To Dr. Yael Halaas, the antisemitic incidents directed at healthcare professionals across the country since the outbreak of Israel’s war with Gaza are not only heartbreaking but are “the same type of ideology that took over the medical profession in Nazi Germany.”

Halaas is president and founder of the American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA), launched after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, as it became evident that Jews here were also under attack.

Doctors, nurses and other professionals have been shunned and taunted by colleagues; there have been calls for them to be removed and accusations such as Zionists are a threat to people of color leveled at them. Jewish medical students have been kicked out of study groups and ostracized by classmates. Jewish patients have reported instances of being refused medical care. Halaas said complaints have been pouring in from victimized doctors, nurses, X-ray technicians, psychologists and patients, while those spewing hate have been allowed to keep their jobs under the guise of free speech.

“It is so frightening that these people in medicine are given outsized credit for intelligence and authority but are terribly guilty of hatred,” said Haalas, a Manhattan facial plastic surgeon. There were a lot of prominent Jews before the Holocaust, but there was no unity and they did not have the legal and legislative means to fight back.”

However, Jewish healthcare professionals are fighting back against the antisemitism that has pervaded some of the New York area’s top institutions with a rally, “Healthcare Free From Hate,” to be held Sept. 30 at 5 p.m. in Manhattan and sponsored by the AJMA. It is open to all healthcare providers, their families and supporters and has more than 15 co-sponsors, including StandWithUs, Jewish Orthodox Women’s Medical Association, Hadassah, Friends of Magen David Adom, Nashama: Association of Jewish Chaplains, Jewish Physicians Network and the Anti-Defamation League. Location and details will be given upon registration. Those attending are asked to wear their scrubs, white coats or “AJMA swag.”

“As the higher education academic year begins, and the anniversary of October 7 looms ahead, we must be proactive and demand a stronger stance against antisemitism in our healthcare institutions,” the AJMA said on its website. “We can no longer stand idly by as our healthcare system is taken over by false narratives and vitriolic hate.”

Dr. Alan Perlman is a nephrologist and a professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine who helped organize the rally. He became motivated after a group of medical students organized a grand round, an organized program of education and learning with medical students, doctors and health care professionals discussing best treatment options for a patient, at the Ivy League school.

“They were basically a group of Hamas supporters who organized a grand round at this prestigious school for what they called the medical genocide in Gaza,” said Perlman. “They even used Cornell’s logo to make it look more prestigious.”

Initially the event was supposed to take place on campus but some Jewish physicians pushed back with the administration and it was moved to Zoom.

“Since that time there have been other antisemitic incidents with mobs that have protested in front of Cornell,” as well as at nearby Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, both of which have a number of Jewish medical staff, said Perlman.

“They were screaming at patients going into the hospital to get chemotherapy that they were genocidists,” he said, prompting a large group of mostly Jewish physicians to form a WhatsApp group that began to draw members from other area hospitals.

“The role of this group is to push back on medical school administrations in order to remove antisemitic bias from medical schools and promote proper decorum in medical school and hospital settings,” said Perlman. “What also came about was the idea we actually have some strength and some assets and can push back against these ubiquitous agitators.”

These medical practitioners are not alone. The hate and vitriol has escalated to such an extent that 40 leaders representing the Jewish Federations of North America came to Capitol Hill earlier this month to urge Congress to address the antisemitism that has “exploded” in the field and “has threatened to push our community out”

“We’ve been seeing health organizations, practices, schools and associations take radical political positions whose only practical effect is to exclude Jews, as well as more blatant efforts to ostracize Jewish members of our community,” said Evan Bernstein, vice president of Community Relations for Jewish Federations of North America. “We’re hearing more and more concerns about this from our Federation communities across America, so we decided it was time to come to Washington to sound the alarm.”

The antisemitism has been found to be rampant in medical professional associations, medical schools and medical journals and there have even been stories of patients being denied psychological care because they are “Zionists.”

Several months ago the House Energy and Commerce Committee (ECC) launched an investigation into serious allegations of antisemitism and harassment at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Centers, penning a letter to the university chancellor over the issue.

On Sept. 19 a second congressional letter was sent by the ECC and House Committee on Education and the Workforce to Interim Columbia University President Katrina Armstrong demanding answers to “ongoing and pervasive” acts of antisemitic harassment at the university and its associate medical school and centers.

At Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where its medical school is housed, the letter said Jewish students felt excluded and unable to openly identify as Jewish or express their Jewish identity on campus.

It noted the Columbia Antisemitism Task Force report said the antisemitic hostility at the university had even spilled over onto the medical center and services.

For example, an Israeli student reported she had gone to health services but no one came into the room to see her and she overheard a discussion between two health care professionals in another room in which one said they would not treat her because she was Israeli. She sat in the room for another 10 minutes until someone finally came to address her health needs.

Both institutions could lose federal funding over the incidents, including from the National Institutes of Health.

“We’re established health care professionals,” said Perlman. “We are adults. We’ve spent our lives in a noble profession taking care of people regardless of their religion, ethnic background, gender or socioeconomic class for the benefit of humanity and with our voices we can be very powerful.”

For Haalas the need for continued vigilance and pushback is evident. In fact the situation has become so untenable for many that the AJMA has received numerous donations to cover its membership fees for others. “Jews have enjoyed a golden age in this country and we never thought we’d have to have an association,” said Halaas.

To register for the rally, buy swag or join the association go to theajma.org.

Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly and daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.