Dwight ’68

Apr 16, 2018 | Our Community of Learners

Ricka Sacks Rak shares, “My apologies for not being more communicative all these years. Here’s an update on my life since Dwight. I moved to Israel in the summer of ’71, immediately after handing in my last paper at Cornell (where I majored in French, of course!), and enrolled in a master’s program in archaeology at Hebrew University. One of the TAs caught my eye, and we were married in October of ’72. About then, I switched from archaeology to the field that I’m passionate about, linguistics. The next phase of our life was in Berkeley, Calif., where my husband, Yoel, did a PhD in paleoanthropology and I did a mother’s degree—our two boys, Ariel and Benjamin, were born there in ’75and ‘78. On our return to Israel, Yoel started teaching at the medical school of Tel Aviv University, where he is a professor emeritus today; I started my career as an editor in the academic and high-tech sphere; and, in 1982, our daughter, Carmi, was born. Today the family is a geographically diverse clan. We have two grandchildren in New Jersey; two in Sydney, Australia; and two in Tel Aviv. My sister, Meryl (Dwight ’65), lives in northern California, and my mother is in San Diego. In addition to enjoying my work, I’ve concentrated on pursuing my interest in language and languages beyond the French, Spanish, and Hebrew acquired during high school and college days. I’m happy to say that I can more or less hold my own in Mandarin Chinese and Arabic—“more or less” being the operative phrase!”

“I must share with you how grateful I am that I had the opportunity toattend Dwight and to study under such wonderful teachers and in such a nurturing, stimulating environment. Dwight School provided me with the most meaningful educational experience of my life.”

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