is just negative; I think that’s pretty accurate. Some of our stuff is just for fun, like we made a post about Coiner. No negativity there, that headline was 100 percent from a place of love for Coiner,” Letourneau further reiterated.

The Onion was a large inspiration in coming up with the title for the newspaper. Leoniak asked himself, “What’s an onion

by Brandeis?” when deciding the name. “What’s a Brandeis food?

Bagel,” and the name was formed.

Letourneau also searched for the most “Brandeisian food possible” and cited that “Sherman cantaloupe” was also a very Brandeisian food, but it did not have the same alliteration and charm that “The Brandeis Bagel” has.

None of the writers for The Bagel expected the publicity and popularity that came with their posts, but they greatly appreciate the support.

Leoniak’s personal favorites headlines by The Bagel so far have been “Raccoons in Dumpster Behind the SCC Just First Years Who Thought Einsteins Was Open Later” and “Student Studying Abroad in Japan with Asian Girlfriend SWEARS He Doesn’t Have an Asian Fetish.”

The first one was because of personal experiences and the latter was “a personal attack on a terrible person I know,” said Leoniak.

Letourneau personally enjoys

the headline, “BREAKING: Student in Philosophy-159A Wants to Push Back on That.”

Those interested in submitting

headline ideas to be published by The Bagel can message their page through Facebook or Instagram @thebrandeisbagel.

Featured Events Calendar Jewish Sacred Text Burial

Friday, Nov. 9, 11 - 12:30 p.m., Sachar Woods (Behind IBS) Jewish law says that after you are finished using a text with God’s name on it, you may not throw it out, but rather, you must bury it. We have several hundred prayer books in the Berlin Chapel that have long been unused or are in poor condition. We will be burying them right here on campus. Come help out in this important once in a generation event.

Directions: From the Theater parking lot, follow the path with the IBS sign, up towards the Lemberg building. At the end of the road is a traffic circle/roundabout.

Continue straight around it, and you’ll see the giant hole in the ground.

Sponsor: the Nachshon Project and Hillel at Brandeis

Karaoke Night

Friday, Nov. 9, 7 - 9 p.m., Skyline Commons Karaoke Night is one of Southeast Asian Student Association’s annual events. You are welcome to sing any karaoke song and/or support your friends who are singing. Refreshments will be served!

Ask an Expert: Careers in Sustainability

Tuesday, Nov. 13, 10 - 11 a.m., SCC Room 314 Join The Hiatt Career Center and Sustainable Brandeis to hear about the career paths of sustainability professionals, ask for their advice and listen to their stories.

Join in person or remotely via Zoom. The speaker is Eric B. Schultz, an author and former CEO of Sensitech. He has also written a collection of white papers focused on cold chain, smart urbanization, green building and sustainable aviation.

Find Your Study Abroad Perfect Match!

Wednesday, Nov. 14, 10:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., Farber Library Thinking about studying abroad, but have no idea where you want to go?

Wondering if the program you’re considering is the right fit for you? Never even

thought about studying abroad, but love taking Buzzfeed quizzes? Come to the Farber Library (near Starbucks) for free coffee and donuts, and talk to Study Abroad Ambassadors and returnees to find your study abroad perfect match!

Catan Competition: German Diplomacy in Play

Wednesday, Nov. 14, 5 - 9 p.m., Rapaporte Treasure Hall Ever played Catan? Want to learn it? We will bring together novices and expert players for a fun evening of competitive board gaming! Today’s Germany is known in the US primarily as an exporter of cars - and perhaps for its Oktoberfest beer. But there is another way in which Germany has been reaching out into many corners of the world: as a producer of board games and puzzles. Catan is one such board game. Invented by Klaus Teuber, it is one of the most popular board games in the US today.

Innovation Showcase

Thursday, Nov. 15, 6 - 8 p.m., Shapiro Science Center, Hassenfeld Family Innovation Center Discover the many innovative and entrepreneurial ways the Brandeis community is making an impact at the 4th annual Innovation Showcase. This cocktail reception will feature startups, inventions, social entrepreneurship, and scientific discoveries born out of the dorms, labs and classrooms at Brandeis University.

Meet our MakerLab and witness the application of emerging technologies across a wide range of subjects first-hand. Engage with the researchers, students, faculty and staff who are impacting the world in the business, sciences, technology and social sectors. Attendees will have the opportunity to join the entrepreneurial action and vote for the crowd favorite by “investing” in projects. Experience the Brandeisian innovative spirit as you network with Boston’s innovation community, indulge in refreshments, and have the opportunity to win prizes.

- Compiled by Polina Potochevska

November 9, 2018

FEATURES 11

The Brandeis Hoot

Annual hackathon engages college students from the Boston area

By Polina Potochevska editor

Since 2014, Brandeis Initiative for Technology, Machines, Apps and Programming (BITMAP) has hosted Codestellation, Brandeis’ beginner-friendly 24-hour hardware and software hackathon.

This year, it is taking place Nov. 10-11 in the Shapiro Science Center.

Briana Li ’20, a double major in computer science and linguistics, is one of the co-presidents of BITMAP and also one of the head organizers of Codestellation - The Friendly Hackathon.

Li, along with the other members of BITMAP’s E-board, worked hard to promote the event this year.

“I’m the head designer, so I made all of the promotional materials, like t-shirts and posters and the designs for all of that,” explained Li. “I’m also one of the head organizers, so I oversee everything, making sure that everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing and then on the day of the event I make sure that everything goes accordingly.”

This is Li’s second year organizing the event. She told The Hoot that this year, the club’s goal was to open up the event to more than just Brandeis students, but also to students from the greater Boston area. “We’re always looking for people who aren’t necessarily in-

volved in the CS [computer science] department here to come and just try out coding, and if they end up liking it then it’s all worthwhile, I think,” said Li. Hackathons are events where computer programmers and others involved in software development work collaboratively on software projects. The goal of a hackathon is to create usable software or hardware. “Hackathons happen everywhere across the globe, and Codestellation is Brandeis’ oldest and biggest hackathon,” said Li. “Basically what happens is you’ll come in and you’ll form a team, usually 4-5 people, and you brainstorm an idea of something you can either code or use hardware to solve,” said Li. A lot of the hacks have to do with software, but BITMAP will also provide many different types of hardware such as 3D printers, virtual reality headsets and robotics gear that students can use to hack.

