Med students’ antisemitic comments after Oct. 7 roil two prominent DC universities
Social media posts by physicians-in-training on Hamas atrocities use tropes like media control and global cabals, raising worry about how tomorrow’s MDs will treat Jewish patients
Reporter at The Times of Israel
By most accounts, Georgetown University Medical School is a tight-knit, collaborative community where students are laser-focused on their coursework. It’s a place where outside politics remain just that — outside.
At least that was the case until October 7, when Hamas-led terrorists breached Israel’s border, brutally slaughtered 1,200 people — most of them civilians — kidnapped 240 more into the Gaza Strip, and ignited a war.
One medical student mocked the massacre on TikTok: “People will wholeheartedly say that they would ‘kill for their family’ and yet not understand this.” Another student castigated people on Instagram for “criticizing Palestinian resistance efforts.”
The posts shocked the handful of Jewish students who attend the nation’s largest Catholic and Jesuit medical school. Jewish students account for 3.8 percent of the university’s 13,337 graduate students.
“These posts are inciting, divisive, and inappropriate. The posts often reference ‘Zionist colleagues,’ which most likely attempts to call out the few Jewish students at the medical school. Furthermore, the posts all rely on ancient antisemitic themes and tropes such as Jews controlling the media, claiming that Jews simultaneously orchestrated the October 7 massacre and deserve what happened to them,” said one Jewish student at Georgetown’s medical school.
Fearing both academic and professional reprisals, all of the students interviewed by The Times of Israel for this article would speak only on condition of anonymity or with the use of a pseudonym.
Since the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught, protests against Israel have overtaken university campuses across the United States — often bringing antisemitism with them.
Although attention has largely been focused on undergraduate students, students and professors at two Washington, DC-area med schools — Georgetown University Medical School and The George Washington University (GWU) School of Medicine — told The Times of Israel that overt displays of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment have become more prevalent as of late. They described it as a worrisome trend, particularly because these students will someday be responsible for protecting the lives and health of their patients.
“Physicians are healers and scientists that base their practice on facts, academic discourse and compassion. These medical students have spread hate speech, propaganda and antisemitic content in direct violation of professional and ethical standards of medicine,” said another Jewish student at Georgetown.
Antisemitism in US medical schools is not new. In the 1920s, most US medical schools established quotas limiting the number of Jewish students allowed to enroll. These quotas weren’t lifted until the 1970s. However, what’s happening now is potentially more harmful, said Liora Rez, Executive Director of StopAntisemitism.org.
“It is imperative that the medical field be free of antisemitic hate. Bigoted doctors not only pose a risk to their patients, they threaten the very credibility of the profession itself. These medical students will soon have the sacrosanct charge of defending every patient’s life and health, and their colleges are responsible for ensuring that they will execute that charge faithfully,” Rez said.
Between October 7 and December 7, the ADL recorded 2,031 antisemitic incidents, up from 465 incidents during the same period in 2022. This includes 40 incidents of physical assault, 337 incidents of vandalism, 749 incidents of verbal or written harassment and 905 rallies including antisemitic rhetoric, expressions of support for terrorism against the state of Israel or anti-Zionism, according to the ADL.
As an example of written harassment, at least 10 medical students at Georgetown Medical School have posted antisemitic content on social media since October 7, according to time-stamped screenshots shared with The Times of Israel.
For example, one student posted on Instagram: “It’s so infuriating to see the majority of the world on palestine’s side, on the right side of history yet fully unable to do anything because the world’s power is condensed in a small group of very, very evil people.”
The posts appear to violate the Jesuit values “Cura Personalis,” or care for the whole person, that is integral to a Georgetown education.
“There have been some medical students posting pretty vile stuff and it’s my mission to protect Jewish students. This behavior is anathema to becoming to a physician. It’s antithetical to what they want to become. What will they do if they have to treat an Israeli patient or a Jewish patient?” said Dr. Aviad Haramati, Professor of Integrative Physiology and co-director of the Graduate Program in Integrative Medicine & Health Sciences at Georgetown’s medical school.
Yet while Haramati, an Orthodox Jew and eighth-generation Israeli, said he believes the school’s leaders value diverse perspectives, he also said there have been clear instances of antisemitism, including senior residents who have “gotten in the face of Jewish residents” as well as non-Jewish students direct-messaging their Jewish peers “Free Palestine” during Zoom classes, he said.
After the Zoom incident, Dr. Lee Jones, GU’s Dean for Medical Education sent a message to all medical students.
“I am writing today to share information on a classroom incident that has led to a bias report filed with Georgetown’s Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity & Affirmative Action (IDEAA). During a School of Medicine Zoom class lecture for all M1s on November 16, an unidentified participant sent an unwelcome unprompted direct chat message to a student of Jewish faith in what appears to be a targeted incident,” reads the November 17 statement. “Acts of harassment and bias are antithetical to our commitment to an inclusive and respectful learning environment and are unbecoming of physicians committed to do no harm.”
The school also created a new web resource page for the entire Georgetown community, a university spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, on December 4, the GWU School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Anti-Racism Coalition hosted a faculty panel with the Institute for Middle East Studies. During the virtual discussion, titled “Understanding the Conflict in Israel and Palestine” panelists said Hamas terrorists have a “right of resistance” against Israel, and referred to Israel’s war with Hamas as “ethnic cleansing,” according to several students who attended the discussion.
Yet, Yaakov, a GWU medical student who asked to be identified by his Hebrew name, said this isn’t the most troubling thing to have happened. Rather it’s that some of his peers openly lauded the terror onslaught.
“One of the most eye-opening things for me was that so many of my classmates, many of whom want to become OB-GYNs, stayed silent on the mass rape that was done on innocent women in Israel by Hamas and its allies. Students were brought into medical school due to their desire to help and care for those in need. However, that does not appear to be the case with the content that they post on social media,” Yaakov said.
A university spokesperson said leadership has repeatedly condemned Hamas and its horrific October 7 terror attack on Israel.
However, while “faculty and students at GWU have the right to freely express their own views, they do not speak on behalf of the university.”
As for the December 4 panel, the spokesperson said, “Many events and discussions do not — and cannot be expected to — reflect all sides of every issue.”
Nonetheless, the university takes its commitment to addressing all forms of harassment, discrimination, bias, and violations of university policy seriously, the spokesperson said. GWU restricted the activities of its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for violating the Code of Student Conduct when students projected pro-Hamas messages onto the side of the university library including “Glory to our martyrs” and “Free Palestine from the river to the sea.”
The university also put a student who improperly removed posters from inside the GWU Hillel building on an interim suspension pending completion of the student conduct process.
“GWU recognizes that students, including those attending the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, experience fear, pain and anxiety as a result of a variety of discourse, including that on social media. This is among the reasons why the university provides resources, support and avenues for engaging school administrators and other leaders,” the spokesperson said.
Yet, for another Jewish GWU medical student who requested to be identified by the initials I.G., resources aren’t enough to lessen the hostility that has gripped the campus.
“As medical professionals, we have a responsibility to stand up against hate in any form. We have stood up for BLM, women’s rights, the LGBTQ+ community, and against Asian hate. We aren’t asking for different treatment, just asking for the same,” they said.
“I miss the days when I was able to just be a medical student. Having to constantly advocate for our community, denounce antisemitism, and continue with our studies has been exhausting,” said I.G.
