Wine glasses. Photo by Joanne Fortunato | | |
Dear BOLLI members,
The energy in our study groups this fall has been electrifying! From the expert insights in courses by instructors like Hollie Harder and Suzanne Art to the incredible passion of SGLs like Gil Harel and Marlene Hobel, BOLLI is where curious minds ignite and connections are forged.
But that spark needs fuel.
Generosity never retires!
As you consider your end-of-year giving, remember that every gift to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Brandeis (BOLLI) makes a difference—one that reflects your values and leaves a lasting impact on future members. How might you make a gift to BOLLI before December 31?
Consider the following options:
Charitable IRA Rollover (Qualified Charitable Distribution)
If you are 70 ½ or older, you can make a 2024 tax-free gift of up to $105,000 to BOLLI from your IRA account. Your gift is not included in taxable income from your IRA. If you are age 73 or older, a QCD gift can satisfy your required minimum distribution (RMD) without increasing your income taxes.
Appreciated Securities
Gifts of securities, such as stocks and mutual funds, entitle you to an income tax charitable deduction for their full market value. You'll avoid capital gains tax if the securities that you contribute have appreciated in value.
Grants from your Donor-Advised Fund (DAF)
Establishing and funding a DAF account with a financial institution (please ask us if you would like some suggestions) is very easy to do, can provide you with significant tax benefits, and make your charitable giving easier for years to come. If you already have a DAF account, or are thinking of creating one, consider recommending a grant to Brandeis.
Charitable Gift Annuity
Make a gift and receive fixed payments for life—now with increased annuity rates. You will receive an income tax charitable deduction, and a portion of your payments may be tax-free. If funded with appreciated securities, you may also reduce or eliminate capital gains taxes.
We are here to nourish lifelong learning, but we cannot do so without your help. Feel free to contact me with any questions. We have Brandeis staff who can walk you through the process for any of these giving options. And as always, you can also make your gift to BOLLI by mailing a check to me or directly online at the link below.
-Ted
| Spring Registration is Right Around the Corner! | |
Spring 2016 Registration opens on December 16! The early registration deadline is January 9. The full Spring 2016 catalog will be announced in next week's BOLLI Bulletin. If you know someone who may be interested, please send them to link to our mailing list so they will be notified as soon as the catalog is released
| | |
Spend Your Winter With Us!
Exciting things are happening at BOLLI this Winter! We invite you to explore our Winter Offierings to view seminars, lectures, and events for this December, January and February. Please check back often because more events will be added in the coming weeks.
If you would like to start a membership or renew a membership, please, go here to learn about membership options.
| | Winter Lecture Series with Gil Harel - Free For Members | | |
Location: Zoom
Days and Times:
Tuesday, January 6, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET
Wednesday, January 7, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET
Thursday, January 8, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET
Tuesday, January 13, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET
Wednesday, January 14, 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET
| | Bolli Meetings in Coming Weeks | | |
Writers Guild
Friday, December 5, 10 am
December 5
A topic of your choice
Monday, December 14
What was your first impression of your spouse?
Due to time constraints, writing should be limited to 500 words max.
Prior to the meeting, a Zoom link will be sent to Writers Guild members who regularly submit writing. For more information, please contact Jane Greenwald.
| |
|
New Yorker Fiction Salon
Wednesday, December 10, 10:30 am, on Zoom. (Note the time and place!)
The story we will discuss on Wednesday, December 10, 10:30 am, on Zoom, is “Intimacy” by Ayşegül Savaş. It appears in the October 13, 1997 issue of the The New Yorker Magazine. To read the story, please click here.
To read a recent commentary on the story, click here.
For further information, please contact Aaron Goldberg.
| | |
Arts & Culture Excursions
Click here for the A&E Website
| | To join the mailing list for Arts and Culture events, please contact Marsha Semuels. | | |
Private Tour of Two Exhibits at Houghton Library, Harvard University
Friday Dec. 5, 2025 at 11:00am
Edward Gorey: "The Gloomy Gallery." We’ll get to see a variety of Gorey’s macabre and oddly amusing written work, illustrations, cut-outs and more! Just died at 100, he attended Harvard. The other exhibit is 'Creature Comforts: 175 Years of Dogs and Cats at Home'. This showcases actual children’s books of people, pets, and home from the 19th and 20 century, including authors Beatrix Potter and Margaret Wise Brown! The address is listed as at Quincy & Harvard Streets in Harvard Square, 0.2 mile walk from the Harvard MBTA station. To register, contact Lois Gerson. Space limited. Click here for more information.
| | |
Fun Home at the Huntington Theater
Sunday, December 7, 2 pm
Great discounted orchestra seats are still available at $30 each for this hit on Broadway, with a Huntington Humanities Forum following the performance. BOLLI members can purchase one or two tickets. Running time is 1 hour and 40 minutes. Contact Glenda Fishman to pay, preferably with Venmo or Zelle.
