Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

New advocacy group launched for Jewish medical professionals

“We need a voice. We need to protect ourselves,” said the treasurer of the new American Jewish Medical Association.

Stethoscope hospital doctor
Stehoscope. Credit: Parentingupstream/Pixabay.

A new advocacy group for Jewish medical professionals aims to combat antisemitism at U.S. hospitals, the New York Post reported.

The American Jewish Medical Association is a “safe, enriching community with a unified voice for all Jewish healthcare workers,” per the website of the nonprofit, which brings together Jewish doctors, fellows, residents, medical students, and public health and healthcare professionals.

The group’s founder and president, Yael Halaas, a Manhattan plastic surgeon, told the Post that “it’s fundamentally scary for those of us who care about humanity. It’s Nazi Germany all over again.”

“Jewish medical students are bullied into silence,” she added.

The new group’s treasurer, Cary Schwartzbach, an orthopedist, told the Post that “antisemitism has made a lot of hospital residency programs uncomfortable for Jewish students.”

“We need a voice. We need to protect ourselves,” Schwartzbach said. “We need to protect medical school students.”

When FBI agents visited Dale Ankney to question him about his social media activity, he allegedly threatened to “cap” them, according to court filings.
Forrest Kendall Pemberton allegedly scouted what he thought was an AIPAC office in South Florida and planned to return with concealed guns, prosecutors allege.
“The challenges facing American Jewry are also very profound,” Rabbi Menachem Genack told JNS. “The risk of rapid assimilation. The level of antisemitism that we’re seeing. The security challenges facing the State of Israel.”
“This is the same president who moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, delivered the Abraham Accords peace agreements, tore up Obama’s disastrous JCPOA, ended the war in Gaza and brought all of the hostages home,” the group stated.
“All U.S. military blockade enforcement efforts have ceased,” U.S. Central Command stated.
“Somerville is not supposed to be conducting U.S. foreign policy,” Richard Rosen of the Brandeis Center told JNS.