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Quebec Jewish Physicians Association members unite to fight antisemitism in the medical system

It’s not like Lior Bibas is signing as many petitions as he is medical reports—but it certainly seems like the prescriptions need writing.

The Montreal cardiologist and president of the Quebec Jewish Physician Association (AMJQ) added his voice to the Global Jewish Health Alliance (GJHA) condemning the Jan. 2 call by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for the global medical community to cut ties with Israel.

Albanese’s proposal is dangerous and endangers global healthcare progress, Bibas posted on social media. “Cutting ties with Israel, a leader in medical R&D, would delay or derail life-saving treatments,” he wrote. “Open science and global collaboration are the bedrock of progress in healthcare. This affects everyone.” Calls for academic and medical boycotts erode decades of trust, delay innovation, and disrupt care worldwide he said, urging the UN, World Health Organization and other professionals to condemn Albanese’s appeal. “Medical boycotts harm everyone—they don’t build a path to peace and certainly do not build a better world.”

Bibas co-founded the AMJQ in the weeks following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel. “We heard that trainees were having a hard time, and we’ve lived it every time there’s a war, like in 2021” he told The CJN. “We saw a worsening of the situation and were hearing stories of trainees removed from study groups, others put on the defensive about what’s happening, very uncomfortable situations,” and some saw relationships with residents deteriorating very quickly.

“I myself did eight years of residency,” said Bibas, an assistant professor of medicine at Université de Montréal. “Medical training is very hierarchical. You are getting evaluated constantly, it’s really hard and you don’t want to ruffle feathers, which can really have a negative impact on your career.” The AMJQ counts some 400 physicians and 150 medical students and residents as members.

The group participated in the national survey of some 1,000 Jewish Canadian medical professionals, and while it hasn’t released specific results yet, Bibas says there are similarities with Ontario counterparts. “Trainees are getting the brunt of all this. Their entire training ecosystem—relationships with peers and physicians—has changed.”

Whether anti-Zionist remarks, blaming Jews for Israel’s actions, or other behaviour, it can be debilitating in a grueling academic/career setting. “I’m not saying there’s systemic antisemitism in Quebec’s medical system. There are incidents that are dealt with, but issues of trust remain… One of the biggest problems is getting trainees to testify. They don’t trust the system.” The fear of retaliation is so strong, that some students are unwilling to report incidents, even anonymously.

“Even though I think people need to be a bit more outspoken, I understand their hesitation because I once faced an issue with an attending that could have set back my career severely due to power dynamics in academia.”  

One first-year Jewish Montreal medical student, who spoke to The CJN anonymously for fear of reprisal, saying within two months of beginning studies he was confronted by two students demanding he explain why Israel “withholds vaccines” from Gazans.

“I was terrified and felt trapped and laughed, asking them if they thought child hostages should be vaccinated. One laughed back and shouted that ‘You can’t stop lying!’. It completely changed my trajectory here. It’s head down and ignore. I’ll speak out when I have the energy to.”

Speaking out is what Bibas is doing, by pushing back on French radio, television, and social media, against unrest on streets and campuses, and calls for medical boycotts.

Bibas also says while some colleagues talk of leaving Canada, “I don’t interpret that as people packing their suitcases. I haven’t heard of anyone from Quebec leaving. They may feel they may have no choice, but not because of what’s happening now in hospitals. More because of our future. I have a great practice, I love my work, but I see my kids and I don’t know… Do they have a long life here? With the way things are going, is there a future for our children?”

Elie Haddad knows the feeling. The pediatric immunologist came to Montreal 20 years ago for professional opportunities, “but also because my wife and I thought that France did not have a good future for Jews. So we wanted to leave.” He was often confronted with antisemitism, “of course, in the street, in the hospital, everywhere. It has become banal in France.”

Quebec was “a peaceful haven. We were incredibly surprised, at almost every level we found a beautiful community life, a respectful, multicultural society where people respect laws. It was going so well, but over the years, especially the last five years, we’ve noticed a dramatic abrupt change with regard to antisemitism.”

He himself experienced only one serious incident in the Quebec workplace which marked him significantly but praised his institution’s response as “incredible support which was very reassuring.”

