H EADLINES
Rubin Continued from Page 1
Then-Mayor Frank Rizzo
wanted the building destroyed.

But Rubin — whose father
Richard, a Ukranian immigrant,
got his fi rst job delivering shoes
from a high-end shoe store to
guests at the Bellevue — inter-
vened, lining up a consortium
of banks that helped him buy
and renovate the Renaissance-
style hotel. In 1979, the hotel
reopened, and Rubin redevel-
oped it years later to better suit
market needs with fewer rooms
and more offi ce space.

He also was involved in
preserving the PSFS building
a few blocks away on Market
Street. Another Rubin project
involved building the 54-story
BNY Mellon Center at 1735
Market St.

I n 19 9 7, w h e n t h e
Pen n s y l v a n i a R e a l E s t at e
Investment Trust bought the
Rubin Organization, which was
founded by his father, Rubin
became CEO.

During his tenure, PREIT
bought the Gallery at Market
East, which was revamped in
recent years as Fashion District
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Philadelphia. PREIT also
renovated the Cherry Hill Mall
and counted Willow Grove
Park and the Moorestown
and Plymouth Meeting Malls
among its properties.

Rubin was PREIT’s CEO
through 2012 and stepped
down as executive chairman
in 2016 — although he still
maintained an offi ce aft erward.

“It’s the nature of the beast,”
he told the Jewish Exponent in
2016. “I’m a participant. I like
to be in the game.”
A native of West Philadelphia,
he graduated from West
Philadelphia High School, where
he was voted class comedian.

Th en he was off to Pennsylvania
State University, but he didn’t
last there.

“When he fl unked out of
Penn State, my father was
furious and helped him get a
job on the packing line of a
sweater factory,” sister Judith
Garfi nkel said. “Not long aft er-
ward, just before he was getting
ready to marry Marcia Miller,
my father invited him to join
the family business, a small
brokerage with just my father
and a secretary. When Ronnie
got into the offi ce, he blew the
walls off . He found his niche.”
Aside from his involvement in
shaping Center City, Rubin was
a steady presence in the Jewish
community, including service
as president of the board of
trustees of the Jewish Federation
of Greater Philadelphia from
1978-80, time on numerous
committees and nearly 50 years
as a board member.

“I’m certainly a practicing
Jew,” he said in a 2012
Exponent interview. “I don’t
want to say I’m holier than
thou. I believe in the basics. My
business career — my life — is
all based on relationships, and
ultimately all relationships, if
they have any meaning, are
based on trust. I try to impart
that culture in my business.

Building relationships is every-
thing. I don’t know whether
that’s a Jewish ethic. But it
certainly has driven my life.”
Past Jewish Federation
Ron Rubin
President Mimi Schneirov, also
a longtime Jewish Federation
board member, saw Rubin’s
relationship building in
practice many times.

“I can remember many
meetings where there were diffi -
cult decisions to make ... but he
could bring everyone together …
to him, relationships were every-
thing,” she said, adding that when
things got tense, Rubin could tell
stories that lightened the mood
and got things back on track.

Rubin used that touch with
everyone he met, Schneirov
said. She recalled returning
from a lunch one day when a
panhandler approached them.

Not only did Rubin give the
man money, but he struck up a
conversation as well.

Rubin also was ahead
of his time in his treatment
of women, Schneirov said,
detailing how he appointed
her to be the fi rst woman to
head one of Jewish Federation’s
allocation committees, before
she became the overall organi-
zation’s fi rst female president.

Rubin was honored at the
National Museum of American
Jewish History’s Only in
America Gala in 2016, which
featured a performance by
Andrea Bocelli. Rubin served
as a trustee and co-chairman
of the museum and helped
see the construction of the
Market Street building from
the ground up.

“Th ey’re so excited about
Bocelli. I said Bocelli is going
to make a speech, and I’m
going to sing,” Rubin joked in
the 2016 Exponent interview.

Cozen said NMAJH likely
wouldn’t have happened
JEWISH EXPONENT
Ron Rubin (front, third from right) and his family. From left: Step-grandson
McLane Hendriks, step-grand-daughter Liza Hendriks, granddaughter-in-
law Carrie Silberman, grandson Scott Silberman, Ronald Rubin, wife Marcia
Rubin, son Bill Rubin and daughter-in-law Lizzie Meryman in the Turks and
Caicos Islands
Photos courtesy of the Rubin family
From left: Marcia Rubin, father Richard I. Rubin, mother Dorothy Rubin and
Ron Rubin
without Rubin’s help.

“He found and bought the
site at Fift h and Market,” he
said. “From the very beginning,
he was a huge proponent.”
When NMAJH’s founding
chairperson, George Ross,
died shortly aft er the museum
opened, Rubin stepped into the
breach, museum CEO Misha
Galperin said, and he noted that
Rubin’s close relationship with
then-Vice President Joe Biden
resulted in Biden cutting the
museum’s opening-day ribbon.

Rubin was active with the
museum even in his fi nal
days as his health declined,
according to Galperin.

