Jewish American Health-Care Professionals Report Widespread Antisemitism, New Study Finds

Nearly 40 percent of Jewish American health-care professionals have encountered antisemitism in the workplace, either as witnesses or victims, according to a new study conducted by the Data & Analytics Department of StandWithUs, a Jewish civil rights group.

Titled “Antisemitism in American Healthcare: A Survey Study of Reported Experiences,” the study included a survey of 645 Jewish health workers, a substantial number of whom relayed harrowing accounts of overhearing their colleagues within their professional or academic environments say that Zionists should not receive medical care, being subject to “social and professional isolation,” and being doxxed as retaliation for reporting antisemitic behavior. The problem has left over one quarter of the survey cohort, 26.4 percent, “feeling unsafe or threatened,” StandWithUs said in a press release announcing that the study was published last week in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

“This study represents the experiences of health-care professionals from 32 states, offering critical insights into the pervasiveness of antisemitism in our profession,” said Dr. Kelly Michelson, co-author of the study and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s director of the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities. “It is imperative for medical institutions to incorporate training that confronts antisemitism to ensure the safety and inclusivity of all health-care professionals.”

The researchers also said that the findings necessitate an expansion of diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings to include antisemitism education.

“This groundbreaking pilot study aimed to understand the prevalence and impact of bigotry against Jews in health care. It is deeply troubling when nearly 40 percent [39.2 percent] of respondents indicate that they have personally experienced or witnessed antisemitism in their places of work,” StandWithUs director of Data & Analytics Dr. Alexandra Fishman added. “This resurgence of hatred and discrimination requires both further study and immediate action by leaders in the medical field.”

StandWithUs’s study followed a similar one published in Canada earlier this month, in which Jewish doctors reported being chased not only out of the field of medicine but also out of the country. Commissioned by the Jewish Medical Association of Ontario (JMAO), that survey found that 80 percent of Jewish medical workers who responded to it “have faced antisemitism at work” since Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7 and that 31 percent of Jewish doctors — 98 percent of whom “are worried about the impact of antisemitism on health care” — have weighed emigrating from Canada to another country.

It also found that while just 1 percent of Canadian Jewish doctors experienced antisemitism in a community, hospital, or academic setting prior to Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught, 29 percent, 39 percent, and 43 percent say they have experienced some antisemitism in each of those settings since then, respectively. In Ontario specifically, the survey found that antisemitism was widely reported within academic spaces (73 percent) and hospitals (60 percent). Meanwhile, according to the Toronto Sun, just over 25 percent of Jewish medical students experienced academic antisemitism before October 2023, but that number spiked to 63 percent afterward.

“Antisemitism in Canadian health care has intensified dramatically since Oct. 7,” Dr. Ayelet Kuper, chairwoman of the JMAO, said during a press conference held in Toronto to announce the release of the data. “This is not an isolated issue — when any group faces discrimination, it impacts the foundation of trust and safety in our health care system.”

She continued, “It’s incredibly concerning to watch antisemitism creep into our medical institutions across the province. Discrimination doesn’t just impact doctors; it undermines the entire health care environment, compromising patient care and eroding workplace integrity. This is a crisis for all people in Ontario, not just Jewish doctors.”

Another medical professional present at the event, Dr. Sam Silver, added, “This is personal for me. I work with health care students and residents who are bright, compassionate, and committed to becoming the future of health care in Canada. Yet they are navigating a hostile environment where their identity as Jews makes them targets of hate and exclusion. This cannot continue.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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