Students can choose to either stay in the Science Center for the entire 24 hours, as there will be a designated sleeping room on the bottom floor of the center, or they can choose to go back to their rooms overnight and be readmitted at 7 a.m.

At the end of 24 hours the team will have a finished product that can be presented to the three judges: Ian Roy of the MakerLab, Josie Elias, program manager of Digital Health Innovation of the Brigham Digital Innovation Hub

and the CPO of Rocket Software, Anjali Arora.

This year, BITMAP worked on getting sponsors for the event, sending out hundreds of emails to different companies starting in the beginning of the summer to see if they would be interested in helping out.

Companies such as Microsoft, payfactors, Rocket Software, balsamiq, Wolfram Language, TIBC and Monster have assisted in sponsoring the event, and will be sending software engineers and representatives to the event as a way to spread information about their companies and also to recruit and collect resumes. Monster will be providing their drinks to students, as well.

Some of the prizes that students can win include a game console, bluetooth headphones, speakers and gift cards.

“For people in CS who already know how to code or have experience, it’s a good opportunity for them to network and see who else is involved in the CS department here,” said Li. “I think Codestellation plays a big role in branching those people together because there are a decent amount of people now in the CS department and it’s definitely a growing department.”

Through events such as Codestellation, students can network with each other in a large department and find ways to collaborate.

Students with little experience

PHOTOS FROM FACEBOOK.COM

can choose to attend simply to learn about coding, or others can attend to apply their coding skills and potentially make connections with top companies in the software industry.

“I feel like the best way to boost your resume is building projects, and this forces you to do that in

24 hours, so whatever you end up creating is something that you could show to a future employer,” said Li. More than 350 students have registered to attend Codestellation, and registration is still open at codestellation.io for anyone who would like to be involved.

SPORTS

12 The Brandeis Hoot

November 9, 2018

Volleyball ends the 2018 season with impressive UAA tournament

By Camila Casanueva staff

The Brandeis University volleyball team turned out one of its best performances in nearly a decade for the program in the UAA this past weekend. It was the Judges’ final three games of the 2018 season, against NYU, Emory and Case Western Reserve.

They opened play against 11th ranked Emory at the UAA tournament hosted by the University of Rochester. The Judges pushed the 11th ranked team in each set but eventually dropped a 3-0 decision to the Eagles. Set scores were 25-23, 25-24, 25-23.

Emma Bartlett ’20 led the Judges with seven kills, making just one error in 19 chances for a .316 hitting percentage. Brandeis also out blocked the Eagles, 8-5, with Kiersten Frauens ’19 posting six block assists and Bartlett finishing with five. Marissa Borgert ’21 led the Judges with 14 assists while Marlee Nork ’19 had nine and Grace Krumpack ’19 led the defense with 12 digs.

Despite the loss against the Eagles on Friday, the Judges still played well and came out Saturday with quite the performance.

The first match of the day was

against Case Western Reserve and the eighth seeded Judges upset the fifth seeded Spartans, 3-1. Set scores were 12-25, 25-13, 25-20, 25-20.

The Judges began with a slow start, hitting in the negative numbers in their opening set as the Spartans rolled to the 25-12 win.

However, Brandeis turned the tables in the second set, hitting a terrific .436 (19 kills, two errors, 39 attempts) as they took a 25-13 decision. The Judges went on two different 4-0 runs in the set to keep CWRU at bay and closed on a 4-1 run, with two kills by Shea Decker-Jacoby ’19, Sports Editor for The Brandeis Hoot.

In the tighter third and fourth sets, the Judges hit an identical .167 with 14 kills and seven errors in 42 attempts, while holding CWRU to .000 and .088 down the stretch to take the wins. It was a team effort as eight different Brandeis players contributed points in the final run, with Bartlett putting down the game winning kill.

Decker-Jacoby matched her season high with 18 kills and had a season-best .432 hitting percentage. Bartlett also reached double figures in kills with 13, while also contributing five block assists. Rookie Emerson White

SHEA DECKER-JACOBY ‘19 GOES FOR THE KILL

SENIORS

For these student-athletes, the UAA tournament was their last time playing for the Judges.

’22 had a tremendous game at the net, finishing with a career high of eight blocks, three of which were solo. Other rookie Kaitlyn Oh ’22 paced the defense with 26 digs.

It was all hands on deck for the Judges, and it paid off.

In their second match of the day

PHOTOS BY SHEA DECKER-JACOBY/THE HOOT

and final game of the 2018 season, the Brandeis volleyball team turned in its best performance at the UAA in a decade. The Judges rallied back from two sets down to defeat NYU in the conference’s fifth place match, 17-25, 18-25, 25-22, 25-21, 15-7.

The Judges’ hitters struggled in the first two sets, hitting below .100 in both sets as NYU won, 2517 and 25-18. Brandeis started its comeback by getting off to a fast start in the third set. Tied at 3-3, the Judges went on a 7-0 run and would hang on for the 25-22 win.

In the fourth set, after the Violets scored the first point, Brandeis answered with the next four and never trailed again. NYU got within two at 13-11, but the Judges did not let them get any closer in forcing the fifth set, 2521. The Judges roared out of the gate in the fifth set, establishing a 5-2 lead. The Violets got within one at 8-7, but Brandeis closed them out by scoring seven of the match’s final eight points. Three kills came from Bartlett down the stretch as the Judges completed the comeback, 15-8, winning it on a kill by Borgert.

The Judges finished with a bal-

anced attack as three players finished in double figures in kills.

