Jewish doctors consider fleeing Canada amid rising antisemitism rates

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Nearly one third of Jewish medical practitioners in Ontario are considering leaving the country in response to rising antisemitism, according to a new survey that found that doctors across Canada are worried about what’s happening to their profession.

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The data released by the Jewish Medical Association of Ontario (JMAO) on Wednesday reveal widespread concerns of antisemitism among health-care practitioners across  Canada.

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The survey of over 1,000 Jewish medical professionals across Canada found that while just one per cent of Canadian Jewish doctors experienced severe antisemitism in a community, hospital or academic setting prior to the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, now 29 per cent, 39 per cent and 43 per cent say they have experienced some antisemitism in each of those settings, respectively.

Over 400 Jewish physicians commented on the most difficult aspect of rising levels of antisemitism. “I feel I no longer belong in Canada and may need to flee,” one said.

Another said they no longer feel comfortable around their patients and colleagues: “I fear their reaction to my name and identity. Being uncomfortable with colleagues as I am aware many are unsupportive. Feeling that I cannot share, express or even admit my identity.”

The survey included 500 Jewish health-care professionals in Ontario and “more than 80 per cent of respondents in Ontario said they’ve faced antisemitism at work,” says a news release published on Wednesday ahead of a press conference at the provincial legislature at Queen’s Park.

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“The data is clear, antisemitism has impacted Jewish doctors, health-care workers, students, residents, and the health-care environment, and immediate action is needed to ensure safe environments for all medical students and residents, and uphold equitable care standards for Jewish patients,” the news release says.

According to the survey on Ontario medical professionals, antisemitism was most widely reported within academic spaces (73 per cent) and hospitals (60 per cent).

The most common sources of antisemitism in Canada were organizational policies (57 per cent) and organizational communications (55 per cent). Over half (53 per cent) mentioned interpersonal interactions with colleagues as well as similar social interactions with non-physician staff (41 per cent).

Just two per cent of Jewish doctors in Canada did not express any worry about antisemitism in healthcare educational environments.

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“It is incredibly concerning to watch antisemitism creep into our medical institutions across the province,” JMAO chair Dr. Ayelet Kuper said in a statement. “Discrimination doesn’t just impact doctors, it undermines the entire health-care system, compromising patient care and eroding workplace integrity. This is a crisis for all people in Ontario, not just Jewish doctors.”

Kuper’s statement noted that failing to address the concerns of creeping antisemitism within the medical space could lead to “losing a generation of physicians, educators, and researchers, impacting health-care in Canada.” The sentiment was captured in JMAO’s report, which found the increasingly common displays of antisemitism left nearly a third (31 per cent) of Jewish doctors in Ontario contemplating leaving the country altogether.

One of the affected physicians, Kingston-based Queen’s University associate professor Dr. Sam Silver, spoke at Wednesday’s press conference and told National Post how he has been impacted by antisemitism since October 7.

“This is personal for me,” he said. “I work with health-care students and residents who are bright, compassionate, and committed to becoming the future of health-care in Canada. Yet they are navigating a hostile environment where their identity as Jews makes them targets of hate and exclusion. This cannot continue.”

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Serena Lee-Segal, a Toronto-based occupational therapist, underscored the failure of organized labour, particularly the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), to come to the aid of beleaguered Canadian Jews.

The union did not respond to National Post’s request for comment in time for publication.

“One of the hospitals where I work is unionized, and I have seen firsthand how the union has been visibly targeting Jews with hatred,” Lee-Segal said during the press conference. “Union members have been attending protests that condone terrorism, and I’ve witnessed colleagues showing up to these protests with union flags, chanting dangerous slogans. This environment has made me feel unsafe in my own workplace.”

The Canadian medical profession has found itself at a crossroads since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel in which over 1,200 people were killed and hundreds abducted to Gaza and taken hostage by various Palestinian terror groups.

In November 2023, over 500 Jewish medical professionals affiliated with the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine signed a letter calling out “the gross insensitivity of some of their colleagues to the deep trauma they have suffered by the largest killing of Jews since the Holocaust.”

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“For millennia, Jews have been accused of doing the very thing that the antisemites do to the Jews — classic antisemitism,” said the letter, signed by Doctors Against Racism and Antisemitism. “Now is no different. One colleague was videotaped at the front of a rally screaming for another intifada, a call for the murder of Jews. Another posted that he would rather stand with the devil than with Israel.”

Signatories reportedly subsequently faced coordinated doxxing campaigns targeting their workplaces. Phil Berger, a media spokesman for the group and distinguished Canadian medical practitioner himself, later told the Toronto Star, “The medical centre has become the epicentre of antisemitism at the University of Toronto.”

In February, anti-Israel protesters climbed atop scaffolding outside Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. They waved a Palestinian flag, blocked entrances to the building and shouted anti-Israel chants.

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