The antisemitism rooted in the US healthcare system

Pro-Palestinian activists protesting in front of Tisch Hospital in New York City. ( Getty)

December 19, 2024 16:34

There has been much coverage of antisemitism within the NHS. But a new study by StandWithUs’ Data & Analytics Department in the Journal of General Internal Medicine shows that the issue is no less prevalent in the US.

The researchers surveyed 645 “self-identifying Jewish healthcare professionals” about antisemitism in the US. They found that 39.2 per cent of respondents have “been exposed directly to antisemitism within [their] professional or academic environment.” Among those who had “personally experienced or witnessed antisemitism,” 29.9 per cent cited “medical colleagues” as the source, while 13.8 per cent said their patients.

Dr. Alexandra Fishman, founding director of StandWithUs’ Data & Analytics Department, observes of the study: “Colleagues in the medical field may express more antisemitism...because of the power dynamics at play...colleagues are peers.” Further, “medicine...attracts high-achieving individuals who conform to what’s rewarded in academic settings. If antisemitic ideas go unchallenged in those environments, they can carry over into their professional lives.”

Professors Hedy Wald and Steven Roth wrote about medical schools in the American Journal of Medicine. They have observed people “tearing down posters of Jewish hostages, including children; demonisation of Jews, accusing Jewish students of complicity with genocide, wearing banned graduation regalia portraying Israel's destruction, and Holocaust distortion or inversion.”

Ian Kingsbury, Director of Research at Do No Harm, explained medicine’s antisemitism by noting the dominance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’s oppressor/oppressed framework in healthcare. There are “benefits of weaponising” DEI against “disproportionately represented” Jews, because “medicine is a highly competitive profession.” Additionally, “DEI tends to coddle” the beliefs of doctors “trained in countries where antisemitism is the norm.”

This tests the Association of American Medical Colleges. David J. Skorton, its CEO, tells me, “The AAMC and its member medical schools and academic health systems do not tolerate discrimination of any form, including antisemitism. We applaud this study for reporting these disturbing numbers and hope it serves to accelerate efforts across academic medicine to work against antisemitism.”

That acceleration is necessary. Jewish organisations that disseminated StandWithUs’ survey describe urgent problems.

Dr Miriam Knoll CEO of the Jewish Orthodox Women's Medical Association, says, "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. This problem manifests in many ways, including discrimination getting into medical school, residency and jobs. Many of our members are advised by their mentors to remove traces of the Jewish identity from their applications.” Michelle Stravitz, CEO of the American Jewish Medical Association, adds: “Anecdotally, and based on informal data, we are already seeing dwindling numbers of Jewish students in medical schools.”

Problems trail graduates, too. According to Dr Knoll, “Physicians with established academic careers have been compromised by antisemitic-based discrimination.”

Meanwhile, Stravitz notes, “we have heard multitudes of stories...of antisemitism in every relationship in the healthcare community — between professionals, between providers and patients, among medical students, and between faculty members and medical students, in both directions.”

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

“Institutions are failing to respond and/or enforce policies, which further enables these behaviours in the workplace and learning institutions. Jewish professionals and trainees are hiding their Jewish identities for fear of retribution or negative impact on their careers, and Jewish patients fear reporting their Jewish identity for fear of inadequate medical treatment.”

This merits the medical establishment’s attention. Asked about StandWithUs’ study, Dr Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, immediate past president of the American Medical Association, said he “understands the profound impact” of antisemitism - having experienced it: “The American Medical Association strongly condemns all acts of racism, as well as any discrimination based on ethnicity or religion within the medical profession and has set clear expectations that each health care facility, medical school, and teaching hospital must establish an organisational culture to prevent and address racism of any kind in the practice of medicine.”

Those expectations must be clearer. To that end, Wald and Roth’s article recommends “consistent enforcement of disciplinary consequences” for all discrimination. Kingsbury also advises: “Scrap DEI and identity politics. A meritocratic, race/ethnicity blind system is the one under which Jews flourished, and it's the one to which we should aspire to return.”

That way logic lies. Because in matters of life and death, having the most talented doctor is primary.

Melissa Langsam Braunstein is a writer based in the Washington DC area @slowhoneybee

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