Haddad doubts people really want to leave. “We know as Jews we may have to leave at anytime from any country, so this is saying ‘I feel I’m ready if it’s necessary’. On the contrary, we must not say we’re going to leave, we must fight. We share a vision as Quebecers: separation of religion and state, individual rights, respect for religions, respect for others. It’s a beautiful society and I don’t think we should let it be ruined by dark individuals.”

Bibas agrees. “I’m an optimist. People are saying we should leave but I personally don’t like that kind of talk. If things are not going the way we want, then we need to be empowered. It’s time to show strength and unity. Let’s stay. We belong here. It’s not time to leave because the going is a bit tough. We have it pretty good here and have to fight for that.”

He regularly makes the case that the Jewish and wider Québécois communities share common values that reject hate, fundamentalist and anti-western sentiment recently and regularly articulated in Montreal streets. “We want to live in peace. We respect other people but want people to respect us. And I think what’s happening in Quebec, specifically in Montreal, where people see 15 months of riots, disorder and chaos, is an international embarrassment that will likely affect the standing and investment in Canada and Montreal.”

He deplored the “complete indifference and inaction of Mayor (Valérie) Plante. Really, it’s embarrassing, the fact she just tweets meaningless things. What is she waiting for, more bullets?”

A clinician researcher in a Montreal hospital, Haddad concurs and points out that in France “the situation continues to worsen in a horrible downward spiral for Jews. In Quebec, it’s a multicultural society, it’s beautiful and it can work, but you have to respect the laws and enforce the laws. It’s hard when you have a mayor who does nothing, and people see that and continue with hateful speech, calling for people’s deaths, and we see how our youth, particularly in English-speaking universities, are stigmatized.”

Bibas is a child of Bill 101, raised in the French school system and integrated into Quebec society, and says there’s much to share, and the Jewish doctors group presents itself proudly in French. “We’re a Quebec organization. We want to continue building, contributing to Quebec. We work with patients from all backgrounds, we understand Quebec society, politics, and culture. We want to bridge that gap and show we’re part of the community. We’ve been here for over 250 years and aren’t asking for special treatment—we’re not causing disruptions or protests. We’re not the ones destroying the streets.”

The AMJQ came out prominently in April, responding to a March letter published by a doctors’ collective denouncing Israel’s military campaign. In a written response in French-language media, the AMJQ slammed the letter as a “militant pamphlet conveying mendacious rhetoric” which in addition “to expressing a humanism with variable geometry, spreads erroneous information with impunity, without concern for the accuracy of the facts, with the result of misinforming Quebecers and stigmatizing Israel.”

War is always monstrous, they wrote, regardless of who it affects. “For us, AMJQ doctors, a Palestinian mother who has lost her child constitutes the same calamity as the Israeli mother who mourns hers. Our compassion has no double standards.”

On Jan. 6, a group of Montreal-area medical professionals walked off the job to protest outside Radio-Canada offices, calling for an arms embargo, ceasefire and medical boycotts. Those who could not attend were encouraged to wear pins and keffiyehs to work. Demonstrators insisted they only abandoned administrative and other tasks, not medical duties.

The CJN asked Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé’s office if such a walkout should be sanctioned, given the waiting lists and backlogs in the province’s healthcare system.

Spokesperson Marie-Claude Lacasse told The CJN the ministry had no comment. “It’s the Collège des médecins (CDM) ethics code that governs professional responsibilities and not the ministry.” The CDM was similarly mum, referring queries to individual establishments. Only one institution responded, the CHU Sainte-Justine children’s hospital stating, “in Quebec, doctors work in the health network as self-employed workers. This means that they have autonomy in the management of their activities and their professional commitments.”

Bibas was unimpressed. “As physicians, our foremost duty is to provide care and preserve life,” guided by ethical principles that prioritize patients. “It is deeply concerning to witness a call for boycotting Israeli medical institutions and universities—actions ultimately jeopardizing patient care locally and beyond.” He said the group was ignorant of vital contributions by Israeli medical institutions, “including an unwavering commitment to humanitarian aid such as Israel facilitating the polio vaccination of over 1 million children in Gaza over the past year.”

