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Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Barbara Kay: Antisemitism plagues Canadian medical schools. It isn't healthy
Universities are ground zero for the most virulent strains of antisemitism that plague the West today. But within them, some clusters are more problematic than others. Above all, the widespread antisemitism in university faculties of medicine and affiliated hospitals. Simmering for decades in these departments, the October 7 pogrom unleashed a dramatic surge in its expression amongst students, faculty and practitioners that cries out for attention at the highest levels. Research on this subject is accumulating. It's essentially a borderless issue, as becomes clear in the international perspective undertaken in an April report by Israel's Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal, which compares the experiences of Jewish medical personnel in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the U.S. One Canadian example at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of British Columbia (UBC) describes the 1930s-Germany vibe common in Canada's largest medical faculties: 'Social media posts vilifying Israel and espousing Jew hatred were circulated by physicians at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of British Columbia after the October 7 massacre. Allegations included Christ-killing, organ trafficking, and other nefarious conspiracies supposedly hatched by Jewish doctors. Some asserted that Jewish faculty should not be allowed to adjudicate resident matching because the examining doctors were Jewish and might be racist.' It gets worse. When three hundred Jewish students signed a letter expressing concern about UBC's tolerance of Jew hatred, 'the Dean of the medical faculty refused to recognize antisemitism as a problem at UBC or to meet with (their) representatives.' This refusal to address antisemitism in the faculty led to the public resignation of Dr. Ted Rosenberg, a senior Jewish faculty member, last January. 'Sadly,' the report authors conclude, reported experiences by Jewish physicians 'are mostly congruent and illustrate the existence and degree of antisemitism and anti-Zionism expressed toward healthcare providers in their respective countries.' As a result, a career in medicine, where Jews have disproportionately flourished for so long, is losing its lustre. The Jewish Medical Association of Ontario (JMAO) conducted a 2024 survey, which has yet to be published, of 944 Jewish doctors and medical students from across Canada. Two thirds of respondents were 'concerned that antisemitic bias from peers or educators will negatively affect their careers.' JMAO organizers pronounced themselves 'stunned' to discover 80 per cent of respondents — about 380 people — had faced antisemitism at work since October 7, 39 per cent in hospitals and 43 per cent in academic institutions. Thirty-one per cent of respondents from Ontario — about 150 people — are considering emigrating to the U.S. or Israel on that account. Dr. Lisa Salomon, JMAO's president, told me via email that while enrolment decline of Jewish students could reflect other factors, the anecdotal evidence is 'deeply concerning.' According to Salomon, 'At the University of Toronto — the largest medical school in Ontario and located in the city with the largest Jewish population in Canada — we estimate that only 11 Jewish students are currently completing their first year of medical school out of a class of 291. This is approximately half the number of Jewish students in the previous year's class….' (For historical contrast, a physician friend who graduated from U of T's medical school in 1974 was one of 46 Jews in a class of 218.) Grassroots Canadian organizations like Doctors Against Racism and Antisemitism (DARA) (on whose honorary board I sit) have provided a cornucopia of evidence that the situation for Jews at the U of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine has become dire. DARA has pushed back with dynamism and moral clarity for years: petitions, open letters to deans and university presidents, political activism. But quelling this rapidly spreading epidemic will take measures that voluntary organizations do not have the authority to impose. The worst news on this front is that the problem may be insoluble. On May 18, Tablet Magazine published an article with the provocative title, 'Ask your doctor if Jihad is right for you.' The more sober subheading declares that American medicine's antisemitism problem is 'driven by foreign-trained doctors importing the Jew-hatred of their native countries.' The article's authors, Jay P. Greene, and Ian Kingsbury, respectively a Senior Fellow at Do No Harm, a health care advocacy non-profit, and its director, conducted research based on data amassed by the organization Stop Antisemitism. Their findings project a grim future for healthcare. The authors identified a 'set of over 700 people from all walks of life profiled by Stop Antisemitism for displaying flagrant hostility toward Jews and Israel.' They found that doctors were 'almost 26 times overrepresented in the list of antisemites relative to their prevalence in the workforce.' Half of the Jew-hating doctors 'received their medical degrees abroad,' many in the Middle East or Pakistan, where open expression of extreme antisemitism is considered 'appropriate or even enlightened.' Homegrown cosplaying revolutionaries, imbued with DEI-based revulsion from Zionism, follow their lead. As in the U.S., where the Trump administration is currently investigating antisemitism within the medical faculties at four elite universities, Canada needs more doctors than can be domestically sourced. We will therefore continue to welcome medical students, residents and practitioners from regions where antisemitism is a cultural norm. Only a small fraction of them will choose to fan flames of hate against their Jewish colleagues. But that small fraction, supported by international entities bent on dangerous mischief, is enough to sow high anxiety in a targeted community that, on this file above all others, wasn't born yesterday. kaybarb@ X: @BarbaraRKay
New York Times
23-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
What to Know About Trump Officials' Latest Move Against Columbia
