A new study has been published on antisemitic acts by medical students in the US at their graduation studies. The paper appeared in the international, peer-reviewed, Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal – proudly published by Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel.
Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal is an Open Access peer-reviewed publication that seeks to expand the knowledge base of medicine, science, humanity and ethics throughout the world, flavored by the salt of the 800-year-old philosophy of Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon—the Maimonides. Donor-supported, the journal is published by Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel, and charges no publication or processing fees.
An important article by Drs. Steven Roth and Hedy S. Wald was published today, titled “US Medical Schools’ 2024 Commencements and Antisemitism: Addressing Unprofessional Behavior.” Their findings are shocking: just over 50% of America’s top medical schools did not interfere with the antisemetic acts of graduating medical students during their commencement ceremonies.
The research involved a close examination of publicly available videotaped commencement ceremonies for antisemetic activities. Care was taken to define antisemitism according to objective standards, as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Antisemetic acts were defined as all behavior and/or regalia, including symbols, calling for aiding or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or extremist view of religion, or denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, or declarations that the existence of the State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
Of the 25 top US medical school commencement ceremonies examined, just over half (13) included students wearing keffiyehs and graduation stoles conveying antisemitic messages. Among these, around 23% of the graduating students wore antisemitic buttons, carried banners or signs, interrupted the ceremony with verbal protests, or deviated from their assigned role in the ceremony in order to present their own perspective of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For example, at one commencement ceremony, a student carried a keffiyeh onto the stage, unfurled it, and, unimpeded, proudly displayed a sign reading, “End genocide, apartheid, Zionism, end your complicity, free Palestine,” pictured below.
Read the original article by Drs. Steven Roth and Hedy S. Wald
Among the schools identified were: Harvard Medical School, Columbia University (Vangelos), Stanford University, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and Baylor School of Medicine.
The authors concluded their study with a call for change by educational institutions: “Given the increasing recognition of antisemitism in US medicine, as well as increasing global antisemitism, it is prudent for medical schools and health centers to take proactive steps to address and attenuate antisemitism and all forms of discrimination to ensure a safe environment for all.”
Rambam Health Care Campus is proud to be the publisher of Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal. The journal exemplifies the Rambam vision based on the teachings of Maimonides and making diversity and coexistence a standard for all medical professionals.