A Jewish staffer at the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal also speaking on condition of anonymity saw the protest on her way to work, telling The CJN she was “disgusted. We’re working endless hours to keep the system going, dealing with all kinds of shit, and our schedules are locked down. These people claim to do something noble? Why not on a day off? I haven’t heard a single word from any of these types after Oct. 7 other than about Israel’s ‘so-called ‘genocide’. That tells you what they are really all about.”

Haddad says it’s too late for France “and Quebec could get worse if we don’t act.” He has a prescription for that: “Get involved in politics at provincial, federal and municipal levels, explain our situation, make sure laws are enforced. We’re not asking to reinvent the wheel. Multiculturalism can be beautiful but if it’s not working, remake it. I won’t tear my shirt over the model,” he said, in regard to the province’s Jan. 30 announcement that it will completely revamp its model of integrating newcomers to Quebec, with increasing focus on secularism, equality between sexes, and adherence to common values.

In a parliamentary brief last year, the Canadian Federation of Jewish Medical Associations (CFJMA) with more than 2,000 members, said there are non-Jews in Canadian medical faculties “who do not hate Jews and who do not want harm to come to Jews, and there are even a few who are actively working to learn more about antisemitism in order to be better allies to Jews.”

CFJMA’s provincial member organizations however, report increasing numbers of people working in faculties and institutions that govern and accredit medical training “who do not believe that Jews are worthy of equity, equality, or even basic human rights. It is also our experience that the most vocal of those faculty members are active in promoting equity and human rights for other groups, sometimes as individual advocates but often as leaders or as educators in the EDI space.” They added, “this issue of open antisemitism in anti-oppression circles” has grown steadily in North America over the past 10 to 20 years.

The post Quebec Jewish Physicians Association members unite to fight antisemitism in the medical system appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.

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Kosher Restaurant in Madrid Targeted in Arson Attempt

People demonstrate in the city of Santander, Spain, under the motto ‘Let’s stop the genocide in Gaza,’ on Jan. 20, 2024. Photo: Joaquin Gomez Sastre/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect

A kosher restaurant in central Madrid was targeted in an attempted arson attack, prompting a police investigation, as Spain continues to face a rise in antisemitic incidents since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023.

On Tuesday night, an unknown individual entered the Rimmon Kosher restaurant in the Spanish capital and “sprayed a liquid with a strong gasoline smell on the entrance, intending to set fire and burn down the premises,” according to a joint statement from the Jewish Community of Madrid (CJM) and the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE).

Before the police arrived, the attacker fled the scene. However, the restaurant staff’s quick response prevented the fire from being lit.

In a press release on Wednesday, CJM and FCJE condemned the foiled attack as “an antisemitic act aimed at causing harm, targeting public spaces frequented by the Jewish community, and terrorizing its members.”

“This is an act driven by hatred, with a vile and brutal intent, that threatens coexistence, freedom, and tolerance — values that have always defined the citizens of Madrid,” the statement continued.

As of now, a police investigation is underway, with authorities focused on tracking down the perpetrator and determining the motive behind their actions.

“We hope the perpetrator’s identity will be determined soon and that this person will be arrested quickly,” CJM and FCJE addedt. “In the meantime, we are ready to cooperate with the authorities and the restaurant owners in any way needed.”

The Israeli Embassy in Spain also condemned Tuesday’s attack on the kosher restaurant, near the main synagogue, and expressed full support for the staff, owners, and customers of the establishment, as well as solidarity with the Jewish community of Madrid.

“We are facing yet another case that shows how hate-inciting rhetoric leads to violence,” the embassy posted on X/Twitter. “We fully trust that the authorities will act decisively to prevent violent and antisemitic incidents from recurring in Spain.”

Since Hamas started the Gaza war with its invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Spain has been a fierce critic of the Jewish state.

In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocities, Spain halted arms shipments from its own defense companies to Israel and launched a diplomatic campaign to curb the country’s military response. At the same time, several Spanish ministers in the country’s left-wing coalition government issued pro-Hamas statements and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with some falsely accusing Israel of “genocide.”

More recently, Spanish officials said they would not allow ships carrying arms for Israel to stop at its ports. In response, the US Federal Maritime Commission opened an investigation into whether Spain, a NATO ally, has been denying port entry to cargo vessels reportedly transporting US weapons to Jerusalem.

