This is the 11th in a series intended to paint a cumulative portrait of our Jewish community through interviews with randomly selected individuals. Today, we focus on Susan Bornstein-Forst and Steven Forst.
Often one sees people marry who have personality traits that compliment each other. Susan Bornstein-Forst and Steven Forst are probably rare in that they compliment each other professionally as well.
Both are microbiologists. Steven at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is researching the genetics of a bacterium that is carried by nematodes, a tiny type of worm often found in soil.
Susan at Marian College in Fond du Lac is studying the ecology of that bacterium and worm and the insects in the environment with them. During an interview at their Glendale home, Susan joked that this gives them something to talk about in the evenings.
But they have more than just their profession in common. Both are deeply involved in Jewish learning as well.
They belong to two synagogues: Congregations Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun (Reform) and Agudas Achim Chabad (Orthodox). Susan, who has Hebrew teacher certification from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, taught confirmation classes and now teaches adults at Emanu-El.
Steven studies Torah and other Jewish texts at CAAC. In addition, in the early 1990s, he helped interview area Holocaust survivors on videotape, a project eventually taken over by film-maker Steven Spielberg.
In fact, the range of Jewish life and options available to them is among the biggest reasons why these two natives of eastern states have enjoyed living in Milwaukee for the past 12 years.
The area has “the full spectrum of what’s available to experience Jewish life,” said Steven. “It has a vibrant Jewish life.”
And Susan likes “the visibility of the Jews in Milwaukee. It’s nice to say, ‘I’m part of the Jewish community and look at what we do here.’ I don’t think a lot of other Jewish communities can boast that way.”
Susan, from Westchester County in New York, said she was interested in biology from childhood. “I was one of those kids who brought home caterpillars to watch them molt,” she said.
She also developed interest in Judaism early, having found inspiring rabbis at the Orthodox and Conservative synagogues she attended as a child and teen. She herself started teaching in the Conservative synagogue’s religious school when she was 16.
Steven came to both his professional and Jewish interests later. He grew up in the “lake region” of New Jersey. While he didn’t exhibit the early attraction to biology Susan had, “I was always outside” as a camper and swimmer and “I would look at turtles and frogs.” Not until he was a college undergraduate did he discover that he liked biological research.
His parents were “secular Reform” Jews who had escaped Nazi Germany in the 1930s. He was one of the first kids to have a bar mitzvah ceremony in the small synagogue that his tiny and scattered Jewish community built. But his parents didn’t emphasize Jewish education and “I fell away from Judaism” during college.
After the birth of their first child, Emily (now 17; they also have a son Daniel, 15), Steven became more interested in his Jewish roots. A turning point for him was seeing the long documentary film “Shoah.” He said that made him decide “I am Jewish and I want to know more.”
Both went to the New York University Medical Center to pursue their doctorates, and they met there at a seminar. After graduation, marriage, the births of their children and completion of their post-doctoral work, they hunted for permanent jobs.
They decided on Milwaukee partly because of its Jewish life and because of the person who introduced them to it, Mike Fefferman, then director of religious education at Emanu-El. Fefferman recalled that he almost immediately wanted Susan to become a teacher at the synagogue.
“Her talents were obvious and proven,” Fefferman said in a telephone interview. “She has an amazing enthusiasm. She caused her students to respect the scholastic community by her style and manner.” He added that he never heard any complaints about her classes being boring; moreover, “I learned more about worms than I ever wanted to know.”
Steven found CAAC via Mark Goldner, an attorney who helps the rabbis there teach classes on Torah and Midrash. After their daughters became friends in school, the two fathers met, discovered a common love of baseball, and Steven joined Goldner’s class, with Susan and both kids also occasionally participating.
“You can tell when you talk to them that they are bright people who like learning,” said Goldner. “They are great students, they pick things up quickly and ask a lot of interesting questions…. I like them a lot.”
When not studying and teaching biology and Judaism, Susan and Steven like to garden, attend Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concerts and travel. They recently returned from a professional conference in Crete; and they once spent six months in Ireland as visiting professors.
Indeed, they enjoy the diversity of life they found here even beyond the Jewish diversity, liking how Glendale is racially and ethnically integrated. The Milwaukee-area has “provided options that suit us so perfectly,” said Steven. “It is really amazing.”
Individuals for this column are selected at random from the Milwaukee Jewish Federation community data base. The Chronicle does not have access to donor information, nor does it contact members of the community with regard to their giving habits.
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