Elaine Reuben

Elaine Reuben’s Ph.D. was from Stanford University in English, American, and Dramatic Literature. A leader in the development of Women’s Studies and affirmative attention to women faculty and students at the University of Wisconsin/Madison and nationally, she co-chaired the Modern Language Association Commission on the Status of Women in the Profession, and was director of Women’s Studies at The George Washington University Graduate School.

While national coordinator of the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) she taught in the American Studies program at the University of Maryland and directed the NWSA/FIPSE Project to Improve Service Learning in Women’s Studies. Reuben served as a special assistant to the deputy undersecretary for management at the US Department of Education; she conducted executive searches for colleges and universities, was acting executive director of the Network of East-West Women, and offered training, consulting, organizational and editorial assistance to academic and non-profit organizations. A past president of the Jewish Study Center in Washington, DC, she is among the founding trustees of the Tikkun Olam Women’s Foundation of Greater Washington.

Among other arts organizations, she was a patron of the Mosaic Theater Company of DC and of the Timbrel Artist-in-Residence at the National Havurah Committee’s Summer Institute. Earlier, she was a patron of Theatre J in DC.

At Brandeis University, Reuben was a Board member of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute; she founded the Reuben/Rifkin Jewish Women Writers Series as a joint project of HBI and the Feminist Press, where she was also a board member for many years. She has made gifts to the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts, for Brandeis’ acquisition of the Lilith Magazine archive, for undergraduate scholarships, and in support of the Ethics Center’s Peacebuilding and the Arts programs. In 2016 she was elected to the Brandeis Board of Fellows.

Most recently, Elaine strongly supported Project Kesher, Avodah, and Dupont Village. She co-chaired the Women Donors Network’s Middle East Peace and Democracy Circle, was a member of J Street President’s Council and Finance Committee, of New Israel Fund’s DC Leadership and International Councils, and of the Steering Committee of the Resilience Fund of the Greater Washington Community Foundation.

Survivors include her many circles of friends, her closest friends Amanda DesBarres and Cleopatra Kulasi, and her niece Emily Reuben (Jeremy).

Donations in her memory can be sent to any of the organizations that she so generously supported, especially the New Israel Fund.

Find information about her funeral and shiva at Fabrangen.org