Brandeis University

The odds were not in their favor. It is highly unlikely that two old friends would just bump into each other on a subway platform in Manhattan. 

On Jan. 27, Aaron David Miller, a Middle East analyst and an adviser to six secretaries of state, spoke to arguably the most important people in the American Jewish community. They were not lay leaders, rabbis or presidents of Jewish organizations.

In 2009, Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum announced its intention to close to the public and sell off its acclaimed 20th-century art collection in response to difficult economic times. Eventually, the plan was rejected amid a furious controversy. Now, Brandeis has renovated the museum and, after an exhaustive search, hired a new director, Christopher Bedford, 35, currently the curator of the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University.

Evelyn Handler, who served from 1983 to 1991 as the fifth president of Brandeis University, was killed last Friday after being struck by a car.

Handler was crossing a street in Bedford, N.H., to meet her husband, Eugene, when she was hit. She was taken to Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, N.H. where she was later pronounced dead.

(JTA) — Israeli lawmaker Avi Dichter was heckled by protesters during a speech at Brandeis University.

Students from the group Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine stood up as Dichter began speaking Tuesday during a panel discussion before an audience of several hundred students and called him a war criminal in English and Hebrew, Haaretz reported. The incident can be viewed on YouTube.

Dichter, a member of the Kadima Party, served as director of the Shin Bet security service during the second Palestinian Intifada.

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- More than 350 students and alumni at Brandeis University called on columnist Martin Peretz to apologize for saying Muslims do not value human life or deserve free speech.