Handler, Ex-Brandeis Leader, Killed in Car Crash
Evelyn Handler, who served as the fifth president of Brandeis University from 1983 to 1991, 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.
Handler’s tenure at Brandeis was marked by controversy. In an effort to make the Jewish-sponsored, nonsectarian university appeal to students of all backgrounds, she pushed for pork and shellfish to be served in the university cafeteria for the first time, dropped the Hebrew word for “truth” from the university logo and did not include Jewish holidays on the school calendar.
Many students and donors fought against these changes, and the university’s fund-raising reportedly suffered. Handler resigned from her position in 1991, at which time the original logo was reinstated, Jewish holidays were put back on the Brandeis calendar and the cafeteria menus were changed again.
Still, many credit Handler with bolstering Brandeis’ reputation as a quality university open to students of all faiths. During her tenure, Brandeis was admitted to the Association of American Universities (AAU). She also helped to lay the groundwork for the Brandeis International Business School.
“As president, Evelyn Handler led Brandeis University’s growth from a high-quality liberal arts college with some outstanding graduate programs to a nationally and internationally respected small research university with an exceptionally strong undergraduate college at its core,” said Steven L. Burg, the Adlai Stevenson Professor of International Politics at Brandeis.
Handler was born in 1933 in Budapest, Hungary, and immigrated to the United States in 1940. She received a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College in New York City, a master’s and doctoral degree from New York University, and a law degree from Franklin Pierce Law Center. Before serving as president of Brandeis, she was the Dean of Sciences and Mathematics at Hunter College, and president of the University of New Hampshire. She was the first female president of both the University of New Hampshire and Brandeis.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
