27 Jul 2026
From the Frontlines: The Problem of Antisemitism in Healthcare
"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast which brings listeners to the frontline in the battle against antisemitism, hate and extremism through conversations with ADL staff, advocates and, in this podcast, three people who spend their careers confronting hate in one of the most trusted institutions in American life: our hospitals, our medical schools and our healthcare system.
This podcast an edited version of a webinar titled "Hate in Healthcare? Antisemitism in the Health Profession and Ways to Counter It." It was co-sponsored by ADL's Westchester activist group and the ADL NY/NJ Region's Campus Committee.
So why healthcare? Because most people do not think of a hospital or a medical school as a frontline in the fight against antisemitism, but it is. Dr. Halperin, one of this podcast's guests, has spent decades documenting the history of Jewish quotas in American medical education, a period when nearly 60 percent of medical school applicants nationally were Jewish, yet admissions were capped at somewhere between 5 and 20 percent. That history is not as distant as we would like to believe. A 2025 survey of Jewish healthcare professionals found that more than 75 percent reported experiencing antisemitism in their own workplace since October 7th. Just this past May, Congress held a hearing titled "Bad Medicine: Politics, Unions and Antisemitism in Health Care" to examine exactly this problem. As one of this podcast's guests testified before that very committee, antisemitism in medicine is, at its core, a patient care crisis.
So who is confronting this inside the walls of our medical schools and our healthcare institutions? This podcast offers three answers to that question with its three esteemed guests:
- Dr. Edward Halperin is Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer of New York Medical College, where he is also a professor of radiation oncology, pediatrics and history and holds an endowed chair in biomedical ethics after the Holocaust. He is one of the country's foremost historians of antisemitism in American medical education, having spent decades documenting the quotas that limited Jewish enrollment in medical schools for much of the twentieth century, and he has continued that work by speaking out on antisemitism in the medical profession today.
- Eveline Shekhman is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Jewish Medical Association, the national professional organization for Jewish healthcare professionals, founded in the aftermath of October 7th. She leads AJMA's work supporting Jewish physicians, fellows, residents and medical students facing discrimination and hostile workplace environments, and she recently testified before Congress on the rise of antisemitism and anti-Zionism in American healthcare.
- And Masha Zemtsov is ADL's Director of education advocacy, helping schools, universities and institutions build the tools and policies needed to recognize and respond to antisemitism before it takes root. Her work bridges exactly the gap we are here to talk about tonight: what happens when the institutions meant to train and support our healthcare professionals are not yet equipped to confront hate within their own walls.
The podcast starts with an overview of the history of antisemitism in medical schools with Dr. Halperin and then jumps right into the moderated discussion with Eveline and Masha.
Here are links to the resources mentioned during the webinar:
Report an incident to ADL: www.adl.org/report-incident
ADL healthcare resources: www.adl.org/countering-antisemitism-healthcare-settings
ADL Legal Action Network: www.adl.org/adl-legal-action
Join AJMA: www.theajma.org/join
Sign up for Dr. Halperin's book mailing list: https://tinyurl.com/kahs5ppb
This conversation was recorded in June 2026.
