Schwartz DM, Lieba R, Feldman CL, Spence NZ, Oratz R, Wald HS, Roth S. “Social Media, Survey, and Medical Literature Data Reveal Escalating Antisemitism Within the United States Healthcare Community.” J Relig Health. 2024 Dec 1. doi: 10.1007/s10943-024-02191-5. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39616591.
“Between 2014 and 2023, conflicts between Israel and Hamas have sparked false claims including accusations that Israeli and/ or Jewish health professionals practice organ harvesting, withhold medical care from Palestinian Arabs, and deliberately target Palestinian healthcare workers and/ or ambulances. These repurposed antisemitic blood libels single out healthcare professionals, which disproportionately affects the Jewish-identifying biomedical community. Of particular concern, some antisemitic tropes and unfounded allegations have been published in leading biomedical journals … nearly 90% of Jewish healthcare professionals and students reported exposure to antisemitism within their work or school environment after October 7, 2023.”
Full paper available here: Wald et al Dec 24
Abstract
Antisemitism has been rising for decades and worsened following the events of Oct 7, 2023. Although anecdotal evidence suggests that these trends extend into the US medical community, quantitative data have been lacking. To address this gap, we quantitated publications about antisemitism, analyzed social media posts from the accounts of 220,405 healthcare professionals, and disseminated a survey to members of Jewish medical associations. Publications and social media posts about antisemitism rose > fivefold, while posts promoting antisemitic stereotypes increased 2–fourfold. Most Jewish-identifying medical students and professionals (75.4%) reported exposure to antisemitism. Together, our results suggest that antisemitism is escalating within the US healthcare community.