Lunch at nearby Lucie’s prior to the show. For more information.
| | |
Tour of Addison Gallery Exhibits
Friday, December 12, 11 am
Captive Lands examines what it has meant to "capture the landscape" in an exhibition built from American art works from the Addison's permanent collection. The Florida Highwaymen Painters displays work from 25 loosely affiliated African American artists 1950-1980, who built and sold their expressive tropical scenes out of the trunks of their cars and door-to door. The tour will also include nine genre paintings of John Singer Sargent.
Free tour for the first 20 people who register. Lunch nearby TBD. Contact Margot Walthall. Click here for more information.
| | |
Tour of Allan Rohan Crite: Urban Glory, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Monday, December 15, 11:30 am
This special exhibit showcases works from across Crite’s decades-long career, encompassing vivid depictions of life in Lower Roxbury and the South End, art for Christian worship, and late works that combined neighborhood scenes with religious vignettes. Crite’s work evolved from documentary naturalism to works inspired by African art to a graphic-novel-like approach to line drawing and bookmaking. For more information, click here.
The senior rate is $28, that includes an admission fee to the museum, and $15 for members. Please pay Jennifer Coplon on Venmo or Zelle, and if you are a member, provide her with your member ID. Lunch will be at the Simmons University Cafe next door to the museum. LIMITED TICKETS REMAIN. RESPOND BY NOVEMBER 24.
| | |
"A Face in the Crowd," West Newton's The American Dream and the Movies
Thursday, December 18 at 4 pm
This film is the 4th in a new series sponsored by the West Newton Cinema. Here is a link to a video clip from this 1957 satirical drama starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau. Dr. Julie Levinson, Professor of Film, speaks after the performance. Contact Judy Bernstein to purchase a discounted $15 ticket. Be sure to check out the other films in this series here.
| | |
Curator-Led Tour of Of Light and Air: Winslow Homer in Watercolor, MFA
Thursday, December 18, 11 AM
We have the privilege of a guided tour of Winslow Homer’s watercolor exhibit at the MFA with Ethan Lasser, John Moors Cabot Chair of the Art of the Americas & Head of Exhibition Strategy. This exhibition brings dozens of the MFA’s Homer watercolors back into the galleries for a new generation to experience, alongside a selection of related oils, drawings, and prints by the artist. Limited to the first 20 BOLLI members who have secured tickets for this exhibit on the MFA website with an 11-11:30 AM entry. For more information, click here. WAITLIST ONLY.
Notify Jennifer Coplon. Only payment is for non-members of the MFA, who will pay when they enter the museum. We will meet in the Sharf Visitor Center just before 11 and will gather for lunch in the museum cafeteria after the tour.
| | BOLLI Book Group Selections | | |
We love to read! And we love to talk about the books that entertain, inspire, and inform us!
We meet once a month for a lively discussion of a work of contemporary literary fiction. We are a “drop-in” group: All BOLLI members are invited to join us on Zoom every month or once in a while, no registration required.
| | |
Friday, December 5 at 9:30am
Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah: A master storyteller, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, tells of three young people coming of age in Tanzania at the turn of the 21st century. Tourism, technology, and unexpected opportunities and risks bring each to an understanding of their place in a world undergoing dizzying change.
| | |
Friday, January 9 at 9:30am
The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry, the acclaimed Irish writer’s first novel set in America, is a savagely funny and romantic tale of young lovers on the lam in 1890s Montana. In a story that is lyrical, profane, and propulsive, Barry proves himself once again to be a master stylist and a true poet of the human heart.
| | |
Friday, February 6 at 9:30
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan is the most recent novel by a BOLLI favorite author who never fails to surprise and delight. It is a brilliantly plotted literary detective story that takes us from the present day far into a future in which, despite catastrophic events, all is not quite lost.
| | |
Friday, March 6 at 9:30am
Heart the Lover by Lily King: The passions and choices of three people who met in college crash into their later lives with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity that characterize Lily King’s deeply moving body of work. This is a love story that celebrates literature, forgiveness, and the bonds that shape our lives.
| | For more information contact Charlie Marz or Abby Pinard, If you haven't previously attended a BOLLI Book Group meeting and would like to receive the Zoom link, contact Abby Pinard and she will add you to the mailing list. | | | | |