Bartlett led the way with a match high: 14 kills. She also led the team in hitting percentage with just four errors in 31 attacks for a .323 percentage. Borgert added 13 kills and a match high of 29 assists for her fourth double of the season. Her kill total was one shy of her season best. Oh contributed 36 digs to lead all players, while Yvette Cho ’19 had 12. Oh’s strong performance earned her the title of UAA Defensive Player of the Week.

Prior to this weekend, Brandeis had not posted a win at the UAA tournament since 2010. Head coach Alesia Vaccari praised the team effort, “I’m so proud of the way we finished this match, NYU started the match strong, but we did a great job finishing. It’s something we’ve been talking about all season. Everyone on the team contributed.” Vaccari and her three assistant coaches ended up earning UAA Coaching Staff of the Year for successfully leading the team to a strong UAA performance.

Brandeis closes its 2018 season with a 13-17 record.

Men and women’s swimming find more success in the pool

By Sophie Trachtenberg staff

This past weekend, the Judges headed to Worcester to take on a variety of opponents, ending with wins in individual races for the men and the women grasping two team victories. Despite a strong performance from Richard Selznick ’21, the men came up short, ending in losses to the host, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (163 to 116), and Babson (139.5 to 122.5).

On the women’s side, the meet ended in a split, defeating both Babson (201 to 69) and Smith (203.5 to 92.5), while falling to WPI (197 to 96) and Simmons (159.5 to 134.5). These results put the men at a 2-3 record, while the women improve to 2-5.

Selznick was a standout performer, extending his undefeated status in the distance freestyle

races after the weekend and also winning the 400 individual medley (I.M.). Claiming the first place title in all three of his individual events, Selznick managed to finish seven seconds before his next competitor in the 1000 yard freestyle, by five-hundredths of a second in the 500 freestyle, and by half of a second in the 400 I.M. In addition to the longer distances, the 200 freestyle was also well swum by the Judges, with sophomores Daniel Wohl, Marcelo Ohno-Machado and Chase Chen coming in second, third, and fourth places respectively. In the butterfly contests, Tamir Zitelny ’20 found himself in second place in the 100, while classmate Matthew Arcemont ’20 pulled off a fourth place finish in the 200.

The first-year class was also impressive, as Brendon Lu ’22 settled runner-up outcomes in both the 100 breaststroke and the 400 I.M. while Alex Wang ’22 fell into third

place in the 200 breaststroke and finished fourth in the 400 I.M. On the women’s side, there were two first place finishes from a pair of rookies, as Gazelle Umbay ’22 won the 200 butterfly by about half a second, while Claire Xu ’22 championed in the 400 I.M. by four-hundredths of a second.

In the freestyle category, it was captain Kylie Herman ’19 that took second and fifth places in the 200 and 500 respectively, and rookie Lauren Howard ’22 fell in fourth and fifth in the 100 and 50 yard events. The breaststroke races were dominated by Natalya Wozab ’20, who received third in the 200 and tied an opponent for sixth in the 100, as well as rookie Olivia Stebbins ’22, who topped sixth and fourth position finishes in the same races.

To seal their wins, the women performed well in the relays too, with a runner-up placement in the 200 medley that included

Xu, Stebbins, Umbay, and Annie Huang ’21. Lastly, in the 200 freestyle relay, the Judges took both the second and third place spots, with Howard, Uajda Musaka ’21, Adriene Aponte ’20 and Herman finishing just two seconds before

RICHARD SELZNICK ‘21

Audrey Kim ’21, Wozab, Sofia Chevez ’21, and Umbay.

The Judges look to extend their winning streak against their Waltham rivals from Bentley University next Friday, Nov. 16 at 6 p.m.

PHOTO FROM BRANDEISJUDGES.COM

ARTS

November 9, 2018

The Brandeis Hoot 13

‘Looted Art for Sale’ symposium explores hidden history of paintings

By Noah Harper editor

“To strip Jews of their culture, it’s part and parcel with the Holocaust,” said former U.S. Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, responding to a question about the legacy of art stolen from Jews by Nazis during the second World War. This was after Eizenstat delivered the keynote address in the “Looted Art for Sale” symposium last Tuesday, where he spoke about his personal impact in restituting stolen artworks and evaluated what further needed to be done to institute justice for those wronged by the Nazi regime.

Ambassador Eizenstat was instrumental in drawing up and passing the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, non-binding “moral principles” that was signed by over forty-six countries, including Austria, Germany, France, The Netherlands and the United States.

The largest effect of the Washington Principles was a new emphasis on the determining the exact provenance of a work of art. Proper provenance (from the French verb provenir, “to come from”) requires painstakingly researching the details on an art sale—how and why a particular painting was bought and sold.

Ascertaining the provenance of pieces between the years of 1933 and 1945 is particularly important: any discrepancies from the era in which Hitler came to power could signal the work was stolen by the Nazi regime.

Throughout the six-hour event, seven other speakers elaborated on these effects: how the need for restitution in the art world has shaped legal, curatorial and academic pursuits.

The first panel of speakers discussed a more academic approach to the topic of stolen art. Kim Oosterlinck, Professor of Finance at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, detailed an analysis of art value in France, The Netherlands and Belgium.

It was obvious from the data that during the second World War in Europe, art became a way to protect one’s assets against inflation. Oosterlinck demonstrated with a graph how buyers favored smaller paintings to larger ones—“alternate assets” being

much easier to physically move— and compellingly argued the important art was as a financial tool during World War II. Lynn Rother, Senior Provenance Specialist at the Museum of Modern Art, continued on this theme, detailing how, through careful research of bank documents, she was able to track the history of a “Over Vitebsk” by Marc Chagall. “Bank files tell me more about the art markets than any other source,” she said. Chagall—who had Jewish heritage— was unclear in his notes about the sale history of the painting, so Rother went through the archives and published more than five hundred pages of research as part of her doctoral thesis on the subject. It was eventually determined that the Chagall had been part of the “biggest art transaction of the Nazi era,” in which 4,401 paintings were transferred to the Prussian state. This is an exemplary case of how tracking down the provenance of a piece of art can reveal secrets about its wartime past.

