A group of healthcare workers have banded together to launch the American Jewish Medical Association and fight antisemitism in the healthcare profession.
The nonprofit association was founded in November by Dr. Yael Halaas, a New York City-based plastic surgeon, after the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The group is nonpolitical, bipartisan and focused on domestic issues, although members are encouraged to take sides in political issues as they see fit, Halaas said.
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Several incidents have occurred on hospitals campuses related to the war, including recently on UCSF Health's Mission Bay campus at its Precision Cancer Building, where antisemitic graffiti referencing the Holocaust was discovered.
The association hopes to become a resource for efforts to combat antisemitism in the medical field, in part by helping develop classes and seminars for students and contributing scholarly articles.
"We're working on a curriculum for all medical schools and nursing schools," Halaas said. "It will be our first rollout that really evaluates critical thinking, civil discourse, professionalism, education about who the Jewish people are."
Halaas added the curriculum also would include education on the Holocaust and its ties to medicine.
The group, hoping to attract more members, announced its formation a few days before the American Medical Association's annual House of Delegates meeting later this week in Chicago. "We definitely want to alert as many of our colleagues [as possible] that we exist," Halaas said.
It's uncertain whether or not the group's suggestions will be adopted. No medical or nursing schools require students to take any courses related to antisemitism or the Holocaust and the decision to add any courses would be up to the schools, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
"Each individual medical school is responsible for developing a medical education program and curriculum that ensure that medical students, upon graduation, have the professional competencies appropriate for entry into a residency program," said Dr. Alison Whelan, chief academic officer of the AAMC.
Correction: An earlier version of this story had the incorrect name for the Association of American Medical Colleges.
