Medical education in Canada has become politicized and tolerant of antisemitism, Dr. Ted Rosenberg told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday in a conversation about the rising antisemitism in his field that led to his resigning from his clinical assistant professor role at the University of British Columbia.
Rosenberg ended his 30-year position at UBC over what he said was a refusal by the administration to recognize and address the conditions on campus that left Jewish students and faculty feeling unsafe.
Following the launch of the Israel-Hamas War with the Gazan terrorist group’s pogrom in southern Israel, over 220 UBC medical students signed onto a petition demanding the administration to call for a ceasefire.
“We truly believe that calling for a ceasefire is the correct thing for UBC to do and will fall on the right side of history,” said the letter, and that while they did not condone Hamas’s action or antisemitism that taking a stance on the conflict would “send a strong message of support for Palestinian civilians who are being killed in collective punishment through the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.”
Not willing to sign the petition
Rosenberg said that the petition that portrayed Israel as a “settler colonial state” was “historically inaccurate,” and that its publication led to polarization on campus. He related how a Jewish resident in pediatrics who wouldn’t sign the petition was lambasted on social media by students and faculty.
The resident, who knew someone murdered at the Supernova festival, reportedly attempted to appeal to department heads and the medical department Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) but was allegedly dismissed because the bullying occurred off campus and after hours.
The student petition’s language and accusations and the bullying in the letter worried Rosenberg, who did “a lot of teaching, personally.” He and other faculty members wanted to engage in dialogue with the students on the matter but were dissuaded by the administration due to the power imbalance.
In a November 29 letter to medical faculty dean Dr. Dermot Kelleher, UBC president Benoit-Antoine Bacon, and REDI executive director Rosalyn Goldner, Rosenberg challenged the petition’s rhetoric as delegitimizing and demonizing.
He asked the administration what steps they were taking to ensure a respectful environment, and asked them why they had not adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which addresses antizionist antisemitism.
Kelleher responded on December 5 assuring that any form of racism and hate would be addressed and that the university would provide emotional support to those that required it.
According to Rosenberg, the tensions meanwhile boiled over into classical antisemitism. One assistant professor made a post using iconography about the murder of Christ and the death of Palestinians. Rosenberg said that accusations of Jews as “Christ-killers” led to centuries of pervasive antisemitism. Another staff member accused Israel of stealing Palestinian organs in what he said was a “modern-day blood libel.” He also said that there were instances of students calling for Intifada — events in which hundreds of Israeli civilians were murdered.
Over 280 staff and students, including Rosenberg, sent Kelleher and Bacon a December 14 letter expressing concern “about the politicization and polarization within the medical school largely due to events occurring in Israel and Gaza. This is resulting in hate speech, student intimidation, and the feelings of many students and teachers that they are working in a toxic environment.” The letter called for the clarification of policies on hate speech and incitement to violence, education programs to combat antisemitism, and the adoption of IHRA.
Rosenberg felt that the administration’s December 5 letter did not address any of his concerns. He resigned in protest on January 1 with another letter.
“I truly hope that the Faculty of Medicine and UBC will recognize this serious threat of antisemitism/Jew-hatred and the dangers of politicization and polarization of the faculty and student body,” Rosenberg wrote.
Rosenberg shared his resignation on social media, leading to attention from local politicians and meetings with REDI. However, he said that the administration was unable to accept or publicly agree that antisemitism was an issue on campus.
He highlighted another incident that he said demonstrated a blind spot when it came to Jews, with an official faculty poster for The International Holocaust Remembrance Day that he said universalized the genocide and airbrushed out the Jewish people.
Choosing to brush over Jews and antisemitism
Rosenberg said that the poster didn’t mention Jews, and there was barely any mention of antisemitism.
The Jewish physicians and students that had banded together and previously sent the open letter to the administration “as a group were appalled,” said Rosenberg. When donors and alumni were alerted to the poster, it led to a change.
The unity of the group has raised morale and allowed the Jewish community to fight back, but “since October 7 we’ve all lost a lot of friends.”
Rosenberg said that there was a “Pervasive tolerance of antisemitism” in Canadian medical educational institutions,” as “Every other faculty of medicine is having the same problem — I’ve been in touch with my colleagues across Canada.”
The source of the problem, according to Rosenberg, is that “they don’t want to recognize Jews as a vulnerable group” because they’re seen as white, privileged, and settler-colonial, a thorny status in a country still grappling with its history.
Programs had been brought in to “decolonize” educational institutions, leading Jews to fall in “the crosshairs of intersectionality,” as social justice has become more important than medical practice.
Antisemitism in the medical world
“I believe that we need to depoliticize medicine,” said Rosenberg.
It wasn’t possible to properly practice medicine in such an environment, because doctors and nurses are expected to care for patients with a wide variety of beliefs, and that care shouldn’t be compromised by either side’s political positions. Practitioners also need to cooperate with one another to care for patients, but polarization and community strife could interfere with cohesion.
“Imagine a Jewish patient goes to a doctor that’s posting about Jewish apartheid,” said Rosenberg, which he said would create a lack of trust.
He noted that his own brother had received medical mistreatment for being Jewish.
When undergoing an eye procedure, he was asked if he was Jewish. When he said yes the doctor had a change in demeanor, and during the procedure, he wasn’t given proper anesthetic and ignored when he was notified of his discomfort. When he complained, he was told by the hospital that due to many incidents about the medical practitioner “He’s not with us anymore.”
Rosenberg bemoaned that this was the situation in Canada and the inability for institutions to even recognize the problem.