Third of Jewish Ontario doctors consider leaving Canada over antisemitism - survey

A third of Ontario’s Jewish medical practitioners are considering leaving Canada over the post-October 7 rise of antisemitism in their field, according to a Jewish Medical Association of Ontario survey released on Wednesday.

In response to the increase of antisemitism in medical facilities and schools, 31% of the 1,000 Canadian Jewish doctors, medical students, and residents surveyed by JMAO are thinking of abandoning the country.

“I feel I no longer belong in Canada and may need to flee,” one respondent reportedly told the association.

JMAO chair Dr. Ayelet Kuper warned that Canada could lose a generation of medical professionals.

“This could lead to hundreds of doctors leaving Ontario at a time when our system is crumbling,” she said. “Unquestionably, our institutions need to step up and ensure the protection of Jewish doctors, healthcare professionals, medical students, and residents. We can and must do better.”

Before October 7 last year, 1% of the survey participants, of which half were in Ontario, felt that antisemitism was a severe problem in the medical field. Since the Hamas-led 2023 pogrom in Israel’s south, the percentage has flipped, with 98% being worried about the impact of antisemitism on the healthcare system.

Rising antisemitism in medical institutions

Over 80% of respondents had experienced antisemitism in medical institutions since the Levantine war sparked, whereas before the terrorist attack, 29% had experienced prejudice in their medical community, 39% in hospitals, and 43% in academic settings. Some 75% percent have experienced antisemitism in academic settings since October 7, 2023, and 64% have encountered Jew-hatred in hospitals.

Some 57% of respondents said that since the war they had experienced antisemitism through organizational policies, 55% through organizational communications, 53% through personal interactions with colleagues, 41% with non-physician staff, and 38% through administration.

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

Over half of the survey participants expressed concern that Jewish patients could receive substandard care because of pervasive bias in the Canadian healthcare industry.

JMAO indicated that medical academic settings were the setting where respondents had most encountered antisemitism since October 7, rising from almost a third to almost two-thirds. Of the Jewish Ontario medical students, 27.5% experienced antisemitism before October 7, while 62.7% said that they had experienced antisemitism after the mass terrorist attack. Just over a third of Canadian Jewish doctors are considering decreasing their teaching responsibilities, and 14% were found to have already withdrawn from teaching activities due to the “toxic” environment.

One respondent told JMAO that there was a “pervasive fear of antisemitism as a medical learner.”

In February, Dr. Ted Rosenberg told The Jerusalem Post that rising antisemitism had led him to resign from his clinical assistant professor role at the University of British Columbia.

Over 280 staff and students, including Rosenberg, had signed a December 2023 letter to administrators warning about the polarization and politicization at UBC over the Israel-Gaza conflict.