Antisemitism in Medicine

“If a Jew has to hide their identity just to feel safe at a hospital, that says everything about the world we’re living in.” – Hananya Naftali, Facebook, March 28, 2025

In a video that shocked the Jewish world and beyond, two Australian nurses chatted with Israeli influencer Max Veifer. Speaking from Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in Sydney, Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh bragged about refusing to care for Israeli patients.

Lebdeh stated, “I won’t treat them. I’ll kill them.” Nadir agreed, intimating that he had already done so with a throat-slitting gesture.

“You have no idea how many Israeli dog(s) came to this hospital, and I send them to Jahannam (hell),” he told Veifer.

The incident caused Jewish patients and visitors to the hospital to hide their identity, as they already have been in other countries, but this stop-gag (and potentially live-saving) measure provides but small relief to a problem that has grown exponentially since the October 7 massacre of Israelis by Hamas.

Anti-Israel-inspired Jew-hatred is now openly expressed in every facet of the medical community, from healthcare workers to medical schools, faculty and students alike, in America and worldwide.

Zionism as a “Mental Disorder”

A hearing in December 2024 on Capitol Hill exposed shocking information about the extent of discrimination against Jews in the healthcare sector, including in medical schools and major hospital centers.

The panel included a physician, medical student and psychiatrist among other professionals who gave first-hand accounts of the biases they had faced. As reported by the Jewish Federations of North America, one of the sponsors of the hearing, incidents included:

• Efforts to promote approaches to "decolonize" mental health patients, in which Zionism is characterized as a mental disorder that must be "cured"
• Efforts to create a blacklist of "Zionist" psychiatric providers, including those who said they would accept Zionists as patients
• Denying Jewish employees at medical establishments the chance to form Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
• Denial of Jewish student club applications at medical schools, while similar requests from other minority groups were approved
• Jewish patients feeling they had to hide their identities due to refusals by medical practitioners (non-Palestinian/Middle Eastern) to stop wearing pro-Palestinian pins and accessories (a practice which went against existing dress codes)
• Medical students being taught that all Jews are "white, privileged oppressors" and forced to view overtly antisemitic depictions of Jews in slides
• Existing Jewish medical student groups being ostracized and excluded from events having nothing to do with Israel or its war with Hamas

As shocking as these reports are, they are not surprising considering that the American Medical Student Association, one of the oldest independent student healthcare groups in the U.S. issued a statement expressing solidarity with student protests across the country and demanding “immediate action to address the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

Medical Schools Under Investigation

A month into President Trump’s presidency, his administration announced it would be conducting investigations into four of the country’s top medical schools amid serious allegations of antisemitism.

The schools include Harvard, Columbia, Brown and Johns Hopkins.

The announcement came from the Department of Health and Human Services, which became the third department – following Education and Justice – to target federally funded institutions for violations of Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act.

“The reviews come in response to reported incidents of antisemitism and displays of offensive symbols and messaging during the (commencement) ceremonies, including alleged expressions of support for terrorist organizations,” stated an HHS press release, referencing a study published in an Israeli medical journal and available on the National Institute of Health’s Library of Medicine’s website.

The study, “US Medical Schools’ 2024 Commencements and Antisemitism: Addressing Unprofessional Behavior,” found graduates – i.e., America’s future doctors – attended their graduations wearing keffiyehs, pro-terror buttons and three-part stoles consisting of the Palestinian flag, an empty map of Israel and the slogan “Palestine” or “Jerusalem Is Ours.”

Others carried banners and signs while they marched, shouted that their professors were “complicit in genocide” and chanted “Free, free, free Palestine!”

Stanford Medicine Coalition for Palestine

Meanwhile, at Stanford, another “elite” university, a group calling itself the Stanford Medicine Coalition for Palestine, published a letter in September 2024 in the Stanford Daily calling on the university to divest from Israel.

The letter was signed by 87 Stanford healthcare professionals, trainees and scientists and another 28 medical students, faculty and staff members who requested to remain anonymous. The 115 signatories accused Israel of committing war crimes and a genocide against Palestinians.

