An overflow crowd of 400 people packed an Emory ballroom Wednesday evening to bear witness to the prestigious university’s public apology to former victims of anti-Semitism at its dental school a half-century ago.
“I am sorry. WE are sorry,” Emory president James Wagner said after a screening of “From Silence to Recognition,” a short film exploring this dark period at the now-shuttered dental school.
The extraordinary gathering was the culmination of an emotional journey that began 50 years ago when Perry Brickman was stunned to learn he’d flunked out of the dental school after his first year. Brickman, who went on to obtain his degree from the University of Tennessee’s dental school, eventually learned he was not alone: Between 1948 and 1961, Emory’s Jewish dental students were failed or forced to repeat courses at disproportionately high rates.
Dr. Brickman began interviewing dozens of former dental students for a video; that served as the foundation of the documentary, which was commissioned by Emory.
“What Perry did was add a human dimension to the story,” Emory professor Eric Goldstein told the crowd. “[Those students who were discriminated against] are no longer nameless statistics, but real people who’d suffered pain.”
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