Noted Atlanta oral surgeon to recount dental school discrimination

Dr. Perry Brickman to usher in first Daniel Pearl Education Center Speaker Series program

The Daniel Pearl Education Center in East Brunswick will welcome noted Atlanta oral surgeon Dr. Perry Brickman on Nov. 21 as the inaugural presenter in the new Daniel Pearl Education Center Speaker Series. The program will be held at the Daniel Pearl Education Center, located at Temple B’nai Shalom, Fern Road and Old Stage Road in East Brunswick, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Dr. Brickman will discuss his confrontation with discrimination – anti-Semitism, in his case – and will answer questions following the showing of the documentary, titled “From Silence to Recognition: Confronting Discrimination in Emory’s Dental School History.”

“As a surgeon, this really hits home for me,” said Dr. Andrew Boyarsky, chairman of the Daniel Pearl Education Center. “To think that, back in 1952, Dr. Brickman was excelling at the Emory University School of Dentistry, only to receive a shocking letter that he had flunked – what a shocking story. What Dr. Brickman learned later was that he was one of one of many Jewish students who faced discrimination at Emory between 1948 and 1961.”

Dr. Brickman went on to the dental school at the University of Tennessee and a more than 40-year career as a leading oral surgeon. And last year Emory University, made aware of this black mark on its reputation, apologized and helped to fund the documentary.

The speaker series, like the DPEC, will focus on the ideals of understanding and cooperation – principles that are part of the legacy of the late Daniel Pearl. Pearl, the Southeast Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped and murdered by extremists in Pakistan in October 2002. The DPEC, a non-profit, charitable organization, sponsors a broad spectrum of community-wide, interfaith programming, highlighted by its annual teen bus trip, with St. Bartholomew’s School and other houses of worship and youth groups, to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

There is a minimum donation of $18 per person. Please send your check and reservation to The Daniel Pearl Education Center, PO Box 957, East Brunswick NJ 08816. For additional questions or to RSVP, please contact 732.251.4300 or email rbrenowitz1@aol.com.