Inge Reist, Director Emerita of the Center for the History of Collecting at the Frick Collection in New York, presented on her own institution’s important role in rescuing and preserving these important images during and after the war. The Frick was the “nexus for the efforts of the Monuments Men,” which was an assembly of art historians and curators who went to Europe, sometimes into active war zones, to ensure that priceless works remained unharmed by advancing Allied troops. Photos from the Frick’s considerable archives were used to demarcate the locations of important cultural monuments, such as the cathedral and leaning bell tower in Pisa. The institution also played a role in the work of restituting stolen artwork, most notably in Maria Altmann’s case.

After Ambassador Eizenstat’s Washington Principles Conference convened, Maria Altmann, the niece of a Jewish banker named Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, filed suit against the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, an Austrian state museum that she alleged had a stolen painting that had belonged to her uncle. It took seven years of legal action, including a Supreme Court hearing, for Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” also called “The

Woman in Gold,” to be restored to Altmann’s family.

“The Woman in Gold” was one of several recurring themes throughout the symposium. The Altmann case was referenced several times, as were the Monuments Men, and several different stolen pieces by the Austrian painter Egon Schiele. They came to resemble a broader narrative, that of cultural trauma and loss, and many attempts—and resistance—to bring about restitution.

The second set of four speakers dealt with the more practical aspects of the work of restitution. How should museums treat art that might have been looted by the Nazis? What are the best practices for reconciling between concerned parties and institutions, and how might private collectors be motivated to do the right thing? Two women working professionally in the field of provenance and two attorneys with first-hand experience litigating the restitution of paintings explored these questions.

Brandeis alum Samuel A. Blaustein ’03, partner at Dunnington Bartholow & Miller in New York, detailed working in court on the case of ownership of two Egon Schiele paintings, “Woman in a Black Pinafore,” and “Woman Hiding her Face.” Blaustein’s firm was the first to litigate using the 2016 Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act, which, among other things, amended the statute of limitations (six years) for stolen artworks to begin upon discovery that a piece of art was stolen, not from the moment, i.e.

1942, that it could have been taken. The outcome of the case “Rief v. Nagy,” meant that there is now a legal framework for the return of looted art to its rightful owners.

After Blaustein, Victoria Reed, Sadler Curator for Provenance at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gave a fascinating talk regarding the museum’s provenance journey with a lot of seven porcelain figures with a dubious history of sale that were donated. The provenance process—determining where the figures were during the 1930s and 1940s—took ten years.

Reed explained that the estate sale of the porcelain after the death Emma Budge was invalid. Budge’s heirs’ Jewish roots meant they did not receive any of the proceeds.

The MFA gave them back to the Budge estate and then repur-

PHOTO FROM BIOGRAPHY.COM

chased them. They are currently on view in the European Pottery Collection in the museum, along with information explaining their history.

There were other works, too, such as “Adoration of the Magi,” forcibly sold from the estate of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe, a Jewish Italian businessman living in Paris, and Eglon van der Neer’s “Portrait of a Man and Woman in an Interior,” the owner of which, gallery owner Walter Westfeld, was persecuted by the Nazi regime in Wuppertal, Germany.

Reed closed by saying that the MFA’s goal was to “only acquire those works of art that we are confident that we can legally and ethically own.” The MFA follows guidance set by the American Association of Museum Directors, which helped to inspire the language of Ambassador Eizenstat’s Washington Principles.

The remaining two speakers added additional depth to the ideas. Monica Dugot, International Director of Restitution at the Christie’s International auction house, detailed a similar ap-

PHOTO BY BEN BERISS/THE HOOT

proach in her work. The process of determining provenance is often time-consuming and stressful, as the art dealer must negotiate the differing claims between seller and claimant. Nicholas M. O’Donnell, a Partner at Sullivan & Worcester in Boston, spoke on the broader legal conflicts, providing a more macro perspective in a presentation on the “High-Stakes Legal Conflicts over Nazi Looted Art.” In his remarks, he touched on both the Altmann case and another contested work by Egon Schiele. O’Donnell recently published a book on the subject.

Ambassador Eizenstat finished the proceedings, looking back at the last twenty years, post-Washington Principles. Countries such as Austria have led the way in terms of art restitution. France, while a signatory of the Principles, does not have deaccession laws, which means that even if a work of art hanging in the Louvre is proved to have been stolen by the Nazi regime, it cannot be returned to its original owners. Russia, which signed the Principles into law, has returned precious few paintings, such as those that the Red Army took from Germany as war reparations.

He said that the United States must “be an exemplar to the world” in art restitution. He detailed much-needed next steps: more funding for provenance research, the development of a global database and that universities such as Brandeis should invest in deepening the ranks of provenance researchers.

In the end, Ambassador Eizenstat was optimistic. He described “a cleansing effect on the whole global art market” that the development and professionalization of provenance had created. Returning looted art was important because it meant making right histories that the art world had wilfully ignored or obfuscated in the past. Art restitution was, he said, “one of the last remaining pieces of Holocaust restitution.”

14 ARTS

The Brandeis Hoot

November 9, 2018

‘Because of the War’ highlights Liberian musicians

By Jonah Koslofsky staff

The Wasserman Cinematheque may be Brandeis’ best kept secret.

A state-of-the-art theater located in the International Business School building of all places, the Wasserman has been home to a few cool events the past few years but on the whole, doesn’t get nearly enough of the recognition it deserves on campus.

This past Tuesday, the theater

was home to an exciting screening: a showing of the award-winning “Because of the War,” a recent documentary that tracks four dancers/singers from Liberia and their experiences fleeing the Liberian Civil War in the late ’80s/early ’90s. Currently, all four women are active participants in Philadelphia’s Liberian community, and “Because of the War” does an effective job illustrating the connections between their prosperous presents and tumultuous pasts.

We see how the war impacts the

four musicians—Tokay Tomah, Zaye Tete, Marie Nyenabo and Fatu Gayflor—and how the quartet preserved and continued to bring art into the world over the past three decades.

Perhaps it’s no surprise then that the screening was sponsored by the Creativity, Arts, and Social Transformation department and acted as an extension of CAST course 150B, Introduction to Creativity, Arts, and Social Transformation. Professor Cynthia Cohen was also able to

bring the documentary’s director, Toni Shapiro-Phim, to the Wasserman. Shapiro-Phim spoke and answered questions after the screening, providing insight into the creation of the film. Despite the brutality of the Liberian Civil War, Shapiro-Phim—and her film as a whole—is dedicated to showing a full picture of Liberian life and culture. To exclusively present negative and traumatic images would be simply disingenuous, and thankfully, “Because of the War” does not fall into said trap.

Working on behalf of the Philadelphia Folklore Project, Shapiro-Phim is not a filmmaker by trade but found the medium the best way to convey the experiences of these four women. With a runtime of a little over an hour, I’d recommend “Because of the War,” a brief but educational documentary on a topic I would not consider myself aware of. The screening as a whole was yet another solid showcase set in the Wasserman cinematheque, a space I hope continues to host quality events.

‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’ requires no forgiveness

By Jonah Koslofsky staff

Without an ample marketing budget, indie movies often lack a worthy trailer. My heart hurt a little earlier this year when a friend told me the taut, micro-budget “Thoroughbreds” looked bad— but, then again, based on the trailer, it kind of did. Millions will see—and anticipate—the marketing for the next “Avengers” film, and, thus, millions of dollars (and maybe even some actual craft) will go into cutting that preview.

But equal resources will never be channeled into selling a movie like “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” another tiny movie with a not-sogood trailer.

In this case, the preview a) spoils most of the story, b) over-drama-

tizes the proceedings and c) kind of makes this movie look like just another Melissa McCarthy comedy.

Of which there are many that wildly diverge in quality. For every “Bridesmaids,” there’s a “Tammy.” “The Heat” is great, “Spy” is maybe not. The “Ghostbusters” reboot wasn’t the smash a lot of people wanted it to be (myself included)—but the cast wasn’t the problem. Yet with “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” McCarthy spreads her wings and takes on a serious, dramatic role—to exclusively positive results.

Set in the mid-80s, McCarthy disappears into Lee Israel, a middle-aged biographer gone broke. Israel’s a textbook misanthrope who can’t get her writing published anymore—apparently there’s just not much of a market for biographies of forgotten

vaudeville queens. In order to make ends meet, Israel turns to forging letters from prominent literary figures. Now, McCarthy’s charisma has never been in question, but so often she’s cast as totally over-the-top characters. However, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” gives McCarthy a role that requires some restraint, which leads to a perfect middle ground. Israel’s general hatred of other people could read as ugly and alienating but, in McCarthy’s hands, she’s not just sympathetic, but endearing.

It’s a turn that recalls Jim Carrey’s work in the late ’90s/early 2000s: Carrey built his career on high energy performances in “Ace Ventura” and “Dumb and Dumber,” then pivoted into much more interesting territory with “The Truman Show” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

It seems that Melissa McCarthy is yet another talented comedic actor in danger of being typecast when her real range is much wider.

Helping matters is her undeniable chemistry with Richard E. Grant’s Jack Hock, a transient thief and occasional drug dealer.

In Hock, Israel finds her first genuine connection in years; Grant and McCarthy are magnetic on screen together.

Furthermore, both Israel and Hock are queer, but the film remains tasteful throughout— thankfully never painting their sexualities in any kind of insincere or comedic light.

From a technical perspective, director Marielle Heller gives the film a palpable sense of atmosphere, full of deep browns and a period-authentic color palette.

This just might be the best book-

store movie I’ve ever seen: Israel “schleps” to book-buyers all over Manhattan, each with their own distinct feel. The score, meanwhile, is oddly brilliant, a fully conceived and distinct musical backing for everything on screen.

Written by up-and-coming composer Nate Heller, I certainly wasn’t expecting to notice—let alone love—the sound here.

At an hour and 45 minutes, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” never comes close to overstaying its welcome and concludes on a satisfying note. Honestly, I really can’t say I have any problems with this little movie, which accomplishes everything it’s trying to do. McCarthy does great work, and I hope she’s recognized for her work here.

I highly recommend this movie—don’t let the bad trailer fool you.

Joan Morgan examines hip-hop evolution through Lauryn Hill

By David Cohen staff

This past Wednesday, award-winning critic Joan Morgan discussed the evolution of feminism and hip hop culture with her latest book, “She Begat This: 20 Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” which reflects on hip-hops most iconic albums.

Morgan is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at New York University, though she has previously taught at universities such as Stanford, Duke University, and Vanderbilt University. She has also worked as a staff writer and editor for numerous magazines like Vibe, Spin and Essence. She specializes in music journalism, having coined the phrase “hip hop feminist” in a previous novel.

The discussion began with Morgan explaining the struggles she faced in establishing her own identity. “I don’t have an identity that fits into an African American historical experience. I consider myself Jamaican… but Jamaicans remind me that I am not Jamaican as someone who grew up on the island…. I always sit outside of a frame and that is where my lens is naturally positioned,” she explained. Morgan grew up in the South Bronx during a time when

“people assumed nothing good was coming out,” thus her emotional attachment to hip hop grew out of pure zest to highlight the authenticity of her upbringing.

Originally, Morgan entered the artistic world with creative poetry after being inspired by the famous play, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.” However, she transitioned to criticism due to a lack of credible critique of hip-hop coming from the white men who made up most of the field. She explained how the shared culture expressed in the lyrics allowed her to grasp the material more effectively, and the sense of agency over her analysis empowered her, as no white man could analyze what she could.