In the latest act in its monthslong targeting of Columbia University, the Trump administration has formally accused the Ivy League institution of violating federal civil rights law by failing to protect Jewish students. The move, announced late Thursday, came as the White House intensified its crackdown on colleges that refuse to follow its agenda. Hours before releasing its accusations against Columbia, the administration told Harvard that its ability to enroll international students was being suspended, a remarkable step that a federal judge blocked swiftly on Friday. In the case of Columbia, where pro-Palestinian demonstrations against the war in Gaza ignited a national protest movement last year, the administration accused the university of breaching Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits the recipients of federal funds from engaging in discriminatory behavior. The potential fallout remained unclear on Friday. The administration, which previously suspended more than $400 million in research funding to Columbia, did not announce new penalties on Thursday. Earlier this month, administration officials praised the university's acting president, Claire Shipman, for quelling a demonstration at the main library on the Morningside Heights campus in Manhattan. Here's what we know: Columbia has already been accused of failings. How is this different? The move on Thursday appeared to reflect the administration's unusual approach to slashing federal funding to colleges. Historically, such cancellations would follow a lengthy review process. But, legal experts said, the Trump administration has not always adhered to standard procedure, taking swift action against universities' finances and sometimes notifying news outlets before campus leaders. The administration has not reached an agreement with Columbia about whether the funds will be restored and discussions are continuing. But the federal government would typically need to release the findings of an investigation before arriving at a resolution with a university, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The announcement on Thursday was considered a step by the administration to formalize its previous accusations against Columbia, rather than a signal of a new, heightened stage of the campaign against the university. The administration had already accused Columbia of 'ongoing inaction in the face of relentless harassment of Jewish students' when it slashed the federal grants and contracts in March. And when Columbia was ordered to drastically alter its admissions and disciplinary rules, the administration wrote that the university had failed to protect its campus from 'antisemitic violence and harassment in addition to other alleged violations of Title VI and Title VII.' (Title VII prevents private employers from discriminating based on race, religion or sex.) In response, Columbia announced changes to campus protest and security policies and new oversight of its Middle Eastern studies department. Are Columbia and President Trump on rocky terms? For more than a year, Republicans have clashed with Columbia's leadership over its response to antisemitic episodes on campus. Two university presidents have resigned abruptly, including Katrina Armstrong, who was replaced in March shortly after an appearance at a faculty meeting, where she seemed to downplay the effects of changes that the university had said it would make. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has largely shifted its attention to Harvard. Harvard's president, Alan Garber, has more fought back more forcefully against Mr. Trump and his administration, and federal officials have cut more than $2.6 billion in federal grants and contracts to the university. At Columbia, students mounted several large demonstrations toward the end of the spring semester and booed Ms. Shipman during the main commencement ceremony this week. Still, the Trump administration has not complained recently about Columbia's handling of campus protests or antisemitic episodes. A Columbia spokesman said on Friday that 'we understand this finding is part of our ongoing discussions with the government,' adding that the university was 'deeply committed to combating antisemitism and all forms of harassment and discrimination on our campus.' Anthony Archeval, the acting director of the Office for Civil Rights at H.H.S., said in a statement that Columbia 'cannot continue to act with deliberate indifference to the hostile environment created by its own students and faculty.' He added that the administration would continue to push for a 'meaningful and enforceable' plan to root out campus discrimination. Does Title VI apply to religious discrimination? Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin. In 2004, Kenneth L. Marcus, the interim leader of the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights at the time, expanded federal enforcement of Title VI to include ancestry, meaning students who are harassed because of their 'membership in groups that exhibit both ethnic and religious characteristics' such as Arab Muslims or Sikhs. The Obama administration later endorsed and clarified that interpretation of Title VI. And the Trump administration said on Thursday that Columbia's violations centered on failures to safeguard students 'based on their actual or perceived Israeli or Jewish identity or ancestry.' The administration said it had released the finding on Thursday after interviews with witnesses, an examination of news reports about antisemitic episodes on campus and a review of Columbia's policies and reports by a university task force on antisemitism.
Bloomberg
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Northwestern Investigated by US for Discrimination Against Jews
Northwestern University is facing a probe by the US Department of Health and Human Services for alleged civil rights violations against Jewish students, an investigation that could lead to further restrictions on federal funding to the school. The agency said in a statement on Tuesday that it was investigating a 'prestigious Midwest university' to determine whether it complied with Title VI following a complaint from an an advocacy organization. The statement withheld the name of the school and the group but a Northwestern spokesman confirmed that the university is reviewing an HHS request.
