Tribute to Jana B. Singer

Karen H. Rothenberg

Thank you for the opportunity to share some of my personal thoughts about one of my best friends and colleagues, Jana Singer. Bear with me for memories do fade over all the years but some stay with you forever.

I first met Jana when she was being recruited to join our faculty in late 1984. I was so excited to have another woman join the faculty. It was a lonely place for young women on our faculty back then—when I joined the faculty on July 1, 1983, you could count us on one hand. From the beginning, I could tell Jana and I would be soulmates, and I was anxious to get to know her better, even before she arrived at our law school on July 1, 1985. After she was hired, we loved to meet and chat about her upcoming wed- ding to Vince Prada and her preparation for her first semester of teaching. That spring she joined my family at our Passover seder and, for many years, we shared seders and so many happy occasions together with our growing families—baby namings, bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings, and baby showers.