People of Rutgers

As managing director of the Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, I oversee its public lectures and cultural events and the Holocaust Resource Center teacher training. I also direct the Rutgers Jewish Film Festival, which is celebrating its 25th year. The film festival showcases the diversity of Jewish life around the world through critically acclaimed films. It involves yearlong planning and attracts thousands of campus and community members. Attendance has exceeded 100,000 people, and we’ve shown over 300 films. I’m proud that the festival has become a major cultural event in New Jersey that people look forward to every year. 

What is particularly memorable is meeting the people associated with the films – the filmmakers, writers, and actors who share behind the scenes stories with our audience. Hearing about the creative process helps bring these films to life and generates conversations and connections that last well beyond the festival. Our guests have included directors Nancy Spielberg and Joseph Cedar, writer Moshe Zonder, and Israeli rock star David Broza, who also spoke at an Honors College seminar at Rutgers about using music to bridge cultural differences. Particularly memorable was Greta Stanton, a Rutgers social work professor who was featured in a documentary about her experience on a champion swim team shut down by the Nazis in 1938. Greta and the other swimmers fled Vienna before the war broke out.

Over 25 years, I have previewed hundreds of movies – dramas, documentaries and some Israeli TV series. These days so much content is available on streaming platforms, we try to stay ahead of the curve and find films that aren’t readily available to the public. I also collect vintage Judaica and have a special interest in pieces from the 1960s and '70s. I have about 30 Hanukkah menorahs in my collection, mostly made in Israel, but also from Morocco, Poland and the U.S. I was inspired by a visit to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem when I spent a year abroad studying at Hebrew University. 

The Rutgers Jewish Film Festival opens Nov. 7

I am the general manager of Rutgers Cinema on Livingston Campus. Got my start here at Rutgers as a video intern with the football team before becoming the assistant video coordinator in 2012. Prior to that, I worked as a manager/projectionist for the AMC New Brunswick 18 which was my first job. In 2016, I was getting the itch to get back into the movie theater side of my career, and somehow, a job posting for running Rutgers Cinema was made available that same week. On average, we sell around 85,000 movie tickets a year to fac/staff/students, onward and upward!

When Avengers: Endgame came out, we had pre-sold every ticket for opening weekend almost a month ahead of time. Students were coming in costume, we could hear the cheering for certain scenes through the walls of the lobby. People were showing up 5 hours early and tailgating before the movie, it was such a great feeling to be at the center of something that meant so much to so many students. I also remember selling out a 3:30 am show for it, and, being a 3 hour movie, I was sticking around until it got out, and the students realizing that Dining Halls were open for breakfast when it ended.

When Lord of the Rings: Return of the King came out back in 2003, me and a buddy of mine set up a tent on the sidewalk outside of our local movie theater and slept overnight to make sure we were first in line on the day of the show. It was 11 degrees outside with the wind chill making it feel like -13. I regret nothing.
 

As the dean of the Honors College, I serve as the academic, co-curricular, student affairs, and residential leader of the overall honors experience for our nearly 2,000 current students and our alumni-and-friends communities. I also serve as a Faculty Fellow in Residence, living in the college's central building at 5 Seminary Place (College Ave. Campus), providing programs, events, mentoring, and social engagement for all of our first-year students. And I am a faculty affiliate in the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, where I also serve on the executive board. 

My first year here, I bonded with a group of about 25 students (who are now juniors) who all hung out together in the East Lounge (I call them "The East Loungers") and have watched them become a complete network of personal and academic support for each other--true friends. And I have been lucky enough to be included in their meals, their birthday parties, holiday events, summer visits, city travels and more. Their bonds are something special to behold and are as impressive a collection of friends as I've ever seen in my 30+ years in higher and secondary education. 

I live in 5 Seminary Place as a Faculty Fellow, but I don't live alone. I share my residence with Makai, an 18-month-old Bernese Mountain dog weighing in at about 110 lbs and 32" tall at his shoulders. I rescued him when he was three months. He serves as an unofficial community-relations ambassador, visiting with students in the evenings, attending Honors College events, and giving students a feeling of being in a diverse and real community. He even helps those students who are leery about or unfamiliar with dogs to learn about how to recognize dog behaviors and intentions, and how goofy some dogs can be.