Brandeis Magazine

Editor-in-Chief Laura Gardner (Photo Credit: Mike Lovett)

As I write to you, May is coming to a close. By the time you open this issue, the Israel-Hamas war, with its innumerable repercussions and ripple effects, will likely have taken consequential new turns.

Brandeis Magazine’s long production arc prevents us from adopting a hard-news approach to covering fast-moving issues like this devastating conflict. Instead, we leverage what Brandeis alumni, faculty, and students do with passion: share insights into the most pressing issues facing people all around the globe.

Take, for example, the observations of Daniel Estrin ’06, NPR’s international correspondent in Jerusalem, who’s been covering the Middle East for more than a decade. In “Talking Past Each Other,” his first-person account of the Israel-Hamas war’s toll on individual Israelis and Palestinians, you sense the vast divide that characterizes the current conflict.

“Israelis and Palestinians live so close to each other, yet in utterly different worlds,” Estrin writes. “As an NPR journalist, I have crossed between the two worlds in ways most people living in them cannot.” With this access comes the enormous responsibility of witnessing — and conveying — the humanity in both worlds, which he does with a seasoned reporter’s eye for detail.

This issue also includes two features that focus on recent surveys by Brandeis faculty. In “‘We Must Not Lose Hope,’” pollster Khalil Shikaki, a Crown Center for Middle East Studies senior fellow, talks with Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank to assess how the current conflict is shaping their political opinions.

And in “The Crisis of Antisemitism on College Campuses,” Len Saxe, director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, surveys Jewish students on 51 American college campuses about their experience of antisemitism in the wake of the war. Perhaps not surprisingly, the data reveals Brandeis has among the lowest rates of hostility toward Jewish students and Israel.

In an entirely different kind of story — “Brandeis on the Air,” about the power of campus radio — you’ll discover how WBRS continues to inspire high-wattage devotion among its DJs and listeners, even in the digital era.

Finally, I hope you’ll read “Rooms of Their Own,” a feature introducing you to Shakespeare’s “sisters,” four Elizabethan women whose literary prowess was ignored for centuries, until English professor Ramie Targoff gave them the spotlight they deserve in her acclaimed new book.

As always, our aim is to invite you into the rich conversations Brandeisians are having about ideas, challenges, and all things Brandeis. Let us know what you think about this issue by emailing me at magazine@brandeis.edu.

Have a great summer,

Laura Gardner, P’12
Editor-in-Chief