Ex-Cleveland Clinic resident makes antisemitic posts, has license revoked

By RACHEL WOLF, MARCY OSTER/JTA

Published: AUGUST 22, 2020 17:14

Doctor with a stethoscope in the hands and hospital background (illustrative) (photo credit: INGIMAGE) — Doctor with a stethoscope in the hands and hospital background (illustrative)

(photo credit: INGIMAGE)

“hahha ewww.. ill purposely give all the yahood [Jews] the wrong meds…,” Kollab tweeted in January 2012.

Lara Kollab, a former Cleveland Clinic resident, had her certification permanently revoked by The State Medical Board of Ohio on August 12 after making antisemitic social media posts, Cleveland.com reported. She is now “permanently prohibited from practicing osteopathic medicine or surgery in the state of Ohio, or from participating in another medical training program,” the website added.

In revoking her certificate, the board cited 11 posts she wrote from August 2011-September 2013, and a January 2012 tweet in which she wrote that she would give Jewish patients the wrong medication, Cleveland.com reported.

“hahha ewww.. ill purposely give all the yahood [Jews] the wrong meds…,” Kollab tweeted in January 2012.

When she was accepted to Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, a private Jewish university in New York City, she deleted the tweets and comments, but some were already preserved as screenshots.

In an August 2013 post, Kollab wrote in Arabic, “May Allah take back [end the lives] of the Jews so we stop being forced to go to those unclean ones.”

In December 2018, after the posts were discovered, Kollab was fired.

“This individual was employed as a supervised resident at our hospital from July to September 2018. She is no longer working at Cleveland Clinic. In no way do these beliefs reflect those of our organization. We fully embrace diversity, inclusion and a culture of safety and respect across our entire health system,” the Cleveland Clinic said in a statement at the time.

Kollab later apologized, saying that the posts “do not represent who I am and the principles I stand for today.”

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“I wish sincerely and unequivocally to apologize for the offensive and hurtful language contained in those posts,” she added.

Kollab said the posts came after she visited Israel and the Palestinian territories and “became incensed at the suffering of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation.” She also said she wrote the posts because she had “difficulty constructively expressing” her feelings about the experience.

In August 2019, she requested a hearing before the State Medical Board of Ohio after she was informed that the board would be disciplining her.

After she was fired from the Cleveland Clinic, she applied for a second residency at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, California, but did not disclose the posts and was fired from that position as well.