They further claimed Israel was killing healthcare workers, destroying healthcare facilities and starving Palestinian civilians. They labeled Israel an apartheid regime that was denying Palestinians their “economic and social rights.”

In addition to divestment, the group demanded that Stanford acknowledge the “genocide,” stop purchasing from companies connected to Israel and support the medical care of Palestinians.

There was no similar call for Stanford to support the medical care of Israelis who were raped or witnesses to the murders of their family members and friends on October 7 or those who have sustained trauma since then.

See below for profiles of the Stanford signatories

The Crisis Runs Deep

A new study by Israel advocacy organization StandWithUs surveyed 645 Jewish healthcare professionals, 74 percent who were physicians and 52 percent who were in academia. The organization found that close to 40 percent of the respondents had been directly exposed to antisemitism within their professional or academic environment.

Among those, 30 percent cited their medical colleagues as the source, while 14 percent cited their patients. The study also found that of the Jewish healthcare professionals surveyed who had taken anti-bias training, only 1.9 percent reported that the training covered anti-Jewish bias.

Conduct deemed to be antisemitic included:

• Healthcare professionals saying “Zionists” should be denied medical care while discussing a Jewish patient
• “Hateful speakers” present at professional conferences
• Being placed on a “do not call or hire” list based on Jewish identity or connection to Israel
• Comments from coworkers “justifying the October 7 massacre”
• Unequal acknowledgment by medical institutions about Israeli and “Palestinian trauma.” (The rape, slaughtering, and kidnapping of Israelis were ignored in favor of the plight of Palestinians in Gaza following the attack.)

Jewish healthcare professionals also reported that medical schools and hospitals ignored their complaints about antisemitism and advised Jewish employees to refrain from speaking publicly about it.

Jewish students who reported to their superiors that they felt unsafe were told that they needed to be “more comfortable being uncomfortable.” In addition, the students said that department chairs at medical schools dismissed their reports of antisemitism.

"We have been seeing growing and alarming rates of antisemitism in medicine for the past five years, and this has certainly got worse since October 7,” says Dr. Miriam Knoll, CEO of the Jewish Orthodox Women's Medical Association. “This problem manifests in many ways, including discrimination getting into medical school, residency and jobs.”

Michelle Stravitz, CEO of the American Jewish Medical Association, concurs. “Anecdotally, and based on informal data, we are already seeing dwindling numbers of Jewish students in medical schools,” she says.

“Antisemitism is becoming systemic within the health care system,” Stravitz continued. “Younger generations of healthcare professionals and trainees have normalized antisemitic rhetoric, anti-Zionist attacks and language, and anti-Israel hate based on unfounded and false narratives.”

Dr. Steven Roth, a Chicago anesthesiology professor who was one of the authors of the study of medical school commencement ceremonies, says the rise of antisemitism in medicine is due to a growing emphasis on social justice activism in medical schools.

This, he says, is magnified by political ignorance and peer pressure. “You’ve got the inability of most people to understand a geopolitical conflict that’s 8,000 miles away, the bias in the media toward Israel and toward Jewish people, and you have a very volatile mix.”

Katrina Armstrong, CEO of Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center

A recent case highlights the callousness of the treatment of Jewish medical students.

Columbia University – ground zero for the post-October 7, pro-Hamas protests – recently lost $430 million in federal funding for failing to adequately address the antisemitism rampant on its campus. Hoping to stave off more cuts in federal funding and regain their losses, Columbia’s board fired its interim president Katrina Armstrong after she had been caught in her own antisemitism scandal.

Armstrong had publicly promised to implement a ban on face masks on campus, one of the changes required by the federal government, but privately told faculty she would not.

Just a month after assuming Columbia’s presidency, Armstrong apologized to the students who were “hurt” when her predecessor, Minouche Shafik, called in the New York Police Department to clear Columbia’s illegal campus encampment and regain Hamilton Hall, which had been violently taken over by pro-Hamas students.

In an interview with the student newspaper, Armstrong said, “I know that this is tricky for me to say … And so, if you could just let everybody know who was hurt by that, that I’m just incredibly sorry. And I know it wasn’t me, but I’m really sorry. … I saw it, and I’m really sorry.”

Although Armstrong was replaced as Columbia’s president, she was allowed to return to her previous position as CEO of the university’s Irving Medical Center.

Coexistence at Israeli Hospitals

At the December hearing on Capitol Hill, Elizabeth Cullen, Hadassah’s government relations director, ironically noted that, unlike the current atmosphere in the U.S., Israeli hospitals are markedly different.

"At Hadassah hospitals, Arab and Jewish Israelis work side by side to treat all patients," she testified. "Our emergency room is led by the first Arab female physician to lead a hospital emergency room in all of Israel, before and during the war.

“Israeli Hadassah professionals and Palestinian mental health professionals have collaborated in partnership to develop and share best practices for addressing trauma and mental health needs in both Israeli and Palestinian children and teens in Jerusalem."

Not Going Back

At the same hearing, Eric D. Fingerhut, CEO and president of Jewish Federations of North America, said, "This isn't the first time in the history of our country that the Jewish community has experienced discrimination in medical care ...

"The whole advent of Jewish hospitals across the country came into being because Jewish physicians couldn't practice in the mainstream of medical care and because Jewish patients weren't being treated equally and fairly in their times of need."

Fingerhut declared, "We are not willing to go back there" and called on Congress to take action.

Updates on Infamous Antisemitic Doctors

Lila Abassi was recently fired by Mount Sinai Hospital after Canary Mission exposed her posts calling Hamas “noble resistance and freedom fighters.” Abassi was an assistant professor of medicine at the hospital’s East Harlem location. Her firing marks a significant institutional response, but she is the exception, not the rule.

Lara Kollab, formerly a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic, stated she would give Jewish patients the wrong medication. Her license was revoked after Canary Mission’s investigation went viral in 2018. She is reportedly now practicing medicine in Jordan.

Walid Khass was slated to be a pediatric resident at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital when his antisemitic posts were exposed by Canary Mission. Khass wrote, “Join Hamas — You don’t gotta tell me twice…” and “Go beat up a Zionist…” Khass’ status is currently unclear, but he is not listed as an employee of the hospital as of March 2025.

Profiles of Signatories to the Stanford Letter

Profiles of Medical Professionals

Canary Mission’s dedicated Medical Section has documented dozens of professionals with histories of antisemitic and extremist rhetoric, many of whom remain employed in trusted medical roles.

These professionals include:

Rohaan Gill, a registered nurse, spoke at the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia University in April 2024 where he called for Israel’s destruction and celebrated the October 7 massacre. In 2021 during a brawl in Times Square, Gill fought with Israel supporters and was arrested by police.

Conner Gibson, an ICU nurse and social media influencer, praised Hamas and called the IDF a terrorist organization on the day of the October 7 massacre. He added, “I can’t imagine being so entitled as to sit in the United States safe and sound and decide what acts of Palestinian resistance are palatable to you.”

Bernadette Lim, a doctor and faculty member at San Francisco State University, posted antisemitic conspiracy theories on X. Just two months after the October 7 massacre, Lim wrote, "Zionism controls the agenda of traditional places of power & old money: Hollywood celebrities, Ivy Leagues, mass media outlets, government. These institutions— many based on lies, deceit, & illusion— no longer resonate w the majority of people. The power rests with the People." On Jan. 7, 2024, she wrote, "Everyone in higher ed, academia, and medicine should be alarmed of the way Zionists and white supremacists are weaponizing antisemitism now under the guise of 'plagiarism'..."

Profiles of Students Seeking Medical Careers

Steven Chun, a medical student at the University of California San Diego, is an activist with the pro-terror group J-Town Action と Solidarity. He has called for the destruction of America and Israel. Responding to a post about deceased U.S. Air Force serviceman Aaron Bushnell who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C, on February 25, 2024, while yelling “Free Palestine!” Chun wrote, “There is nothing ‘mentally unwell’ about sacrificing your life in the name of liberation.”

One day after the October 7 massacre, he posted, “We are watching decolonization and liberation in real-time … ALL POWER TO THE PALESTINIAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS. PALESTINE WILL BE FREE BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY …”

More antisemitic/terror-supporting students seeking medical careers include: