Louis D. Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice

'deisIMPACT!
The Legacy Fund supports 'deisIMPACT!, Brandeis University's festival of social justice, which includes a series of events that empowers students, academic departments, clubs, faculty, staff, and organizations to sponsor programming opportunities connected to important social justice themes.

'deisIMPACT! 2025, focused on Allyship, Advocacy, Activism, and Action empowering students, academic departments, clubs, faculty, staff, and organizations to dive deeper into themes and values of social justice. The keynote speaker was the Reverend Dr. William Joseph Barber II. The program also featured a film screening of "Shared Legacies," Directed by Shari Rogers, about the crucial historical lessons of Black-Jewish cooperation and a series of workshops aimed at various social justice themes.

'deisIMPACT! 2024, was entitled "Embracing Difference: Recognizing Jewish Identity at the Margins in the Effort to Address Racism and Antisemitism." The symposium was centered around Audre Lorde’s ‘theory of difference’ and intersectionality, and brought together regional and national scholars, practitioners, and the Brandeis community to explore the evolving narrative of “who is Jewish?” – and how those within the greater Jewish diaspora, the Black community, and other marginalized sectors can come together to harness collective agency in the struggle for social justice.

Roses in Concrete, Intercultural Center
The Department of Community Service launched a program of Roses in Concrete to provide leadership and mentorship opportunities through workshops and intergenerational mentoring for students at Brandeis and Waltham High School, supported by the Legacy Fund.

Generation to Generation
In response to the increase in loneliness and loss of community as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine, in the summer of 2020, the Legacy Fund provided a grant to implement a one-time, four-week, outreach program for current students to contact segments of the alumni population to ease the stressors of extended periods of isolation.

• The Cultural is Political: Institutional Memory and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Communities at Brandeis University. Academic Department: History/Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies
• United States Government Prosecution of American Foreign Fighters for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).  Academic Department: Politics
  
• Cuban Missile Crisis: A Case Study of Negotiation and Leadership.  Academic Department: The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
  
• Fairies and Funnies: Gay Men in Standup Comedy. Academic Department: South Asian Literature and Women's Studies
  

Learning on the Left: Political Profiles of Brandeis University
Stephen J. Whitfield
Distribution to the Brandeis University Class of 2020
The Legacy Fund distributed copies of Professor Stephen J. Whitfield's compelling book on the faculty and alumni from Brandeis University who have played a formidable role in American politics as a graduation gift to the Class of 2020.

Brandeis Precollege Programs
In 2020, The Legacy Fund supported a summer course for high school students participating in Brandeis Precollege Programs called “Race, Inequality and Social Justice” to hire instructors, lecturers, and teaching assistants to teach 45 students, 60% of whom were able to attend on scholarship.

The ENACT Labor Network
A program of ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation
In 2019-2020, the Legacy Fund spported a pilot initiative of ENACT, a program out of the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life at Barndeis University, called the ENACT Labor Network (ELN). The ELN is a deep dive into labor issues, guided by four ENACT Faculty Fellows who work with a small team of students on state labor issues, meeting with advocates experts, and state legislators.

The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
The Legacy Fund provides support to the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, “the only graduate school where the idealism of a social justice mission meets the rigor and prestige of a top-ranked policy school.” The Heller School is a leading community of scholars committed to progressive social policy and development, at a school specifically founded to advance careers committed to social change.

Brandeis Bridges
Brandeis Bridges, a student-run organization that aims to create a space for Black and Jewish students to engage in dialogue, community building, and social justice, received support from the Legacy Fund. The Legacy Fund supported students participating in the Bridges fellowship. Students in the fellowship committed four hours per week to study Black and Jewish relations in the U.S., as well as built relationships with each other and brainstorm how to make Brandeis a more welcoming and fair place for people of all backgrounds.

The Brandeis Labor Coalition
The Legacy Fund supported the student club the Brandeis Labor Coalition. The purpose of the club is to ensure fair labor practices at Brandeis and to promote fair labor practices around the world. 

"Guided by the Light of Reason"
In 2014, the Legacy Fund sponsored the publication of "Guided by the Light of Reason", an award-winning, scrapbook-style biography of Louis D. Brandeis, which is presented to each member of the incoming class.

"Fifty for the '50s"
Production and distribution of “Fifty for the ’50s,” a compendium of pages from The Justice student newspaper that chronicled Brandeis’s first decade. “Fifty for the ’50s” was distributed at the first ’50s decade Reunion in June 2010 and mailed to all alumni from the ’50s.

"Louis Brandeis: The People's Attorney"
Production of “Louis Brandeis: The People’s Attorney,” a 50-minute documentary directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Charles Stuart that aired on PBS.

Events Support:

Jan. 17, 2025 —Brandeis Celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Jan. 11, 2024 — Continuing the March: Celebrating 60 Years of the March on Washington. The Legacy Fund sponsored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day programs at Brandeis in 2024. 

Mar. 10, 2020 — A talk with Peter Dreier, Professor of Politics at Occidental College on his book "We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism — American Style", hosted by the Brandeis Department of Politics.

Feb. 8-9, 2019 — The 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the African and African American Studies Department at Brandeis University. The Legacy Fund provided a grant in 2019 to support the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the African and African American Studies Department. The program hosted literary critic Hortense Spillers, PhD’74, who received the Alumni Achievement Award, and a keynote address and conversation with activist and icon Angela Davis ’65, facilitated by Julieanna Richardson ’76, H’16.

Apr. 22, 2013 — Activist, scholar and journalist Peter Dreier, the Dr. E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics at Occidental College, visited campus to deliver a lecture, “What Makes Social Justice Movements Succeed? Lessons from the Past, Present and Future.”

Nov. 4, 2012 — More than 150 Brandeis faculty, students and community activists gathered to assess the state of poverty in the United States today – 50 years after the publication of Michael Harrington’s “The Other America: Poverty in the United States.” 

Oct. 17, 2012 — The Legacy Fund sponsored a screening of the documentary “Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson’s American Journey,” which chronicles the life of an overlooked hero of the civil rights movement. A Q&A with producer/director Abby Ginzberg followed the screening.

Mar. 22-23, 2012 — About 30 Brandeis students, faculty and staff made a “field trip” to “The Other America Then and Now,” a conference marking the 50th anniversary of the breakthrough analysis on poverty in the United States by Michael Harrington. 

Oct. 24, 2011 — More than 300 people students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the local community watched excerpts from the Emmy Award-winning documentary “Freedom Riders” and then heard Freedom Riders Diane Nash, Ellen Ziskind and Paul Breines and leading historian Ray Arsenault, MA’74, PhD’81 discuss the efforts of civil rights activists to challenge segregation in the American South in 1961.

Mar. 22, 2011 — Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree, one of the country’s foremost experts on race and justice and a passionate advocate for the rights of the accused, spoke about race, class and crime in the United States.

Sept. 29, 2009 — Brandeis Celebrates Brandeis, a pair of events that paid tribute to Justice Brandeis as he returned to the public consciousness through the issuance of a U.S. postage stamp in his honor and the publication of a new biography in the fall of 2009.

March 25, 2009 — The visit of Kim Bobo, a leading voice for workers’ rights and justice and the founder of Interfaith Worker Justice, who came to campus to talk about her experiences as a social justice leader and organizer.

Jan. 2009 — More than 200 people attended an event featuring leading anti-racism activist Tim Wise, who spoke about his new book, “Between Barack and a Hard Place: Challenging Racism, Privilege, and Denial in the Age of Obama.”

Dec. 1, 2008 — The 40th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Transitional Year Program (now the Myra Kraft Achievers Program) at Brandeis.

Oct. 23, 2008 — The Brandeis Explores the Journey of Humankind Project gave student volunteers the opportunity to trace their family ancestry, while highlighting the existence of a shared human history. Renowned geneticist and anthropologist Spencer Wells, the explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society and director of the Genographic Project, gave a public lecture on campus as part of the project.

2006-2007 — The Justice Brandeis Jubilee, a year-long campus celebration of Justice Brandeis’s 150th birthday during the 2006-2007 academic year, which included academic symposia, art and archival exhibitions, a birthday reception, and other events.