Brandeis Bulletin - San Fernando Valley Chapter January - February 2012 San Fernando Valley Chapter Happenings January/February 2012 Editors: Phyllis Davidson, Sarita Waldman President: Harriet Glass Ulmer Brandeis National Committee San Fernando Valley Chapter Presents WORDS, WIT & WISDOM BOOKS & AUTHORS LUNCHEON Thursday, March 22ndndnd 10:00 AM Temple Judea 5429 Lindley Ave., Tarzana, CA Featuring Moderator Sandy Banks Nationally Recognized Los Angeles Times Columnist Authors Gregg Hurwitz Critically acclaimed best-selling author of mystery and crime novels Judy Zeidler Well-known cookbook author and restauranteur Charles Fox Two-time Academy Award nominee and two-time Emmy winning composer. Inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004 Additional information and Reservation Form inside Co-Chairs: Dee November & Lynda Allen 1 January - February 2012 Brandeis Bulletin - San Fernando Valley Chapter PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Hello, 2012! Here we are at the half-year point and I am pleased to announce that we have reached 92% of our San Fernando Valley Chapter membership goal and are fast closing in on our financial goal, both established annually by the Brandeis National Committee. Highlights of the chapter’s past six months include: • The annual Bagel Brunch in July, honoring our Study Group Leaders and Coordinators for their outreach and constancy as “Keepers of the Flame” in supporting the BNC Mission. • The Polka Dot Luncheon and adjacent Shoppers Paradise Boutique in October that together comprised a beautiful, successful event. • The Ruby’s Diner “Funraiser” in November, our first “pop-up” event made possible through the use of our newly established eblast communication link with chapter members who have email. • Two of the four fabulous speakers in our Speakers Series have each presented to a full house in a lovely setting complimented by an appetizer buffet that caused us to linger and enjoy one-on-one conversations with the speaker and each other. The third Speakers Series event will be Friday, February 10th, featuring representatives from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. • As in years past, we gave our all in December for the annual Toy Drive benefitting the San Fernando Valley Child Guidance Center. • Theatre 40 in December introduced us to a local, intimate venue in a surprise location. The play was professionally executed, providing a convincing, emotional epistolary drama. Great fun! • University on Wheels last week featured, in person, the delightful and insightful Dr. Don Katz, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Brandeis University, speaking on “What Makes One Food Taste Better than Another?”. Hmmm, so much food for thought…. And coming up: • New and Prospective Member Coffees: Held every few months, the next will be January 20th. • Our annual Words, Wit & Wisdom: Books & Authors Luncheon will be held March 22nd, featuring three exciting, well-known authors (one is a singer-composer as well) and moderated by Sandy Banks, noted Los Angeles Times columnist. Please join us at future events; be open to receiving our eblasts with news beyond the Bulletin; regularly visit our website (www.brandeissfv.org) to see what’s new from Brandeis, BNC, and SFV, for example: new Study Group and Learning Opportunity concepts; and—perhaps most importantly— share with your friends and neighbors the potential for intellectual stimulation, meeting new and interesting people, and experiencing comradery among peer groups (men, women, couples, Baby Boomers, etc.) by their joining BNC-SFV Chapter. Help us keep the Mission alive. Warm wishes, Harriet Glass Ulmer 2 Brandeis Bulletin - San Fernando Valley Chapter January - February 2012 BRANDEIS NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY Cordially invites you to join us for a stimulating and exciting day WORDS, WIT & WISDOM Books and Authors Luncheon Thursday, March 22, 2012 10:00 AM TEMPLE JUDEA 5429 Lindley Ave., Tarzana, CA Proceeds from this event benefit Brandeis University’s Sustaining the Mind Program, providing funds for neurodegenerative disease research and scientific scholarships RESERVATION DEADLINE: 3/09/2012 Tear Off and Mail with Check Name: _________________________________________________________ Phone: __________________ E-mail __________________________________________________________________________________ Donor $65.00 _______________________ Angel $70.00 ________________ Patron $80.00 ____________ Please reserve __________________________seats (Make check payable to BNC. Tax deductible portion for each ticket is $30.00) Tables of Ten/Seat me with: _________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________ Sorry I cannot attend, but would like to donate $_______________________ Please check one: Vegetarian Salad of Baby Greens, Ricotta Salata, Dried Cherries, Spiced Walnuts in a Champagne Vinaigrette : ____Salad Only___ Add Salmon____ Add chicken____ Mail Reservation Form and check(s) to: Carol Sookman 4454 Ventura Canyon Avenue, #107 Sherman Oaks, CA 91423 **Guest Name(s) and meal selection _______________________________________________________________________________ 3 January - February 2012 Brandeis Bulletin - San Fernando Valley Chapter OUR WORDS, WIT AND WISDOM AUTHORS SANDY BANKS, Moderator SANDY BANKS grew up in Cleveland, Ohio — an avid reader with plans of becoming a teacher or lawyer. Journalism became her passion in college, when a class at Ohio State University required a stint on the campus newspaper. Her time at Ohio State was cut short when her mother was diagnosed with cancer in her sophomore year. Sandy moved home to help care for her mother, who died a few months later. The next year, Sandy graduated cum laude from Cleveland State University. Sandy began her journalism career in 1976 as a sports writer at a black weekly newspaper, then spent two years as a reporter at the Cleveland Press. In 1979, Sandy moved to California to begin 32 years at the Los Angeles Times, where she has been a reporter, writer, editor, columnist and editorial writer. Her work has won national recognition from journalism groups and organizations as varied as the National Council of Jewish Women and the Muslim Women’s League; the Watts Community Health Foundation and the Beverly Hills Rotary Club; the California Teachers’ Association and the Union of Medical Marijuana Patients. She was on the team awarded a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Los Angeles riots in 1992. She has also written for several magazines, served as a commentator on CNN and NPR, and is at work on a collection of essays and columns. Widowed in 1993, Sandy raised her three daughters in Northridge. The two youngest are attending college; the oldest graduated from Stanford. JUDY ZEIDLER JUDY ZEIDLER is a well-known food authority and author of the widely acclaimed The Gourmet Jewish Cook and Judy Zeidler’s International Deli Cookbook, 30-Minute Kosher Cook and Master Chefs Cook Kosher, which is based on her syndicated television show “Judy’s Kitchen”. Judy has also co-authored a cookbook with French chef Michel Richard, entitled.. Home Cooking With A French Accent. Her newly published book is Italy Cooks, , a combination of fascinating memoirs of the people she has met in her travels, stories,, and recipes. She and her husband are founders of the popular Citrus restaurant in Los Angeles, The Broadway Deli and Capo and Cora’s restaurants in Santa Monica, Brentwood Restaurant in Brentwood, and the recently opened Brass Cap in Santa Monica. She is also consulting at Zeidler’s Cafe, which is located in the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. 4 Brandeis Bulletin - San Fernando Valley Chapter January - February 2012 GREGG HURWITZ GREGG HURWITZ is a critically acclaimed, internationally bestselling author of The Tower, Minutes to Burn, Do No Harm, The Kill Clause, The Program, Troubleshooter, Last Shot, The Crime Writer, and Trust No One. His books have been short listed for best novel of the year by International Thriller Writers, nominated for CWA’s Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, chosen as feature selections for all four major literary book clubs, honored as Book Sense Picks, and translated into sixteen languages. Gregg has written screenplays for Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Paramount Studios, MGM, and ESPN, developed TV series for Warner Bros. and Lakeshore, written Wolverine, Punisher, and Foolkiller for Marvel, and published numerous academic articles on Shakespeare. He has taught fiction writing in the USC English Department, and guest lectured for UCLA, and for Harvard in the United States and around the world. In the course of researching his thrillers, he has snuck onto demolition ranges with Navy SEALs, swam with sharks in the Galápagos, and gone undercover into mind-control cults. He has written and produced season two of the popular TV show “V”. Hurwitz grew up in the Bay Area. While completing a BA from Harvard (’95) and a master’s from Trinity College, Oxford in Shakespearean tragedy (’96), he wrote his first novel. He was the undergraduate scholar-athlete of the year at Harvard for his pole-vaulting exploits, and played college soccer in England, where he was a Knox fellow. He currently lives in Los Angeles. CHARLES FOX CHARLES FOX was born in the Bronx, New York on Oct 30 1940. He graduated from the High School of Music and Art and continued his musical education in Paris for the next several years, studying with the most acclaimed composition teacher of the 20th