Dox a doc a day.
As anti-Israel — often anti-Jew — protests violently roil campuses across America, a different campaign dripping with malevolence is specifically targeting Jewish physicians right here in Ontario.
There’s no fig-leaf of divestment from Israel, no camouflage exploiting the horrors experienced by civilians in Gaza. Rather, the doxing has been a directed, co-ordinated crusade aimed at physicians whose only “offence’’ is their Jewishness.
On social media and via pro forma emails sent to hospital administrators and leadership at teaching institutions, these doctors are being harassed, intimidated and professionally compromised. While part of the strategy is to victimize one particular doctor on a given day — lifting names of individuals who signed a letter last November under the banner of Doctors Against Racism and Antisemitism — the undertaking has spreader wider, become far more encompassing.
Of course most of the garbage is anonymous but on literally hundreds of occasions — letters and emails to MPs, for example — signatories of that DARA letter have been appropriated falsely as if they’re the ones demanding politicians take a harsher position on Israel’s military tactics.
“They’re prompting people to make complaints to their places of work, colleges and universities, hospitals, associations, faculty, the College of Physicians and Surgeons,’’ says Dr. Lisa Switzman. “This has been going on since the beginning of November in a systematic, co-ordinated way, with literally a Jewish doctor of the day.’’
Switzman, whose been involved with tracking the attacks, is uncertain how it all began or who triggered the onslaught. “Basically it was put out by someone who is very anti-Israel, saying these are terrible physicians who’ve signed this letter. All the letter said was that we support Israel and we’re Zionists. Being Jews and supporting Israel’s right to exist is really important to us.’’
Anonymous social media accounts joined the swarming on various platforms, postings that were recycled. “It incited very hateful, antisemitic attacks directly to doctors,’’ continues Switzman.
“What was especially upsetting is that they were targeting mainly female family physicians, probably because we’re seen as more vulnerable. At a time of a significant health-care crisis with family physicians, this put added stress on them. Many were quite distraught. Why would you do that to physicians who are saving lives and helping people?’’
The campaign became more heated after pro-Palestinian protesters convened outside Mount Sinai Hospital. “They posted form letters that auto-populated to many more people,” says Switzman. “Because all you have to do is click on it. But that incited other people to send hateful emails to doctors personally.’’
The doxing expanded to physicians who’d never signed the DARA letter.
Initially, some hospital administrators summoned doctors who were identified, to remind them of institutional social media policy. Some doctors were suspended while investigations of complaints were launched. Generally, however, hospitals and medical faculties have been supportive, more concerned about security for the targeted.
“This is why we’ve been scared for so long about speaking out in public, because now we’re going to be targeted,’’ says Switzman. “They’re silencing us. It’s important for people to know what’s happening to Jewish doctors and medical students and residents, that it’s not OK and it needs to stop.’’
Of the original tweets and other comments posted by the doctors afterwards targeted — those the Star has been able to examine — none were overtly hostile or political. Many had expressed revulsion over the Oct. 7 Hamas atrocities in Israel, many conveyed support for Israel or tried to present the historical context, some condemned attacks against Jewish businesses and schools, others pleaded for calm.
Dr. Ilana Halperin had, on Oct. 8, posted a quote often attributed to Golda Meir: “If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.’’
Anonymous accounts immediately attacked, going after her job.
After she was tagged on a tweet in early November, it turned into an onslaught. “Somebody said, ‘Does anybody have Zionist doctors? They’re the worst of humanity.’ That got a lot of traction.’’
She was called in by the department head where she teaches. “She said first and foremost she was afraid for my safety because there had been a number of complaints about me at the university. She wanted me to stop tweeting because she was scared for me. She actually said, your message is good but the medium is wrong. You’re not going to change anybody’s mind on Twitter and everything you say is being used against you.
“I realized she was probably right. But at the same time it was really distressing, to have to silence a core of my identity where it felt so important to speak up and share my perspective. My identity is made up of three core roles: I’m Jewish, I’m a doctor and I’m a mother.’’
Halperin deleted her entire Twitter account. “Which was pretty disappointing because I’d had a Twitter presence for a long time. There were a lot of interactions for my medical area of practice. But at that point it became not a safe place to be.’’
One consequence was that Halperin received a negative teaching evaluation from a student. “Negative teaching evaluations are a really big deal for a university faculty because it can impact your ability to get promoted. Eventually the evaluation was removed from my record because it was found to be totally vexatious. They were trying to pull this personal side of my identity into the learning environment. But the damage was already done because it made me afraid to teach. Mostly a fear of being mislabeled, misunderstood, that they may not actually engage with the medical content because they’re now preoccupied with who I am as an individual.’’
Halperin adds: “I worry about the next generation of Jewish students. I’ve spoken to Jewish medical students and residents who feel they have to completely scrub their resumés and applications of anything that might identity them as being Jewish or a supporter of Israel.’’
Another female doctor, with three young children — she asked not to be identified — had surveillance cameras installed around her home, arranged security for the person who takes her kids to school and hired professionals to scrub her social media accounts. “What I’d posted was about my own fears essentially. Not even close to hateful about anybody.”
Her hospital considered for her safety, even provided her with a “screamer alarm,’’ in case she was physically threatened on the way to her car.
“On the other hand, I don’t know if they immediately saw it for what it was, which was a co-ordinated antisemitic attack demonizing Jews.’’
This doctor’s father, now deceased, was a Holocaust survivor. “I dedicate my work and my career to just doing some good, which he taught me. He would be shocked to see what’s happening today in Canada. I’m shocked.
“It’s an awful, scary feeling. It’s soul-destroying.’’