This connection is vital when analyzing Lauryn Hill’s debut album, where the famous musician tackles complex themes of blackness and motherhood, expressing them in unprecedented and deeply profound ways. The album was mainly produced to touch upon Hill’s pregnancy and her difficulties with the Fugees, a former group she was a member of, but the work is strongly influenced by sub-themes of navigation through daily life. In her song “Doo Wop (That Thing),” for example, Hill targets black wom-

en, writing “Baby Girl, respect is just a minimum,” and “don’t be a hard rock when you are really gem” to empower them against the abusive and neglectful institutions of men. In “Forgive them Father,” she writes “be careful of those who pretend to be brothers…. they say all the right things to gain their position, then use their kindness as their ammunition,” which alludes to the lack of trust between the white and black communities and the constant fear of susceptibility and deceit in times of struggle.

Reflecting on Hill’s music, Morgan explained that the presentation of these themes was highly unexpected, as “part of [Lauryn’s] cache and currency was that she was so respectable, ivy- league educated, incredibly articulate and the good girl example.” Moreover, Morgan emphasized how Lauryn’s expression of pain was “was so in your face I will hurt you,” a stark contrast to traditional R&B, which carries more lamenting sentiments through soulful melodies.

In fact, it was Lauryn’s reconciliation of such dramatic topics mixed with the periodization of the album’s release at the end of the 20th century that promoted the development of her Morgan’s novel. The critic explained the

vulnerability of Lauryn’s topics made her feel like she could express herself more truthfully and rest the strong black women character aside. The topics must have resonated deeply; after a publishing company reviewed her first chapter, which took nearly four and half months to complete, Morgan was forced to finish the rest of her novel in a mere ten days. She had to write on airplanes and stay up until 4 a.m., surviving on three hours of sleep, to complete everything. She never even got a chance to review or edit the book after its submission. Yet, in retrospect, Morgan remarked she would only have changed a simple chapter separation.

Morgan also touched on the lack of follow-up music from Hill, commenting that she believes Hill did not produce a second album due to a lack of personal authority; audience’s impositions likely aroused overbearing pressure to comply by public expectations and deal only with certain themes. Morgan dismissed “MTV Unplugged No. 2,” a recording of a small concert Hill gave with MTV’s famous acoustic program, as a second album. Morgan instead labeled it an opportunity to “capture her creative process” because she believes Unplugged is a “vehicle that gives career artists

with [multiple] albums a platform to play and give back.” With only one album produced, Morgan believed Hill simply did not have enough topics to present, even claiming “I hate that ‘album’ with every fiber of my being.”

While “She Begat This” is not a full endorsement of “Miseducation,” Morgan’s talk impressed the audience with the high esteem in which the album is held; it indeed prevails as one of the most artistically crafted albums of all time. This is similar to the metric Morgan argues creative work should be judged on, commenting, “I believe the responsibility of the artist is to make good art.

I have seen people want to infuse artists with responsibilities of role models or of taking political leadership and articulating ideas that they are really not equipped to do.

If you’re going to critique art, critique an artist for failing to make art to what you know the best of their ability is.”

Given the fact that Hill’s album was produced nearly 20 years ago, it is unlikely that we will see more works from her. But based on what she had produced, Morgan feels Hill’s album has made an indelible mark in the history of hip-hop. And who knows what revolutionary musician awaits us in the future?

November 9, 2018

The Brandeis Hoot

ARTS 15

The Cold War horror of ‘Suspiria’

By Noah Harper editor

“Suspiria” feels like a relic from a bygone age of horror: faux film grain, close zooms on faces, a campy aesthetic that is somehow still terrifying. It’s an art film, too: dreams with editing as stark as Bergman’s “Persona,”—a raised iron aimed at a young girl’s hand, a desiccated corpse, a young woman writhing in midair—a masterful, lavish dance sequence that builds with a feverish intensity, and a Cold War setting in West Berlin that attempts to compare the violent supernatural terror within to the more mundane trauma going on just outside.

Things start slow. The first twothirds of the film creep by, building the atmosphere and mythos.

The story, set in 1977 Berlin, follows two perspectives—Suzy Bannion, a young Mennonite girl (Dakota Johnson), as she joins a prestigious dance company, and Dr. Jozef Klemperer, an aging psychologist (Tilda Swinton), who begins investigating after one of his patients goes missing. It’s not a very plot-heavy movie—describing it this way almost does it a disservice.

It’s the aesthetic that sells “Suspiria.” Italian director Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name”) commits to recalling the feeling of a seventies horror movie: discomforting cuts and leering camera movements that formally build the sensation that things are not quite right. Mirror shots recalling 1973’s “Don’t Look Now;” a muted gray palette outside com-

plemented by browns and tinges of pink that, by the end of things, morph into a bright red and black tint on the frame.

Swinton, always one to accept a challenge, plays three roles in the film. Besides the geriatric Dr. Klemperer, Swinton plays Madame Blanc, one of the superior matrons of the Helena Markos Dance Company. Swinton imbues Blanc with presence; whenever she’s on screen, even watching carefully from a distance, we can feel that she’s there. I won’t spoil the gruesome nature of the actress’s third role.

Near the beginning, we hear an election taking place, in which Swinton’s Blanc is not elected to the role of Mother. It’s this tension between the seemingly sinister older women of the company that drives the story. We know they’re witches from the beginning, we know they have foul goals in mind, but how might the director be subverting our expectations?

It’s not long before Guadagnino gives us our first violent image. Suzy auditions for a part in “Volk,” playing the part of the protagonist, just as the previous performer of the starring role is trying to make her escape. Instead, poor Olga is pushed by a supernatural force into a dance studio with no exits, and, as Suzy dances “Volk,” violently moving back and forth, contorting according to the dance, so too is Olga subjected to Suzy’s movements, to such grisly ends as I’d never seen before.

Dr. Klemperer, meanwhile, is on the case, imploring the police to investigate the mysterious disappearance of his patient Patricia

PHOTO FROM MONTAGES.NO

(Chloe Grace Moretz). Swinton is entirely believable in this role.

The physicality of her performance, how she sways, hunched and bow-legged like an old man, demonstrates commitment and care to her craft. As a horror protagonist, a geriatric person is a good choice; Klemperer’s feebleness makes him an easy target for the coven. Through powers of manipulation not explained, they know about his attempts at investigation, and choose him to be their witness to the dark ritual they’re planning. When Klemperer stumbles into the school for the performance of “Volk,” we’re not entirely sure whether he is in control.

