Penn Law Deletes Public Statement on RBG’s Death
The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School deleted its public statement on Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death because it included a critical quote from Amy Wax, a controversial Jewish law professor there, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported.
The statement was posted on the law school’s Facebook page on Sept. 23 and removed later that day after students complained.
Wax’s quote came from a review she wrote for the Claremont Review of Books on Jane Sherron De Hart’s “Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life.” The quote starts out with “Let us now praise Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” then mentions several favorable aspects of her career.
“But these accounts paid a price for their relentlessly laudatory tone,” Wax wrote. “Missing was any serious appraisal of her professional legacy, its place within larger judicial and legislative debates, and its implications for the shifting and often conflicting roles of women in modern society.”
Later in the review — but not included in the Penn Law statement — Wax described Ginsburg’s work ethic as an outlier for women.
“Although perhaps she inspires a few women to greater heights, RBG and the worship that attends her may lead others to feel ashamed of the lives they have chosen or of what they really want from work, men, and family life,” Wax wrote. Students who objected to Wax’s inclusion in the Penn statement cited her negative appraisal of RBG as inappropriate for the moment.
Wax is no stranger to controversy.
In 2017, she claimed that she had not seen a Black student graduate in the top quarter of the law school’s class. That prompted prominent Penn trustee emeritus and Penn Law School overseer Paul S. Levy to step down. And Wax was barred from teaching a required first-year civil procedure course.
Last year, Wax argued at a conservative conference for an immigration policy favoring Western country immigrants over those from non-Western countries. She said the United States would be “better off with more whites and fewer nonwhites.”
PICC Honors Temple Dental School
The Philadelphia-Israel Chamber of Commerce honored Temple University’s Maurice H. Kornberg School Dentistry and its Bridge to Peace Initiative on Sept. 30 with its 2020 Life Sciences, Bio and Healthcare Innovation Award.
PICC said the award is presented to “regional businesses and academic institutions that exemplify the organization’s goals of broadening business and research ties between Greater Philadelphia and Israeli innovators in life sciences, bio and healthcare.”
“Under the leadership of Dean Amid Ismail, [the school] was instrumental in bringing together investigators from Hebrew University Hadassah School of Dentistry, Al Quds University School of Dentistry and 40 additional research institutes to advance dental care for disabled children and adults as part of the Bridge to Peace program,” PICC President Matthew I. Fingerman said.
Temple joined 40 other dental schools and organizations in 2011 in signing a charter to transform Bridge for Peace into an expanded enterprise called the Alliance for Oral Health Across Borders. The alliance, which is headed by Ismail, promotes peace and builds relationships of understanding through oral health.
NCJW Walks to Honor RBG
The National Council of Jewish Women Greater Philadelphia Section members held two commemorative walks on Oct. 2 to mark the end of the mourning period for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Sept. 18.
Attendees circled the U.S. Court House at Sixth and Market streets in Philadelphia, as well as the Bucks County Justice Center in Doylestown.
Prior to the shiva walk in Philadelphia, a prayer circle was conducted by Rabbi Annie Lewis and Hazzan Jessi Roemer.
Einstein Joins Health Systems in Addressing Racism
Einstein Healthcare Network announced that it was joining 38 other health systems in addressing racism and public health disparities caused by racism.
Participants are members of the Healthcare Anchor Network, a national collaboration of health care systems, which published the “Racism is a Public Health Crisis” document.
“The higher rates of disease and death from COVID-19 among African American and communities of color, has magnified the systemic racism and healthcare disparities that exist in society,” said Barry R. Freedman, president and CEO for Einstein Healthcare Network.
Einstein and its partners in the Healthcare Anchor Network said they are committed to improving primary and specialty care, helping communities overcome chronic diseases, and hiring from, procuring from and investing in local communities, among other pledges.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia also has signed on to the “Racism is a Public Health Crisis” document.
