I’d also encourage folks to google our film currently on national public TV, “Summer Hill.”

Thank you, all. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, we will be showing the Emory film at festivals — we have a lot of interest. We’ll post this on our web site.

Currently on our “drawing board” is a film on Ivan Allen, Jr., the only Southern Mayor who actively supported the Civil Rights movement. He made it possible for Atlanta to be what it is today.

In our film work, we get to meet people like Perry Brickman, Gary Hauk, and Jim Wagner. It gives us encouragement and hope. There are always good people who do their best to do good in the world. I believe that the sure answer to prejudice, fear, and hatred is relationship.

I have enjoyed chatting with you folks about our film. As soon as the film is available for general viewing, we’ll post a note on our web site, livingstories.tv.

As John said earlier, I know that Emory University will be posting the entire half-hour film on their site.

Even after that, the president denied the anti-Semitism to the press.

When Buhler was forced to resign, and President Martin refused to acknowledge the anti-Semitism, the attitude among some prominent Jews was “the problem is solved, mission accomplished. Time to move on.”

John, tell them what Art Levin of the ADL said then.

The long-standing Jewish community in Atlanta had built a solid standing among its non-Jewish neighbors. They did want to confront the issue, but in a carefully diplomatic way — especially since Emory was known to be progressive.

John, would you take Lisa’s question?

Ironically, Emory’s Candler School of Theology was, at the same period, pioneering in Holocaust studies. When de-segregation came to Georgia in the 60s, the state legislature passed a law to get around the federal mandate. It was Emory law school professors who sued in the Georgia Supreme Court and got the law overturned.

Elliott, you must be thinking of Adlai Stephenson, as well. “Too intellecutal.”

There was, of course, discrimination against African Americans in Atlanta and the South — and in other parts of the U.S., and the world, for that matter. There was a separate dental clinic for black people at the Emory Dental School, and it was largely the “Jewish boys” that were assigned to care for them.

Have you read Erik Larson’s “In the Garden of the Beasts”? Using the diaries and writings of William E. Dodd and his family members, Larson gives a portrait of Nazi Germany in its earliest years. FDR appointed Dodd as U.S. Ambassador. One of the things related in the book is that there was a general attitude in Germany, and in some quarters in the U.S., that quotas were needed so that Jews would not take all the top roles in society. It was as though people feared the intelligence, work ethic, and savvy of the Jewish people.

Perry says some of the dental faculty were sympathetic to the plight of the Jewish students but were afraid to buck the system. A few of the faculty demonstrated their own anti-Semitic leanings. One man was said to resent Jews because he had lost his son in World War II and blamed the war on the Jews. I had never heard of this before!

John and I were told that Emory Medical School of those days had quotas for admission of Jewish students, and that this was general practice at most medical schools. However, Jews were treated like anyone else once they were admitted.

The Emory Dental phenomenon is unusual because they, too, had quotas — but I don’t know of any other school that let Jews in with the intent of abusing them while they were there. Some of the students completed all the requirements for graduation and then received letters telling them that they would not be allowed to graduated due to sub-standard performance.

I am not aware of anything else comparable to what Emory has done here — but other schools may have done it.

Back to the “manual dexterity” issue:

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Itzak Perlman labor onto a stage in his braces; I wondered if he’s make it to his chair. He laid the braces down, took up is violin, and proceeded to performed the greatest athletic feat I have ever seen. His hands were as filled with genius as his brain.

Dr. Deborah Lipstadt and Dr. Eric Goldstein say that anti-Semitism in higher education at this time was rampant in America’s most prestigious unviversities, north as well as south.

Dr. Eric Goldstein, a history prof at Emory, also consulted on our film. It was an exhibit that he put together several years ago on “Jews at Emory” that first mentioned the discrimintation at the Dental School. When Perry saw the exhibit, and the graph about 65% failures of Jewish students, he said to himself: “Now people need to know the human side. These young men were people, not just numbers.” And he set himself to the task. Eric’s exhibit was an important catalyst.

More on Dr. Hauk and Emory:

Earlier this year, John and I and our colleague, David Porter, completed an hour-long documentary on Emory’s 175-year history. Gary and his colleague, Ron Sauder, head of PR, Marketing, Alumni Relations, etc., never sanitized anything and never asked us to.

This dental school film came about when Deborah Lipstadt, and Emory scholar who has written several books on the Holocaust, heard about the video Perry had done and urged him to show it to Gary Hauk. Gary was shocked. My impression is that many the people at Emory today didn’t really know about the events at the dental school. Gary and Dr. Wagner wanted to expose this and “clean the slate.”

Don’t know whether my last response came through. Here we go again:

Dr. Hauk is Emory’s historian and also VP and asst. to President Jim Wagner. Both men, and all of Emory’s top administration, are committed to the school’s integrity. The apology was motivated out of their love for Emory as well as their desire to do justice to the dental students. They also hoped that this would bring about healing.