Additionally, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged other members of the European Union to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel over its military campaigns against Hamas in Gaza and the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In May, Spain officially recognized a Palestinian state, claiming the move was accelerated by the Israel-Hamas war and would help foster a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli officials described the decision as a “reward for terrorism.”

The post Kosher Restaurant in Madrid Targeted in Arson Attempt first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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‘Failure’: Larry Summers Slams Harvard University’s Response to Campus Antisemitism

Demonstrators take part in an “Emergency Rally: Stand With Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza,” amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Former Harvard University president Larry Summers said on Monday that the administration’s response to campus antisemitism remains unsatisfactory, echoing the concerns of Jewish civil rights activists who continue to demand progress from the Ivy League institution.

“Harvard continues its failure to effectively address antisemitism,” Summers posted on the X/Twitter social media platform. “Despite [current Harvard president Alan Garber’s] clear and strong personal moral commitment, he has lacked the will and/or leverage to effect the necessary large-scale change, and the Corporation has been ineffectual.”

The Harvard Corporation is the university’s highest governing body.

Summers went on to list several outrages to which Harvard has subjected its Jewish and pro-Israel students and faculty during this academic year — including the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) holding a panel on Israel’s military actions against terrorist groups in Lebanon in which antisemitic tropes were promoted, Dean Marla Frederick’s denouncing Israel’s founding as the nakba, and the university’s antisemitism task force keeping a professor who has downplayed the severity of Jew-hatred on campus as one of its members.

Summers noted as well that Harvard’s antisemitism task force, which a US federal lawmaker accused of being a farce contrived to manipulate the public’s opinion of the university, has not yet issued a final report containing its findings or recommendations for new policies for dealing with the issue despite having convened over a year ago.

“It is by the way shocking, and I think outrageous, that months after Harvard’s abject failures after Oct. 7, the task force hasn’t even reached a conclusion,” Summers continued. “Nor is there yet a basis for confidence that disruptions will be met with disciplinary consequences, especially in a number of professional schools that are redoubts of the far left.”

Summers’ statements come amid a challenging moment in the history of Harvard University, America’s oldest and arguably most prestigous institution of higher education. Since Hamas’s invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Harvard has seen its law school student government issue a resolution which falsely accused Israel of genocide; its students quote terrorists during an “Apartheid Week” event held in April; and dozens of its students and faculty participated in an illegal pro-Hamas encampment attended by members of a group that had shared an antisemitic cartoon. Additionally, many Harvard students openly cheered Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities, which included sexual assault and child abduction, and a mob led by the president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review followed, surrounded, and intimidated a Jewish student, screaming “Shame! Shame! Shame!” into his ears.

After these incidents and more, Harvard fought tooth and nail to discredit lawsuits which alleged that its response to campus antisemitism amounted to the enabling of discriminatory behavior which violates federal civil rights law. Harvard eventually settled multiple complaints out of court, but at least one plaintiff, Harvard alumnus Shabbos Kestenbaum, refused to be a party to the agreements, arguing that they allowed the university to evade accountability for its alleged inaction.

Summers and Kestenbaum aren’t Harvard’s only critics in the Jewish community. On Monday, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued a “Campus Report Card” in which Harvard’s antisemitism policies were given a “C” grade. ADL chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement accompanying the report that every school assessed by the organization should have received an “A.”

“I said it last year, and I’ll say it again: every single campus should get an ‘A.’ This isn’t a high bar — this should be standard,” Greenblatt explained. “While many campuses have improved in ways that are encouraging and commendable, Jewish students still do not feel safe or included on too many campuses. The progress we’ve seen is evidence that change is possible — all university leaders should focus on addressing these very real challenges with real action.”

US President Donald Trump’s administration has vowed to crack down on campus antisemitism and pro-Hamas activity across the US.

In January, he issued a highly anticipated executive order aimed at combating campus antisemitism and holding pro-terror extremists accountable for the harassment of Jewish students, fulfilling a promise he made while campaigning for a second term in office.

Continuing work started during his first administration — when Trump issued Executive Order 13899 to ensure that civil rights law apply equally Jews — the “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism” calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … hold to account perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.” The order also requires each government agency to write a report explaining how it can be of help in carrying out its enforcement.

Additionally, it initiates a full review of the explosion of campus antisemitism on US colleges across the country after Oct. 7, 2023, a convulsive moment in American history to which the previous presidential administration struggled to respond during the final year and a half of its tenure.