Performance, choreography, atmosphere and soundtrack collide to great effect in the “Volk” dance sequence. The dancers, led by Dakota Johnson’s Suzy, clad in a red, knotted rope-like material, perform against Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke’s score. The music, minor-key arpeggiation reminiscent of John Carpenter’s “Halloween” theme, and the dance, jagged, violent; a

rebirth metaphor, play together as we see Sara (Mia Goth), another of the dancers, being punished for looking too closely into the secrets of the dance academy.

As Suzy moves, we cut back and forth from the performance to Sara, abrasive horns from Yorke’s score rise, and Sara falls halfway through the floor, her shin bone ripping through her skin in the process. Sara, in a trance-state (just as we are), returns to the dance hall, just in time for the end of the performance, before collapsing suddenly and screaming in agony, as if the spell that had guided her had just worn off.

The spell for us also breaks, and the young dancers are herded out to the hall by the matrons, leaving enough room for a brilliant penultimate moment that speaks to the prowess of Swinton’s acting. The look between Madame Blanc and Dr. Klemperer, just as the poor suffering girl is taken off the floor, one of determined malice matched with pitiful disempowerment, sells the end of the scene—just the same person looking at themselves.

And then the film falls apart.

Perhaps under its own weight.

Becoming ever more insular, the film seems to forget the Cold War events transpiring outside, instead focusing on events coming to a head inside the Dance Company, ending in a disappointing anticlimax that does a disservice to the film’s effective, slow worldbuilding. Perhaps Guadagnino felt too obligated to the Giallo expectations of genre, unable to fully extricate himself from the campy conventions—they would be satisfied if they resembled anything that had come before, but “Suspiria” creates a rich, eery world, promising artistic and thematic insight, and instead takes the low, baffling road in its conclusion.

Swinton deserves an Oscar for her dual performances. Guadagnino should make more horror— he has the makings of a master director. But I can’t recommend “Suspiria” to anyone except the most dedicated fans of arthouse horror. It falls apart, in the end, neither beautiful nor terrifying; just very, very red.

Calendar of Arts Events “Half Silvered”

The new exhibition by sculptor Anne Lilly and photographer Karin Rosenthal opens at the Kniznick gallery in the Women’s Studies Research Center. Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m in Epstein. Through February 2019.

Artist Talk: Tom McGrath

Innovative landscape painter Tom McGrath visits Brandeis to discuss his work on Friday, Nov 9 at 1 p.m. in Room 115 in the Goldman-Schwartz Arts Studios.

Brandeis Chamber Singers and University Chorus

Brandeis Chamber Singers and University Chorus, conducted

by Professor Robert Duff, will perform on Sunday, Nov 11 at 2 p.m. in the Slosberg Music Center.

Exhibition: Leonard Bernstein—The Power of Music

A retrospective of Bernstein’s career and legacy, part of the “Bernstein at 100” celebration.

Dreitzer Gallery in the Spingold Theater Center, open Wednesday to Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. through Nov 18.

Night for Africa: “Sankofa”

Hosted by the Brandeis African Students Organization, this event includes dance, fashion and singing, among other cultural features.

After the show there will be a dinner of authentic African food. The event is in Levin Ballroom on Saturday, Nov 10, with the show at 5:30 p.m. and the dinner at 8:30 p.m. Free for Brandeis students, tickets for sale online for non-students.

Artist Talk: Marc Handelman

Visual artist and teacher Marc Handelman comes to campus to lecture on “the exchanges between painting, art history and

image culture.” Monday Nov 12 at 4 p.m. in Room 115 in the Goldman Schwartz Arts Studios.

MusicUnitesUs Preview: A Taste of Ghana

A sneak peek of the upcoming MusicUnitesUs show, this 45-minute free event showcases five world-class Ghanaian performing artists. Light lunch buffet to follow. Wednesday Nov 14 at 12 p.m. in the Mandel Center for the Humanities Atrium.

Hotel Splendid—Representing Migrations Through Ethnographic Cinema

“The intimate and profound story of an African community that lives in an Italian tourist hotel turned into an emergency camp for refugees.” A film screening followed by a talk with filmmaker Mauro Bucci. Wednesday Nov 14 at 7 p.m. in Mandel G03.

Adagio Dance Company Fall Showcase An evening of dance choreographed and performed by Adagio and featuring guest artists including Hooked On Tap and UMASS Lowell’s dance troupe.

Thursday, Nov 15 at 8 p.m. in Usdan’s Levin Ballroom.

Circle Mirror Transformation

HALF-SILVERED EXHIBIT PROMOTIONAL POSTER

PHOTO FROM BRANDEIS.EDU

An Annie Baker play about five strangers in an adult drama class in a small New England town sponsored by the Department of Theater Arts. Five performances are scheduled: Thursday, Nov 15 and Friday, Nov 16 at 8 p.m., 2

TOM MCGRATH’S WORK

p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov 17, and 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov 18. Laurie Theater in the Spingold Theater Center.

Book Club with Tuesday Smillie

2018-2019 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence Tuesday Smillie will lead a book club focusing on “The Left Hand of Darkness,” an Ursula K. Le Guin science fiction novel about a gender-fluid world. Friday, Nov 16 at 2 p.m. in the Rose Art Museum. RSVP online to receive free lending materials.

MusicUnitesUs: A Taste of Ghana

“A Taste from Ghana will bring five world-class Ghanaian performing artists to Brandeis for a week of classes, workshops, and concerts.” The concert portion will be performed on Friday, Nov 16 at 8 p.m. in Levin Ballroom.

Tickets are $5 for students.

Through Lines: With Assistant Professor of Fine Arts

PHOTO FROM ZACHFEUR.COM

and Artist Sheida Soleimani

Professor Sheida Soleimani explores Eurocentrism with a critical lens in her work. Soleimani will give a talk on work exhibited at the Rose related to her field of study. Saturday, Nov 17 at 2:20 p.m. in the Rose Art Museum.

Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra

Students, staff, faculty and associates from both Brandeis and Wellesley College unite under conductor Neal Hampton to perform pieces by Tchaikovsky.

Sunday, Nov 18 at 3 p.m. in the Slosberg Music Center Recital Hall.

Brandeis Wind Ensemble

A 50-member group conducted

by Tom Souza plays a wide variety of music, including: “Riften Wed” by Julie Giroux, “Cajun Folk Songs” by Frank Ticheli, and “Marche Diablique” by Brian Balmages, among others.

Slosberg Music Center Recital Hall on Sunday, Nov 18 at 7 p.m.

16 ARTS

The Brandeis Hoot

November 9, 2018

‘Noises Off’ delves into character

By Josh Lannon special to the hoot

The Brandeis Undergraduate ThThe Brandeis Undergraduate Theater Collective’s production of Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off ” is a hilarious take on the behindthe-scenes drama of theatre. The plot follows the cast and crew of a play called “Nothing On” as their interpersonal drama eventually ruins their show. In the UTC’s production, director Elana Kellner ’19 reimagines the dysfunctional theatre troupe as an even more dysfunctional college theatre troupe. In Kellner’s adaptation, the plot more or less remains unchanged, but the relationship drama becomes much more realistic and relatable to a college audience.

The story follows a college performance of “Nothing On” in three stages of its production: final dress rehearsal, opening night, and the final show. During the final dress, student director Lloyd, played by Ben Greene ’21, becomes increasingly frustrated at the utter incompetence of his actors. Greene’s portrayal of the irate director is phenomenal.

While Lloyd can be harsh and cruel at times, he still acts like a director trying to keep the show together.

However, during opening night, relationship drama within the company comes to a head as the show grows closer and closer to disaster. Eventually, during the final performance, the tension erupts into utter chaos.

While the true plot of the show is behind the scenes, the play within the play is an essential part of the production. The fictional play “Nothing On” serves as a backdrop that keeps the dysfunctional cast of characters together and acts as the catalyst for the relationship drama behind the scenes. Several cast members in “Noises Off ” also have to play parts in “Nothing On.” This forces them to play two different characters at the same time. Eli Esrig ’19 plays Garry who in turn portrays Roger is an excellent example of this. Esrig portrays Garry as a somewhat dimwitted leading man-type actor who is in a relationship with his fellow cast member Dotty, portrayed

by Blake Rosen ’21. As their rocky relationship causes Garry to become increasingly jealous, Esrig alters both how Garry and Roger are portrayed. During act two Garry becomes more and more aggressive and changes in his character are reflected in how Roger acts in “Nothing On.” Rosen also does this in her portrayal of Dotty and Mrs. Crackett. As Dotty becomes more and more fed up with Garry’s constant jealousy, their relationship issues begin to bleed into their interactions as Mrs. Clackett and Roger. Almost every character is embroiled in some interpersonal issue like Garry and Dotty.

Lloyd is also involved in a relationship with one of his actresses, Brooke, and his stage manager Polly. Sophie Lee ’21 plays Brooke, the object of Lloyd’s affections. Brooke is a stereotypical ditzy pretty girl who clearly got the part of Vicky because she was sleeping with the director. This is shown through Brooke’s inability to pay attention to her fellow performers as if she is off in her own little world. It takes a great actor to play a terrible one and Lee’s portrayal of Brooke demonstrates

this. On the other end of this love triangle is the show’s stage manager Poppy, played by Leanna Ugent ’22. The stage manager Poppy has to juggle keeping the show running, as well as her own personal issues. Ugent does an excellent job of showing how stressed Poppy becomes both over the show and her relationship with Lloyd.

Ugent also adds depth to Poppy through little quirks like playing with paper airplanes. Little details like these give the audience a glimpse of what is happening behind the set and in the wings of a theatre production.

One of the most ingenious parts of the show is the set itself, thanks to the efforts of set designer Molly Rocca ’20. During the first act, the stage is set like a typical theatre production. However, during the intermission, the set is seemingly turned around and the audience gets a literal look backstage. During this portion of the play, the audience gets to glimpse the backstage drama from the perspective of the cast and crew.

Later in the third act, the set is changed back in order for the audience to see how the backstage drama affects their show. These backstage issues quickly evolve into hilarious hijinks ranging from tying Garry’s shoelaces together to Lloyd sitting on a cactus.

While the set is phenomenal and Lloyd sitting on a cactus is funny, the show truly shines with its realistic and hilarious characters. As previously stated, adapting the play to a college setting was a great idea. The relationship drama of Garry and Dotty as well as the love triangle with Lloyd, Poppy, and Brooke feels more realistic and relatable to college students. Other characters also become more relatable and funny when portrayed as college students. For example, Belinda, portrayed by Adina Jacobson ’20, is sort of the mom of the cast as she tries to keep the show afloat, but also is a bit of a gossip and ends up causing more trouble than she stops. Evan Shapiro ’22 also does a phenomenal job playing the meek Freddy, who faints at the merest sight of blood. Shapiro portrays Freddy as a well-meaning guy, but one who always says the wrong thing at the wrong time. Other

PHOTOS BY NOAH HARPER/THE HOOT

realistic and relatable characters include the overworked and underappreciated set designer Kim Allgood, portrayed by Batsheva Moskowitz ’22, and oblivious and always drunk Selsdon, played by Jason Frank ’22. Frank, in particular, stands out as one of the show’s funniest characters. Frank

expertly plays Selsdon as a stereotypical college drunk who is more interested in partying than being in the show. His excellent choice in voice and physicality caused a laugh riot every time Selsdon entered the stage.

While the various relationships and interpersonal drama in

“Noises Off ” were at times hard to follow, the production more than made up for it with excellent acting, amazing set design, and fantastic slapstick comedy. Kellner’s reimagining of “Noises Off ” is a truly fantastic farce on what happens behind the scenes of a theatre production.