N
M OW
OD L
EL EA
S SIN
OP G
EN !
M L
OO LAB
DR AI
BE V
2 TS A
I UN
UPPE R DU BLI N
E! UPSCALE LIVING
STEPS ABOVE IT ALL!
H EADLINES
Levine Continued from Page 1
When the Harvard College
and Tulane University School
of Medicine graduate became
Pennsylvania’s physician
general in 2015, she spoke to
the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle
about her Jewish identity. She
grew up in Massachusetts, where
she attended a Conservative
shul and had a bar mitzvah, and
said she has seen acceptance of
LGBTQ individuals improve in
the Jewish community since she
was young.

will have such a prominent
position, but also feels sad she
will no longer work for the
commonwealth. “I hadn’t followed her career
much before the coronavirus,
but I was very impressed with
how she was handling every-
thing, and then I found out that
she was ... one of the highest
level openly transgender people
in the country, even before she
was appointed,” said Meyers,
who lives on the Main Line.

Meyers also referenced Tara
Hunter, a Black trans woman
who died 20 years ago aft er she
Designed with luxury in mind, The Residences at the Promenade
off er lavish apartments situated above a beautiful town center.

• Park Trails
• Pool with Sundeck
• Dog Parks & Washrooms
• Media & Game Rooms
Amenities too many to mention!
• Bocce Court
• Fitness Center
Clean Juice • Sprouts Farmers Market • Lululemon • Fine Wine and Good Spirits!
Coming Soon!
Home Goods • Banfi eld • La Scala’s Fire • Trinity Physical Therapy
Smashburger • Carbon Health • Starbucks • Serenity Nail Bar
Welsh & Dreshertown Roads • Dresher, PA
833-238-1100 ResidencesUD.com
A Bruce E. Toll Community
HEALTHCARE DIRECTORY
What We Off er:
Respite Care ★ Hospice Care ★ Dementia Care ★ Alzheimer’s Care
Assistance with Daily Living, Personal Care Needs & Holistic Services
Servicing: Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and all of Philadelphia
610-257-7097 ★ healingenergycares.com
www.jewishexponent.com 16
APRIL 8, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
Dr. Rachel Levine gives a press conference.

Photo by governortomwolf licensed under Creative Commons license CC BY 2.0
Levine’s confirmation
represents a
significant milestone for trans repre-
sentation in government and
medicine, particularly for the
trans Jewish community.

Hannah Simpson, a trans
Jewish activist based in New
York, said seeing Levine take on
the role was meaningful aft er
her own experiences leaving
medical school due to discrim-
ination from administrators.

In an email, Simpson wrote
that in addition to Levine
being qualifi ed for the role, she
benefi ts “from the lived experi-
ence of facing the very barriers
she aims to break down
through improving legisla-
tion, training and aggressively
combating misinformation.”
Jess Harper Meyers, director
of candidate relations for
We Can Run, was impressed
with Levine’s handling of the
pandemic and is happy she
was in a car crash and denied
care by fi rst responders who
cut off her pants, as an example
of the dangers trans people
face when they need access to
health care.

“It’s extremely important
to have trans people in charge
of health care, of people from
diverse populations in charge of
health care, to make sure that
the marginalized populations
they represent are represented,
so that we can see ourselves in
doctors, in politicians, in secre-
taries of health, and also so
that they can make policies that
protect people that most need to
be protected,” Meyers said.

Dr. Aimee Ando, a Jewish
family medicine physician and
director of diversity, equity and
inclusion at Penn Medicine,
treats trans patients and sees
Levine’s appointment as cause
See Levine, Page 30
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM