AJMA Statements
The American Jewish Medical Association is a non-political 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization comprised of Jewish (and allied non-Jewish) healthcare professionals including physicians, nurses, dentists, public health and allied health professionals, and more.
AJMA Statement Supporting American Service Members and Healthcare Personnel in the Current Conflict in the Middle East
February 28, 2026
The American Jewish Medical Association stands in solidarity with members of the United States Armed Forces working to restore stability in the Middle East, and with the medical personnel who support them, including nurses, physicians, medical technicians, and all healthcare professionals serving under extraordinary and dangerous circumstances.
We pray for the safety and well-being of all medical personnel throughout the region, including those in Israel, Iran, and in allied and supporting nations. We also pray for the protection of civilians across the region and surrounding countries.
We recognize that the people of Iran are not synonymous with the actions of their regime. We pray for the safety, dignity, and future of the Iranian people, many of whom seek peace, stability, and freedom from repression.
In times of conflict, the need for medical expertise intensifies, and so too does the risk borne by those who provide care. We honor their courage, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to preserving human life.
The American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA) is the sole nationwide U.S. organization representing Jewish healthcare professionals across all disciplines and career stages.
Calling for Recognition and Equal Representation of Jewish Psychologists Within the American Psychological Association
AJMA Joins Leading Jewish Organizations Nationwide in Urging APA Council to Recognize the Association of Jewish Psychologists (AJP).
Below is the letter submitted to the APA Council of Representatives.
February 19, 2026
Dear Members of the American Psychological Association Council of Representatives,
We, a coalition of Jewish American Organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL); the American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA); American Jewish Committee (AJC); Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America; Jewish Federations of North America; Jewish Council for Public Affairs; Jewish Labor Committee; StandWithUs; The Jewish Grad Organization; and The Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies write in recognition that the Association of Jewish Psychologists (AJP) is a representative body of Jewish psychologists and support its inclusion and voting representation within the APA Council of Representatives. The language and rationale advanced by some groups within APA and outside of APA are discriminatory, insofar as they conflict with established legal recognition of Jewish identity as encompassing both ethnic and religious dimensions. Supreme Court precedent and federal civil rights protections make clear that Jews constitute an identifiable ethnic group entitled to equal representation and protection under the law.
Together, our organizations represent all facets of Jewish communal and professional life across the United States. We represent Jewish healthcare practitioners, educators, advocates, faith congregants and community institutions. More significantly, we represent Jewish and allied patients and their families - those who are most vulnerable and at risk of a lack of representation. Collectively, we serve, support, and engage the breadth of Jewish communities nationwide, bringing perspectives shaped by clinical practice, public service, academic leadership, and community-based work. Lack of representation by AJP, an organization that is, indeed, representative of Jewish communities throughout the world, would be detrimental to the entirety of our global Jewish community.
The arguments presented by groups antagonistic to AJP reflect a profound and intentional lack of understanding of Jewish identity as a people and ethnic group, and the increasingly dangerous reality of antisemitism. Jewish identity encompasses ethnicity, culture, shared ancestry, peoplehood, and religion. Such rhetoric deepens exclusion at a moment when many Jewish professionals already feel vulnerable within academic and professional spaces.
This moment is particularly concerning given the documented rise in antisemitism across the United States, and especially within professional and educational establishments. Jewish mental health professionals, like all communities represented within APA, deserve access to spaces where they can collectively address the unique professional and social challenges affecting their work and well-being. That includes having equal access to a voice - and a vote. Recognition of AJP would simply ensure that Jewish psychologists have the same representation afforded to other defined groups within APA.
We therefore urge you, as representatives of APA Council, to vote in support of the recognition of AJP as an Ethnic Psychological Association. Doing so would affirm a commitment to fairness, inclusion, and the protection of all communities from discrimination, and would send a clear signal that Jewish professionals belong fully and equally within the profession and the Association they serve. We respectfully ask that the Council reject frameworks that delegitimize Jewish identity and Jewish representation.
We, a coalition of the major Jewish organizations in the United States, remain ready to serve as partners to APA. We welcome the opportunity to support ongoing dialogue and consultation for the benefit of not only Jewish psychologists, but all psychologists who have been victimized by persecution, racism, antisemitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, and hatreds that have no place in an inclusive, democratic society.
With faith and sincere thanks,
American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Medical Association
Anti-Defamation League
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Jewish Faculty Resilience Group
Jewish Federations of North America
Jewish Labor Committee
StandWithUs
The Jewish Grad Organization
The Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies
Issued by the American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA)
The American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA) is the sole nationwide U.S. organization representing Jewish healthcare professionals across all disciplines and career stages.
Calling for an Immediate Investigation Into Politicization of Public Health Agencies and Antisemitism Risks
February 5, 2026 - The American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA) condemns Mayor Mamdani’s newly-launched “Global Oppression Working Group” within the New York City Department of Health. This entity is advancing accusations that Israel is committing “genocide.” This represents a perverse misuse of a taxpayer-funded public health institution for ideological activism and raises serious civil-rights, workplace discrimination, and public-trust concerns.
New York’s Department of Health exists to protect patients in New York not to promote politically charged narratives that risk marginalizing Jewish patients, clinicians, or trainees. The Department has no role in foreign policy and has never taken any position on any other foreign nation’s actual or purported genocide. The increasing normalization of extreme anti-Israel rhetoric in healthcare settings has already contributed to documented incidents of harassment, exclusion, and professional retaliation affecting Jewish and pro-Israel healthcare workers, students and patients in New York and nationwide. When such activity appears to be institutionally tolerated or encouraged, it becomes not simply speech but a patient safety and discrimination issue.
AJMA therefore calls for:
Immediate legal and regulatory review by appropriate federal, state, and municipal authorities, including civil-rights enforcement bodies, to determine whether public resources, workplace protections, or anti-discrimination statutes are being violated.
Clear institutional policies prohibiting the use of public health agencies for political advocacy unrelated to evidence-based health priorities.
Formal recognition of antisemitism as a healthcare equity and patient safety concern, requiring proactive safeguards for Jewish patients and professionals.
Transparency and accountability regarding how such initiatives were authorized, funded, and permitted within a government health structure.
Public trust in healthcare depends on neutrality, scientific integrity, and respect for all communities. Allowing ideological activism, particularly activism that intersects with rising antisemitism, to infiltrate public health institutions risks damaging that trust in ways that directly affect patient care.
AJMA calls on policymakers, healthcare leaders, and civil-rights authorities to ensure that healthcare institutions remain places of safety, professionalism, and unbiased care for every patient and provider.
Issued by the American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA)
For media inquiries or additional information, please contact:
info@theajma.org
www.theajma.org
The American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA) is the sole nationwide U.S. organization representing Jewish healthcare professionals across all disciplines and career stages.
AJMA and CAMERA Statement on Harvard Medical School-Affiliated Panel
February 2nd, 2026 – The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) and the American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA) express their concern regarding a disturbing trend of agenda-driven programming on campuses that subordinates scholarly rigor to partisan indoctrination. This pattern of programming with pre-ordained ideological outcomes was recently on display at Harvard University’s medical school with a January speaker series on Gaza and is set to repeat itself at the upcoming “Conference on the Jewish Left” at Boston University.
The institutional sponsorship of the Boston University conference adds the University’s imprimatur to this elevation of extremist ideology under the guise of academic scholarship. When Boston University lends its name and resources to a slate of speakers who minimize the scope of antisemitism and spin the Oct. 7 massacre as a moral indictment of Israel and its supporters in the Jewish community, it suggests university support for rhetoric that targets the identity and safety of Jewish students.
Boston University Jewish leaders have told CAMERA that they fear for their safety as Jews on campus. These concerns have also been echoed by the University’s Hillel chapter. A Boston University working group established shortly after the Oct. 7 attack concluded that Jewish and Israeli students have been the target of aggression from other students and faculty members, and charged that there were insufficient protections for Jewish faculty, staff, and students. And last year, adjunct professor Douglas Hauer-Gilad said he was forced to resign from the BU School of Law because he is Israeli and spoke out against anti-Jewish rhetoric.
A member of Boston University Students for Israel, a campus group that partners with CAMERA, voiced his alarm about the lopsided, anti-Israel panel: “After everything that has happened on campus this year, it’s hard not to see this conference as part of a pattern. Jewish students are repeatedly told these events are ‘academic,’ even when the rhetoric involved mirrors the hostility we experience day to day.”
On a campus where the Hillel building was recently vandalized by “pro-Palestinian” activists, and where pro-Palestinian student groups endorsed violence against Israelis and Jews by celebrating the “intifada,” it is all the more essential that the university ensure Jewish and Israeli students are treated fairly, and that university-affiliated programming is evenhanded, driven by the pursuit of truth, and motivated by scholarship rather than activism.
CAMERA is not calling for the cancellation of this event or the silencing of extremist speakers. We believe in a robust marketplace of ideas. We do, however, challenge the lopsided pattern of programming that elevates slates of partisan, anti-Israel activists, often with institutional backing.
Boston University is not alone in hosting indoctrination masquerading as scholarship. At Harvard Medical School earlier this month, a multi-day event framed around the anti-Israel “genocide” libel featured a uniformly anti-Israel lineup, including a speaker who defended two student groups at Columbia that explicitly celebrated Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.
American Jewish Medical Association President Dr. Yael Halaas expressed concern about a recent seminar series organized by Harvard Medical School student groups. The conference, titled "Genocide, Racism, and Health in Sudan & Palestine," falsely casts the spurious “genocide” slur as fact. “Such events exemplify a growing national trend of one-sided discussions on healthcare in Gaza, where biased reports frequently misrepresent Israel,” Dr. Halaas noted. Dr. Halaas emphasized that these conferences risk promoting indoctrination over education and contribute to rhetoric that undermines the safety of healthcare providers and patients. This is part of a troubling pattern across the country. The Boston area, in particular, has seen an uptick in antisemitism and the expression of toxic and discriminatory anti-Israel sentiment in healthcare in the US. The American Jewish Medical Association, the only Jewish medical association in the United States, remains committed to monitoring and addressing antisemitism in healthcare, while supporting Jewish medical students and faculty.
Reflecting on the Boston University and Harvard Medical School conferences, CAMERA CEO Kurt Schwartz explained: “The core mission of a university is the pursuit of truth, but we are seeing that mission give ground to a culture of anti-Israel indoctrination. When universities replace rigorous, balanced inquiry with one-sided activist showcases, they fail their Jewish students and the very standards of scholarship they claim to uphold.”
CAMERA remains concerned that the hostile atmosphere for Jews on U.S. campuses is intrinsically linked to hiring practices in academia that increasingly elevate activism, and specifically activism hostile to Israel, above traditional scholarly credentials. When ideological commitment replaces rigorous inquiry as the primary metric for recruitment, the university ceases to be a sanctuary for objective truth and instead becomes a platform for partisan indoctrination.
# ENDS #
To arrange additional quotes and media interviews via CAMERA, please contact: (+44) 7495 545174, georgia@camera.org
To arrange additional quotes and media interviews via the American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA), please contact (410) 491-9360, Awolf@theajma.org
For further information on the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, please visit camera.org
For further information on CAMERA’s work in Higher Education, please visit cameraoncampus.org
For further information on the American Jewish Medical Association please visit theajma.org/about
AJMA Statement on Mayor Mamdani's Reversal of Executive Orders Protecting Jewish New Yorkers
January 4, 2026
The American Jewish Medical Association strongly condemns a series of actions taken by Mayor Mamdani on his first day in office. These actions weaken protections for Jews in New York and threaten the safety of healthcare environments. Revoking the executive order adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, rolling back NYPD directives that safeguard houses of worship during protests, and reversing New York City's ban on the boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) movement against Israel, all dismantle critical guardrails against hate crimes, discrimination, and persecution. This comes at a moment in history when antisemitic and antizionist hostility is intensifying, including in and around healthcare settings where AJMA members serve and where patients seek care.
New York City is home to the world's largest Jewish population outside of Israel. New York also houses some of the best hospitals, medical schools, and public health think tanks and policy makers in the world. Abandoning the IHRA definition of antisemitism deprives healthcare institutions of a widely accepted framework to enable healthcare institutions to distinguish between political discourse and antisemitic or antizionist harassment, bias and discrimination. In its absence, Jewish healthcare professionals and Jewish patients are increasingly vulnerable to discrimination, ostracism, and hostile - even life-threatening - conduct in clinical, academic, and patient-care environments. Reversing the city's BDS ban compounds this harm by legitimizing efforts to isolate Israeli physicians, scientists, and medical institutions, cutting hospitals off from essential expertise, research collaboration, and medical innovation, ultimately undermining ethics, patient trust, and quality of care for all.
In recent years, protests have occurred outside and within major New York City hospitals, including NYU Langone Health's Tisch Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where chants such as "We don't want no Zionists here" targeted Jewish healthcare professionals and patients. Such conduct has also taken place inside hospital corridors, entrances, and shared public areas, exposing Jewish staff and patients to bias and harassment during the delivery of care. When hospitals become sites of intimidation rather than healing, and political hostility infiltrates clinical spaces, the consequences are immediate and profound, jeopardizing patient safety, fracturing care teams, eroding clinical trust, and undermining the ethical foundations of medicine.
The American Jewish Medical Association calls on New York City leadership to immediately reinstate the revoked executive orders. Safeguarding healthcare environments is not optional. It is a core obligation of public health, professional integrity, and safe patient care for all. Any policy that tolerates harassment or exclusion in medical settings undermines the delivery of care and violates that obligation
On the Terror Attack at the Hanukkah Lighting in Bondi Beach, Australia
December 16, 2025
The American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA) is heartbroken and outraged by Sunday’s horrific terror attack at a Jewish Hanukkah lighting ceremony on Bondi Beach in Australia, where fifteen innocent people — children, adults, and elders aged 10 to 87 — were brutally murdered while publicly lighting a menorah, a symbol of freedom, resilience, and hope.
We mourn each precious life taken and hold their families, loved ones, and the Australian Jewish community in our hearts. We stand with them in grief, solidarity, and unwavering resolve. We also extend our deepest gratitude to the many heroes who intervened to help save lives.
What begins as antizionist rhetoric often turns into violence and lost lives. This attack was not random - it was an explicit act of violence targeting Jews because they were Jewish and openly celebrating their faith. Australia, like many countries around the world, has experienced a disturbing surge in antisemitism in recent years. This global rise—evident online, in cities, on university campuses, and within medical institutions—demands urgent action.
As an organization of Jewish physicians and many other healthcare professionals, we understand acutely the fear and vulnerability that follow such attacks. However, we also know the strength, resilience, and moral clarity that define the Jewish people. We have seen generations of hatred and terror—and we still endure.
As we light our menorahs throughout this week, we will remember those who were murdered and rededicate ourselves to bringing healing and light into the world. AJMA will continue to advocate forcefully for the safety, dignity, and equal treatment of Jewish clinicians, trainees, and patients across healthcare settings.
Hanukkah reminds us that even a small light can pierce profound darkness. We honor the victims by standing strong and protecting one another with renewed resolve.
May the memories of those murdered be a blessing.
May their families be comforted.
May we, as a global Jewish community, refuse to be shaken from our purpose.
AJMA and Public Health Professionals Against Antisemitism Unite at the 2025 APHA Annual Conference
November 4, 2025
The American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA) and Public Health Professionals Against Antisemitism (PHPAA) achieved significant progress in their year-long collaboration with events at the 2025 Annual Conference of the American Public Health Association (APHA). The conference, which draws up to 10,000 professionals annually, saw several historic firsts for the 152-year-old organization while building momentum for the work ahead.
The partnership resulted in unprecedented representation of important and relevant Jewish health issues and Israeli public health research at the conference. Following years of minimal representation, this year's conference featured 20 presentations by Israeli presenters or on topics related to Jewish health issues and antisemitism - a dramatic increase from just three such presentations in previous years.
"This collaboration demonstrates what's possible when professional organizations work together to ensure all voices in public health are heard and valued," said Michelle Stravitz, CEO of AJMA. "We've moved from isolation to community, from silence to substantive scientific discourse."
Accepted presentations covered a wide range of public health topics, including:
-
Mental health rehabilitation following the October 7 attacks in Israel
-
Trauma-informed vision care for 50,000 Israelis displaced by conflict
-
Health equity research using data from Israel's Clalit Health Services
-
Breast cancer screening in Orthodox Jewish communities
-
Cultural competence and end-of-life care in Jewish practice
-
The relationship between Sabbath observance and health outcomes
Public Health Professionals Against Antisemitism also hosted a session titled, "Antisemitism as a Public Health Crisis" which had presenters from the Anti-Defamation League and the Georgetown University Program on Extremism. “These presentations represent rigorous, evidence-based public health research that enriches our field," organizers from PHPAA noted. "They demonstrate that Israeli researchers and Jewish health topics deserve the same platform as any other scientific work."
Throughout the conference, AJMA representatives facilitated dialogue at the AJMA-sponsored booth, offering educational resources, networking opportunities, and a welcoming space for solidarity. Attendees engaged in meaningful discussions on how antisemitism manifests in healthcare systems and what collective steps can be taken to ensure inclusion for all.
Another memorable outcome of the collaboration was a fully kosher dinner for over 40 attendees, far exceeding initial expectations, held at a glatt kosher restaurant near the conference center. The Academic Engagement Network (AEN) sponsored the event, which included transportation, security, and takeaway meals for the following day. Some attendees noted that it was the first APHA conference during which they could actually engage with colleagues over a meal, because kosher meal options had never been provided before.
The gathering brought together professionals ranging from atheists to Orthodox rabbis, MPH students to senior researchers, and included an Arab Israeli Christian member who emphasized the importance of religious freedom and minority rights.
The collaboration between AJMA and Public Health Professionals Against Antisemitism reflects a growing movement within the health sector to acknowledge and address the intersection between public health, social justice, and human rights. Both groups have committed to expanding their efforts beyond the APHA conference through continued education, research, and advocacy initiatives.
About AJMA
The American Jewish Medical Association supports Jewish healthcare professionals and promotes Jewish health issues in medical practice and research. They are building an empowered community of Jewish healthcare professionals committed to combating antisemitism and discrimination in healthcare by promoting excellence and merit.
About PHPAA
Public Health Professionals Against Antisemitism is a network dedicated to combating antisemitism in the field of public health through research, policy, and practice, working to make public health a science-based discipline that is safe and inclusive for everyone.
AJMA Statement on the Assassination of Imtiaz Mir
October 3, 2025
It is with profound sorrow that the American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA) mourns the assassination of Imtiaz Mir, a courageous Pakistani journalist who dedicated his life to truth, peace, and interfaith understanding. Mr. Mir stood boldly with peace-loving Muslims and Jews in support of Israel and worked tirelessly to ensure the world recognized Israel’s steadfast moral compass.
In September 2022, Mr. Mir joined the American Muslim and Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council (AMMWEC) and SHARAKA on a historic delegation to Israel. This six-day mission brought Muslim, Christian, and Jewish leaders together to foster interfaith trust, visit holy sites, and witness Israel’s innovations in agriculture and water sustainability.
AJMA leadership, including CEO Michelle Stravitz and Head of Advocacy Andrea Wolf, had the honor of meeting Mr. Mir at the AMMWEC Changemakers’ Conference in July 2025. Only two months later, on September 17, 2025, terrorist gunmen affiliated with Lashkar e TharAllah (al Hosseini Resistance) shot and critically wounded him. After a courageous struggle, Mr. Mir succumbed to his injuries on September 24, 2025.
Imtiaz Mir lost his life because he chose peace, truth, and the defense of Israel. His death is not only a tragedy for his family and friends, but also for all who believe in moral courage and interfaith solidarity.
This devastating loss reminds us of the urgent need to redouble our efforts to fight antisemitism, hatred, and extremism in all its forms. AJMA pledges to honor Mr. Mir’s legacy by working with even greater determination so that his sacrifice was not in vain.
Our hearts are with his loved ones, and his memory will forever be a blessing.
Statement on the attacks on Soroka Medical Center and Weizmann Institute of Science
June 19th, 2025
As healthcare professionals, we are horrified by the Iranian attack on Soroka Hospital in Southern Israel today. Several days ago the Weizmann Institute for Science, a research institute that trains scientists and medical students, was also hit directly by Iran. We call on the worldwide medical community to condemn these strikes as war crimes against civilian hospitals and scientific institutes.
Soroka is the largest and most important medical center in Southern Israel, the Negev region, just 22 miles from the border with Gaza. Since 1950 Soroka has served all of the inhabitants of the region, more than 1 million residents, including Arabs and patients brought in from the Gaza Strip for treatment by their Israeli neighbors. Soroka is the only Level 1 trauma center in the region and is on the frontlines providing critical care to Israel’s wounded. Immediately after the attacks on October 7, Soroka treated more than 600 injured, at a peak rate of 83 patients per hour in the first day (Isr J Health Policy Res. 2024 Nov 11;13:67. doi: 10.1186/s13584-024-00651-7).
The Weizmann Institute of Science is a premiere international basic research institution in the natural and exact sciences. Weizmann is dedicated to scientific inquiry that is rooted in a mission to advance scientific discovery for the benefit of all humanity. They have an international faculty and student body, collaborate with research institutions around the world and are set to begin training medical MD/PhD students as well as scientists.
In an article on “Arab Representation in Israeli Healthcare Professions: Achievements, Challenges, and Opportunities”, the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research published findings that Israeli Arabs account for 21% of the general population and Israeli Arabs account for 23% of the Israeli medical profession (Rosen and Miaari 2025). This coexistence is unparalleled in the Middle East and the wider world. Israeli Arab physicians and scientists work in both Soroka and Weizmann.
An assault on an operating civilian Israeli healthcare facility is a war crime. An attack on a non-military basic science institute harms all of humanity. Neither institution is engaged in military operations, nor do they serve as shields for terrorists or armed combatants. Both prepared for the possibility of assault and took all possible measures to protect patients, employees, students and staff. The damage and losses are immeasurable to Israel and the international community.
We call on the global health care community and scientists to recognize the moral and ethical implications of Iran’s attack and to stand with Israel. This is not an issue of politics but one of humanity and morality.
AJMA Statement on the IFMSA Suspension of FIMS
The AJMA strongly condemns the actions of the IFMSA regarding the baseless suspension of the Federation of Israeli Medical Students (FIMS) on August 6, 2024, without due process.
By manufacturing false allegations that Israelis have “a lack of morals and humanitarian values”, by misusing the term “genocide” related to the war in Gaza, and by accusing the medical students of this crime that neither they nor their government has committed, the IFMSA is demonstrating blatant antisemitism and hypocrisy. Further, they are demonstrating hypocrisy by taking these actions while remaining silent on actual genocides perpetrated by other governments.
Regardless of the actions of the Israeli government, no medical students should be assigned blame or punished for the actions of their government. No other delegations, from countries actually engaging in crimes against humanity, have been held accountable for their government’s actions, nor should they be. This double standard toward Israel is unacceptable and unbecoming of the IFMSA.
While pretending to care about human rights and the rights of women, the IFMSA has made no statements regarding the inhumane acts, the taking (and ongoing holding) of innocent hostages, and the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023. Not one word about the use of hospitals and other medical facilities for the storage of weapons or hiding of militants, both violations of international law.
The absurdity and antisemitism of IFMSA are obvious. To expel the Jewish state, IFMSA ignored its own internal rules and fabricated “evidence” that is not supported by the international press or even Hamas. IFMSA has chosen to suspend Israel but not suspend Russia regarding its invasion of Ukraine, Palestine for the Hamas-perpetrated murders, rapes, and hostage-taking of Israeli civilians, nor has it taken action against the medical student associations of China, Venezuela, Vietnam, Hungary, Cameroon, Afghanistan, or Iran for humanitarian abuses, denigration of women, restriction of religious freedoms, or dictatorial governments.
According to IFMSA’s constitution, if a national association violates any law of the Federation’s constitution, an official investigation must be conducted, completed, and adequate proof of the violation presented. The process was not followed in Israel’s case. Despite a request from the delegations from Germany, Italy, and Luxembourg for a formal investigation, as mandated by IFMSA’s constitution, the suspension proceeded. FIMS was given two minutes to answer the nebulous allegations brought against it before the suspension vote was taken.
With this action, which ignored IFMSA’s due process and procedures, the IFMSA has corrupted its mission and standing in the international medical community through inconsistent treatment of its members, arbitrary insertion of politics into its decision making, and blatant discrimination on the basis of nationality. The field of medicine should not be subject to political bias, nor should its members be held accountable for their governments.
AJMA calls on all U.S. medical institutions to ignore the antisemitic and baseless suspension of Israel from the IFMSA. Institutions in the U.S. must publicly commit to continuing to permit students from Israeli institutions to participate in residencies, fellowships, collaborations, and any and all other medical research and study opportunities regardless of the actions of the IFMSA. U.S. Law does not permit discrimination on the basis of national origin, even when actions of international organizations are discriminatory. We strongly recommend that participation not be denied to Israeli medical students.
Further, we call on medical institutions to consider their funding of AMSA and IFMSA and any other organizations that promote, advance, or remain quiet when faced with antisemitism.
IFMSA and AMSA have been led astray and seem to have forgotten that the first responsibility of doctors-in-training is patient care and the generation, conservation, and dissemination of knowledge about the causes, prevention, and treatment of human disease. US medical schools, corporations, and international organizations that financially support IFMSA and AMSA must take immediate action to let IFMSA and AMSA know that they do not support the unjust suspension of FIMS. AMSA is financially supported by member dues, sponsorship payments by several US medical schools, and has partnerships with many medically related US corporations, and those funders should reconsider where they invest their support.
While AMSA has not issued a comment on the suspension of Israel from IFMSA, nor have they indicated how they voted on the motion, their general stance, accompanied by a misuse of the word genocide, is clear. In April, AMSA issued a statement standing “in solidarity with students of numerous institutions…demanding immediate action to address the ongoing genocide in Gaza…we condemn the role the United States has played as a funder and arms dealer, directly enabling this genocide…many universities are working with militarized local police forces to arrest students and faculty…AMSA condemns these actions taken by many universities as violent, unethical, immoral, and fascistic…” In response to a strong letter from AJMA, AMSA refused to acknowledge or change their antisemitic and alienating stance.
AJMA Statement on Antisemitism and Children
AJMA stands firmly against all acts and expressions of antisemitism, particularly those targeted at and experienced by Jewish-American youth.
Antisemitism is among the oldest and most ingrained racist beliefs, spanning at least two millennia of persecution, and punctuated by the Holocaust with the extermination of more than 6 million Jews. There is ample and indisputable evidence of the impact racism has on child well-being. Defined as an Adverse Childhood Event (ACE), racism experienced by children has a negative effect on both their physical and mental health, and is pervasive in affecting children’s social and family interactions and school performance.
At its core, antisemitism is a collection of conspiratorial beliefs holding that Jews are inherently distinct and foreign from society; that they wield hidden power and outsized influence; and that they collectively and individually use that power to undermine the foundational tenets of society itself. Antisemitism in America has been slowly rising over the past several years, but has seen a 140% year-on-year rise following the October 7th attack on Israel. This includes a 135% increase of antisemitic incidents in K-12 schools and a more than 300% increase on college and university campuses. (1)
There has also been a spike in antisemitic rhetoric masked as “anti-Zionism.” Jewish identity is defined by more than religious practice. In fact, the cultural norms and worship practices of Ancient Israel and Judea emerged millennia before the modern Western concept of a “religion.” The Jews are a people with a shared history and heritage that is deeply rooted in the land of Israel. Indeed, according to a PEW survey, eight in ten Jews say that caring about Israel is an essential or important part of what being Jewish means to them. For the vast majority of Jews, Zionism - the belief that a Jewish state should exist in the historical Jewish homeland - is an integral part of their Jewish identity. (2)
The Department of State has used a working definition, along with examples, of antisemitism since 2010. (3) On May 26, 2016, the 31 member states of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), of which the United States is a member, adopted a non-legally binding “working definition” of antisemitism at its plenary in Bucharest. This definition includes anti-Zionism, such as holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel or denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination.
With increasing frequency, Jewish children who define their identity as part of a people with an ancestral connection to Israel, are disparaged, bullied, shunned, and treated as pariahs. In schools and universities, they are taught they must hide, or disavow, this part of their heritage in order to avoid being targeted and ostracized. Many of those same schools and universities have allowed violent and abusive rhetoric towards Jews in their community so long as they are referred to as “Zionists,” incorrectly claiming that this long-held connection to their ancestral national origin is simply a political belief. The Department of Education has clarified that this form of harassment - which targets Jews on the basis of their shared ancestry and ethnicity - is a form of national origin discrimination on the basis of shared ancestry. (4)
As medical professionals dedicated to the health and healing of all individuals and communities, and as members of long-standing national medical organizations, we stand together in strongly denouncing and counteracting the growing number of antisemitic incidents targeting Jewish students. These include physically barring Jewish students access to school buildings; overtly threatening acts of violence toward Jewish students on campuses, grade and high schools; forcing Jewish students to renounce their Zionist identities in ideological purity tests; and demanding that Jewish students espouse an antisemitic narrative that Jews in Israel are foreign oppressors with outsized power and influence, and no historic tie to their own homeland.
AJMA opposes all forms of antisemitism and calls on all medical organizations and institutions to do the same. There is no place for any hatred or racism in our children’s lives.
1. https://www.adl.org/resources/report/audit-antisemitic-incidents-2023
3. https://www.state.gov/defining-antisemitism/
4. https://sapirjournal.org/antisemitism/2023/08/anti-zionist-harassment-is-against-the-law-too/
AJMA Statement on International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence
AJMA stands with our sisters in captivity.
Today marks International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence. We must not forget the 16 female hostages still held captive by Hamas in dangerous conditions, subjected to daily sexual and physical abuse.
More than eight months have passed since the horrific attacks on October 7, and there are still 120 hostages in Gaza. They must ALL be released immediately! FREE THEM NOW!”
June 19th is a significant date to promote international efforts against sexual violence in conflict, ensure accountability for perpetrators, and provide justice and support for survivors.
We must stand together and the international community must support survivors.
Together, we can make a difference and work towards a world free from sexual violence in conflict.
To learn more about the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence and read the testimonies of women who have been released from Hamas captivity, please click here.
#WomenLifeFreedom
#BringThemHomeNow.
Message to House Energy and Commerce Committee from the AJMA
We thank the members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee for their letter to research universities to ensure that action is taken immediately to stop harassment and intimidation of students, especially egregious acts that have been directed toward Jewish medical students.
The message from Congress is clear and concise: if there is harassment, if there is intimidation, if there is antisemitism, there will be repercussions including the possibility of the loss of millions and millions of dollars in funding.
The American Jewish Medical Association has been raising a red flag about disturbing incidents from coast to coast, and we are thrilled to see action.
See article here: E&C, E&W Republicans Press HHS Secretary Becerra on Preventing Civil Rights Violations at Universities Receiving NIH Grants