Tony winner Tracy Letts has also joined the cast that includes Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon.
The film, which begins shooting this week in New York, will mark the directorial debut of James Schamus, who has also adapted the screenplay from Philip Roth's novel.
The film, set in 1951, tells "story of Marcus Messner (Lerman), the idealistic son of a humble kosher butcher from Newark, New Jersey. When Marcus leaves for college in Ohio he finds himself falling for a beautiful but troubled girl (Gadon), and in a dangerous conflict with the school’s administration and its dean (Letts) over the political and sexual culture of the era," according to the industry site.
Burstein will play Marcus’ father with Emond as his mother.