Dr. Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, N.J., challenged members of the graduating class of 2009 to make a choice when he delivered the keynote address at Brandeis' 58th commencement ceremony last Sunday, asking, "Do you resign yourself to what is, or do you commit yourself to being a part of what can be, what should be, what must be?"Booker spoke to the members of the graduating class of 2009, which consisted of 783 undergraduates, 84 Ph.D. students and 681 master's degree recipients along with family members and friends who filled the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center to support and celebrate with their graduates. He offered gratitude to the audience for not behaving like his family on graduation day.

Booker maintained a humorous tone throughout much of his speech. He began by describing the overbearing enthusiasm his family members displayed at his graduation ceremonies, including their loud screaming and cheering and their counterfeit ticket scandal at Stanford University that "still brings shame to [his] family." However, Booker explained that his family gave him valuable advice after his graduations that led him to the insight that one decide in life whether to "accept the conditions as they exist or to accept the responsibility for changing them."

"There are no trivial moments," Booker told the graduates. To exemplify this, he described a plane ride during which he sat next to a woman with a baby and a toddler, whose screaming pierced his ears as soon as they boarded the plane. Booker reflected that he made the choice to make the best of the flight, deciding to help the mother by entertaining the toddler during the flight. When the plane landed in San Francisco, the woman expressed her appreciation for Booker's kindness, and the two exchanged letters for a month before they lost contact. Fifteen years later, Booker received a letter from the woman saying his "kindness still stays with [her] today." She wrote that the young man he had entertained on the plane would like to be a volunteer on Booker's mayoral campaign, and that the young woman's family would like to contribute to Booker's campaign.

"This world we live in is a balanced place," he said. "If you are one of those people who expresses change with your lips and does not embody it with your being, you are simply blowing hot air into a world that definitely in these economic climactic times doesn't need it," Booker said.

He quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to further demonstrate this message saying, "'Change does not blow in on the wheels of inevitability.' It must be carried in on the backs of soldiers of justice, of truth, of love."

"You live in the world's oldest constitutional democracy, and democracy is not a spectator sport. ... This democracy is a full-contact, participatory engagement. You must get into the arena," Booker said.

Booker exemplified "getting in the arena," by sharing the story of his 10-day hunger strike to encourage local authorities to address rising crime rates. He explained that he hundreds of people eventually joined his efforts, including community leaders; representatives from hospitals that performed health screenings for children and senior citizens; and businesses that set up tables for job screenings and hired people joined Booker's initiative as well. A business owner in New York who had seen Booker on television even sent 500 pizzas, which "really ticked me off since I was on a hunger strike," Booker said.

On the 10th day of the strike, the mayor, whom Booker had described as his adversary, finally came to speak to Booker. "It was almost like an arena for boxing; he and I met in the middle," Booker said. But the moment Booker recalled in his speech was not the confrontation but the final prayer of the strike. "At this point, it wasn't just a handful of residents and me and my staff praying. There were literally well over 100 people there praying. . When I joined hands with them, feeling naked and raw from 10 days without eating, I'm telling you it was a point in my life that I felt so strong, the strongest I had ever felt," he said.

"We now benefit from people who got into the arena of life," Booker told the graduates. "You now must choose: Will you be loyal to that legacy that you have inherited, or will you betray it?"

"Don't sit out. Don't take a pass," Booker said. "Call out the ignorance and the bigotry and the hatred. Point out the injustices. Embrace your fellow human being; show them who you are, not by what you say but by your very being. This is your challenge."

University President Jehuda Reinharz also encouraged students to always take action in his address. "Whatever your job in the future, be involved in some part of your organization and community. Don't sit on the sidelines waiting for others to make decisions for you," Reinharz said.

After discussing the difficult economic challenges the University has encountered this year, Reinharz advised students to always set money aside, "not just so that you can contribute to Brandeis but so that you can take care of yourself and your family no matter what crises arise- and arise they will."

"This has been a year of crisis," Reinharz said. "What impressed me about your last year here at Brandeis is how you, the student body, responded. You attended town meetings and asked great questions, participated in university-wide committees dealing with extremely complicated and sensitive issues. Many of you demonstrated analytic, quantitative and reasoning skills in addition to excellent interpersonal abilities and data gathering sophistication. I'm really proud of you," he said.

Reinharz quoted Sigmund Freud, who said, "In order to have a good life, one needs meaningful work and love." Reinharz continued, "My deepest hope for you is that you will find meaningful work and save money. I also hope that you will find love, maybe at work. But I believe . that there is a third factor that will fulfill you, and . that is community involvement. I trust that your Brandeis experience will help you achieve all three."

Reinharz presented six recipients with Doctors of Humane Letters at the ceremony. The honorary recipients included Booker, who in addition to serving as mayor of Newark is also a Rhodes scholar. He was the youngest person to be elected to the Newark Municipal Council. Also receiving Doctors of Human Letters were James Conlon, currently the music director of the Los Angeles Opera and founder of the Recovered Voices project that restores music of composers affected by the Holocaust; Israel Gutman, a Holocaust survivor and one of the world's leading authorities on the Holocaust; Marilyn Bernice Horn, an American opera icon; Rajendra Kuman Pauchauri, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and director of The Energy and Resources Institute, an organization that advocates environmental sustainability and entrepreneur and industrialist Stef Wertheimer. Bill T. Jones, who is also a professional dance choreographer, was not present to receive his degree due to illness.

In an interview with the Justice, Booker, who said there are numerous people from the Brandeis community in his administration, said, "[Brandeis is] a rare school, unfortunately too rare, because I think that it's really infused with the spirit of this institution not just to go and achieve great things but to make great contributions, and that's what I think makes this place so special."

When asked about Booker's speech, Henok Amente MBA '09 said, "I [was] completely blown away. He's a natural. I would say that I [feel] very empowered."

"I thought it was amazing," Michael Raybman '09 said. "I thought it was inspirational. It was right to the point, it was relevant. I thought it was really good. He's a charismatic speaker," he said.

"I was really inspired, and it's a great motivation for our future careers," Jessica Blumberg '09 said. "I think it's inspiring that he's so young and he's done so much."

At the end of his speech, Booker summarized his message by telling the Class of 2009 to love. "Love because people love you, fought for you, struggled for you, endured for you. . Love because this world is desperately in need of your love. Love because it is the only force, if applied consistently and persistently and even recklessly, that can bring about social justice."

-Hannah Kirsch, Shana D. Lebowitz and Miranda Neubauer contributed reporting.