A family celebration across generations

Weekend check-in on Pembroke Field served as a meeting place for family and friends to connect and plan.

“Being Jewish is all about celebration and finding an excuse to get together, and now more than ever is a time for the community to come together and celebrate being Jewish at Brown,” said current senior Zoe Kass.

Kass, a Judaic studies concentrator, was scheduled as a panelist in a Friday discussion about how Brown has shaped the field of Judaic studies. Zoe’s mother, Sarah Lavine-Kass, from Houston, had a scholarly as well as a personal interest in the panel, since she, like Zoe, concentrated in Judaic studies at Brown. 

Both mother and daughter were also looking forward to meeting up with Ruth Adler Ben Yehuda, a Brown teaching professor of Judaic studies from whom they both had the pleasuring of learning.

“It’s so nice to share this whole experience,” said Lavine-Kass, a member of the Class of 1991.

Jayne Gerson, who graduated from Brown in 1992, was sharing the experience with her daughter, Arenal Haut, a Class of 2024 graduate. Both had come to Providence from Baltimore for the occasion.

“I love Brown, so I was happy to have another reason to come back here,” Gerson said. “And quite honestly, in the current climate, I felt it was really important to support Jewish life, and especially, Hillel.”

Gerson said that Brown RISD Hillel had been extremely supportive and welcoming for her daughter when she started her Brown education in 2020. In addition to attending panels, seminars and conversations together, the pair was looking forward to celebrating Jewish life at Brown through music: Arenal would be joining former and current members of the Alef Beats a cappella group. 

“It’s more ‘Jew-ish’ than Jewish — they sing pop, too,” Gerson said. “It’s for everyone.”

Connecting with history, community and classmates 

As alumni and other community members visited the weekend’s check-in tent on Pembroke Field, they were greeted by a larger-than-life timeline highlighting significant milestones in Jewish life at Brown. More than just a photo backdrop, the timeline offered an opportunity for guests to locate themselves in Jewish history at Brown.

Elizabeth Feroe Bakst, who graduated in 1967, pointed to a 1959 event when an observant neighbor named Miriam Smith was reported to have cooked kosher meals for Brown and Pembroke College students out of her home near campus, noting that this was the mother of her friend and classmate, Meryl Raskin Smith, who was also attending this weekend’s events. Bakst’s husband, Class of 1966 graduate M. Charles Bakst, pointed to a newspaper article from 1926 about colleges addressing charges of bias, and mentioned that his mother, Anna Horvitz, started at Brown in 1927.

The issues of the day when they matriculated, the Baksts said, were the Vietnam War and civil rights. 

“I started at Brown not long after Martin Luther King’s famous March on Washington, so that was very top of mind,” Elizabeth Bakst said. “You could argue that Jewish students were certainly attuned to that, because Jews were very much a part of the Civil Rights Movement.” 

Bakst said she appreciates the University’s efforts to recognize its own role in American history, citing the Slavery and Justice Report and the weekend-long celebration of 125 Years of Women at Brown, both of which the local Rhode Islander had engaged with.

“I was excited to hear about the University’s efforts to recognize 130 Years of Jewish Life at Brown,” she said. “That makes me proud to be a Brown alum.”

Charles Bakst, who as a student was an editor at the Brown Daily Herald and spent four decades as a reporter and columnist at the Providence Journal, said that the student newspaper was the center of his Jewish experience at Brown because it was the center of his University experience, in general. Bakst was scheduled to participate in a panel on Saturday in which Jewish alumni were speaking about their journalism careers.

“I'm interested in the different eras of Jewish life here and hearing about other people’s experiences, comparing them with mine, and doing some networking — and just absorbing it all,” he said.

Honoring traditions, strengthening connections, creating community

Like braided challah, a traditional Jewish bread, the three-day 130 Years of Jewish Life at Brown event will weave together many generations of Brunonians, renewing connections and forming news ones.

From social events and meals to a panel of Brown alumnae who have gone on to positions of leadership in Judaism, a rich array of programming will celebrate the accomplishments, resilience and connections that have bound Jewish community members to one another and to Brown across time. That’s according to organizer Abby Doft, who earned a bachelor’s degree in 1991 and a master’s degree in 1992 from Brown.

“The idea of coming together in celebration of the history of Jewish life at Brown has really resonated tremendously with the community,” Doft said. “It’s a great affirmation of the Jewish experience at Brown over the years, and the fact that the current Jewish community of Brown is as strong as it is.”

The celebrations will include a Friday night dinner, Shabbat services, a gala and tribute to Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry, a member of Brown’s Class of 1958 and author of “Driving Miss Daisy,” and much more. There will also be student-alumni networking and mentorship opportunities.

“We have eight decades of alumni coming back, which is pretty amazing,” Doft said. “We hope that one takeaway for the current students will be to inspire them to be back on campus eight decades from now.”

The event organizers are also celebrating the legacy of Brown’s 1764 charter, which declared “no religious tests” and ensured that “youth of all religious denominations shall and may be freely admitted to the equal advantages” — principles of religious tolerance and the value of a community whose members represent a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives that endures today. The commemoration of tradition and history will be embedded throughout the weekend, not just in live programming, but through a comprehensive timeline installation at Brown RISD Hillel with pop-up locations in different spots during the weekend, along with a digital archive.

“We’ve managed to put together what I think is the most comprehensive history ever of Jews at Brown,” said organizer Noel Rubinton, a Class of 1977 graduate who concentrated in history. 

As the organizers conceived of the initial idea for 130 Years of Jewish Life at Brown, they drew inspiration from other historic, alumni-led celebrations that have celebrated communities at Brown and their histories. The weekend will be brought to life by a groundswell of volunteer engagement, integral support from Brown RISD Hillel and Chabad of College Hill, and coordination from campus partners at Brown.

“This really speaks of an institution that cares deeply about the whole, but also about the groups that are part of it,” Rubinton said. “It’s about a university that celebrates its constituent parts, and I hope other groups will be inspired to do things like this.”

For organizer Sophia Kremer, who just graduated in May 2025, the weekend presents a landmark opportunity to expand and deepen connections.

“People will be forming connections and bonding over the same experiences — not only on campus, but also through their lives, values and cultures,” Kremer said. “People are here to celebrate, to acknowledge what happened in the past, and then to think about what’s going to happen in the future.”