New peer-reviewed study reveals pervasive and persisting antisemitism in healthcare

The American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA) commends the publication of “Anatomy of Antisemitism in Health Professions Education and Practice: A Narrative Review,” in Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal by Hedy S. Wald, Ph.D., of Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School and Dr. Steven Roth of the University of Illinois College of Medicine.

The authors describe the study as the first systematic review of antisemitism across the health professions, synthesizing evidence from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia since the Hamas-led massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Their work presents data on pervasive antisemitism in health care in the backdrop of fewer than 2% of U.S. institutions having reportedly incorporated the problem of bias and bigotry against Jews into their anti-discrimination training.

The study also identifies the growing role of anti-Zionist bias as a contemporary form of antisemitism, which, according to the study, has spread into clinical and academic settings and directly threatens unbiased patient care.

Additionally, the research exposes a gap in the medical literature itself. Despite a reported rise of antisemitism in health-care settings, the medical literature has largely failed to keep pace.

A search of PubMed, the National Library of Medicine’s primary database for peer-reviewed medical research, returned just 61 records on “antisemitism” in the health-care professions over the study period, compared with 732 for “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” and 3,824 for “racism”—12 and 63 times more, respectively.

The study includes recommendations for health-care organizations, medical schools and other health professions schools, as well as professional associations, to address antisemitism, including anti-Israel manifestations, and to ensure unbiased care for all patients.

The authors call on institutions to adopt a “4Es” framework: Education, Engagement, Empathy and Enforcement. That includes mandatory teaching on antisemitism and medicine’s historical complicity in the Holocaust in training and continuing-education curricula upheld by accrediting bodies; consistent enforcement of anti-discrimination standards; and calls for medical journals to uphold publication standards free from anti-Israel bias.

“Antisemitism in health care has become a problem that can no longer be ignored. We conducted this research to ensure that health care leaders and policymakers recognize the scale and scope of this problem and take necessary steps to address it. Understanding the breadth and depth of the issue is the first step; action must follow,” said the authors of the report.

“Wald’s and Roth’s new research is an addition to the body of evidence that AJMA and others have been presenting to policymakers, health-care leaders and the public and its publication in a peer-reviewed journal gives that evidence considerable weight,” said AJMA CEO Eveline Shekhman. “AJMA will use this research as a tool to push for accountability until medical institutions treat antisemitism with the same seriousness as every other form of discrimination.”

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