Prior to joining Cornell's faculty, he worked at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where he was one of three assistant general counsels to Thurgood Marshall.
"[citation needed] He was famous for teaching a class called American Ideals at Cornell for many years; it was based in the College of Industrial and Labor Relations and regularly drew enrollments in the many hundreds, with the eventual total exceeding over 8,000.
A professorship in his name was dedicated with funds from former students and others; Ross Brann is the current Milton Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies.
As a token of thanks for his work he received the Grand Band of the Order of the Star of Africa, as well as an honorary degree from the University of Liberia.
Their son Josef was a senior official of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), based in Paris, where he lives with his wife, Isa.