“His attitude toward it was
that it was just another challenge
you need to overcome,” Galperin
said. “He’s an inspiration. You
don’t replace him — you hope
other people step in.”
Rubin’s other leadership roles
included a stint as chairman of the
Greater Philadelphia Chamber of
Commerce, and he was on the
boards of the Franklin Institute,
the Philadelphia Orchestra,
Albert Einstein Medical Center,
Tel Aviv University, American
Friends of Hebrew University,
Continental Bank Midlantic
Bank, PECO Energy Corp.,
Exelon Corp., University of the
Arts, the United Jewish Appeal,
the Kimmel Center and the
Regional Performing Arts Center.

“When my
brother committed himself to a cause,
he was focused and passionate
about achieving it,” younger
brother George Rubin said.

“He was a relentless networker
as he reached out to the people
who could off er support.”
Rubin is survived by his
wife Marcia (née Miller), son
William P. Rubin (Elizabeth
Merryman), daughter Susan L.

Rubin, sister Judith Garfi nkel
(Marvin), brother George
Rubin, a grandson, two
step-grandchildren, a niece
and several nephews.

Gloria Hochman contributed
to this report. ●
agotlieb@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0797
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Fraud Continued from Page 1
information to U.S. News about
the number of Fox’s OMBA and
PMBA students who had taken
the Graduate Management
Admission Test, the average
work experience of Fox’s PMBA
students and the percentage of
Fox students enrolled part-time.

U.S. News ranked Fox’s
OMBA program No. 1 in the
country from 2015 to 2018 and
moved Fox’s PMBA program
up its rankings based on the
allegedly false information.

High rankings on the U.S. News
surveys are desirable for colleges
and universities attempting to
attract potential students and
millions of dollars in tuition.

Porat promoted
these rankings in marketing materials
aimed at donors and potential
students, according to the indict-
ment. Enrollment in Fox’s OMBA
and PMBA programs grew
dramatically in a few short years,
which increased tuition revenue
by millions of dollars annually.

“The success of the higher
education system in the United
States relies not only on the
academic excellence and rigor
of the programs offered, and
not only on the aptitude and
hard work of the applicants
and students, but also on trans-
parency and honesty about
the system itself,” Acting U.S.

Attorney Jennifer Arbittier
Williams said during a press
conference. “Moshe Porat allegedly
misrepresented information
about Fox’s application and
acceptance process, and there-
fore the student body itself, in
order to defraud the rankings
system, potential students and
donors. His conduct, as alleged,
undermines the integrity of the
entire academic system and
forever hurts the students who
worked so hard for admission,”
Williams said.

Porat’s defense attorney,
Michael A. Schwartz, said his
client denies the allegations.

“Dr. Porat dedicated forty
years of his life to serving Temple
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Moshe Porat
Courtesy of Temple University Fox School
of Business
said the university was aware
of the indictment and could not
comment on the substance of
the criminal investigation or
related charges, except to say
that the university will continue
to cooperate with the appro-
priate law enforcement agencies.

“What we can say is
that the ongoing discovery
process in Porat’s defamation
lawsuit against Temple in the
Philadelphia Court of Common
Pleas has uncovered facts
previously unavailable to the
university. This new information
confirms Temple’s decision to
remove Porat as dean of the Fox
School of Business in July 2018,”
the statement said.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
reported that the fallout for
the exposure of the fraudulent
data has cost Temple millions
in legal settlements with the
Department of Education and
the Pennsylvania Attorney
General’s Office. The school paid
$4 million to settle a class-action
lawsuit filed by former students
of its online MBA program who
claimed the scandal devalued
their degrees.

Temple tightened procedures
for reporting rankings data
across the university in response
to the incident. Fox’s PMBA
program is now ranked 41st out
of 273 schools and the OMBA
program ranks 100th out of
295 schools.

Porat received his under-
graduate degree and MBA
from Tel Aviv University and
his doctorate from Temple.

He was active in several local
Jewish organizations and was
listed as a board member of
the America-Israel Chamber of
Commerce in his Temple bio.

In June 2016, Hillel of Greater
Philadelphia honored Porat
for his campus leadership and
advocacy for Israel.

The Inquirer reported that
Porat does remain on Temple’s
staff. He makes about $316,000
a year, but doesn’t have formal
duties. l
University, first as a faculty
member, and ultimately as Dean
of the Fox Business School, and
he did so with distinction,”
Schwartz said in a statement.

“He looks forward to defending
himself against these charges
and to clearing his name.”
Gottlieb and O’Neill were
charged separately from Porat
with one count of conspiracy
to commit wire fraud. All three
lost their jobs in 2018 after the
school’s misrepresentations were
discovered. Porat worked at Temple for
43 years, including 22 years
as dean. He filed a defama-
tion lawsuit in 2019 against the
university and its president,
Richard Englert, seeking $25
million. Porat claimed Temple
shifted the blame to him during
the public relations crisis by
intentionally omitting infor-
mation from communications
materials. “The administration took
away the job I loved, damaged
my health, destroyed my reputa-
tion and the legacy of my life’s
work I spent decades building,”
Porat said at a press conference
that year. “Temple leadership
did this with a false narrative
invented for its expediency in
public relations — and to deflect
attention from the university’s
own role in all of this.”
In an email statement, Ray
Betzner, associate vice presi-
dent of strategic marketing and spanzer@jewishexponent.com;
communications at Temple, 215-832-0729
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