On Tuesday, Trump vowed to suspend federal funding to any educational institution that refuses to quell riotous demonstrations, a punitive measure which would fulfill his administration’s pledge to crack down on campus antisemitism and the pro-Hamas activists fostering it.

“All federal funding will stop for any college, school, or university that allows illegal protests,” Trump said in a statement posted on Truth Social, the social media platform he founded in 2022. “Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.”

He continued, “No masks! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post ‘Failure’: Larry Summers Slams Harvard University’s Response to Campus Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Second Australian Nurse Charged Over Viral Video Threatening to Kill Israeli Patients

Members of the Jewish community and supporters gather for a protest rally against rising antisemitism at Martin Place in Sydney, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: AAP Image/Steven Saphore via Reuters Connect

An Australian nurse working in a Sydney hospital has been arrested and charged after a viral video captured him making threats, stating he would refuse to treat Israeli patients and instead kill them.

This latest legal step comes as law enforcement works to combat a surge in antisemitic incidents across Australia, which the country’s spy chief has called his agency’s top priority.

After the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, several Jewish sites in Australia have been relentlessly targeted with vandalism and even arson, especially in the past few months. In response, a New South Wales (NSW) police task force, Strike Force Pearl, was established to address the wave of hate crimes and rising antisemitism.

On Tuesday night, 27-year-old Ahmed Rashid Nadir was arrested and charged with federal offenses, including using a carriage service to menace, harass, or cause offense, as well as possession of a prohibited drug, NSW Police said in a statement.

The arrest follows an incident at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in Sydney, in which Nadir and his fellow nurse, Sarah Abu Lebdeh, were seen in an online video posing as doctors and making inflammatory statements during a night-shift discussion with Israeli influencer Max Veifer.

The footage, which circulated widely, showed Lebdeh stating she would refuse to treat an Israeli patient and instead kill them, while Nadir used a throat-slitting gesture and claimed to have already killed many.

“It’s Palestine’s country, not your country, you piece of s—t,” Lebdeh told Veifer.

“One day your time will come, and you will die the most disgusting death,” she added in a sentence riddled with obscenities.

Last week, 26-year-old Lebdeh was arrested and charged with similar federal offenses, including threatening violence against a group and using a carriage service to threaten, menace, and harass, with a conviction potentially leading to up to 22 years in prison.

After reviewing patient records, the hospital found no evidence that Lebdeh or Nadir had harmed patients.

NSW’s Health Minister Ryan Park confirmed that both nurses had been suspended and would be permanently barred from employment within the state’s health system.

According to the NSW Police statement, both Lebdeh and Nadir were released on bail and are set to appear in court on March 19. Lebdeh has been prohibited from leaving Australia and using social media while her case proceeds.

The incident is one of the latest in a surge of antisemitic acts across Australia since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in October 2023, with Jewish institutions targeted in arson attacks and businesses defaced.

Law enforcement in Sydney and Melbourne, home to the majority of Australia’s Jewish population, is actively investigating hate crimes, including the recent discovery of a trailer containing explosives and a list of potential Jewish targets.

Since the formation of Strike Force Pearl, the task force to combat antisemitism, in December, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb reported that 15 people have been arrested, and 78 charges have been filed.

“I must commend the work Strike Force Pearl detectives are doing to investigate, charge, and put these individuals before the courts,” Webb said in a statement. “There is a tremendous amount of dedication and hard work going into all these investigations.”

Last month, dozens of Australia’s leading Muslim groups and individuals defended the two nurses, accusing their critics of “hypocrisy” and “double standards and moral manipulation” in an open letter.

“This statement is not about defending inappropriate remarks. It is about pushing back against the double standards and moral manipulation at play while the mass killing of our brothers and sisters in Gaza is met with silence, dismissal, or complicity,” the letter said.

In response to the ongoing spike in antisemitism, Australia passed a new slate of hate crime laws last month which would, among other measures, imprison those who make terror threats or perform Nazi salutes.

In a Senate committee hearing last week, Mike Burgess, the director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), the country’s domestic intelligence agency, said that antisemitism is now the agency’s top priority.

“In terms of threats to life, [antisemitism is] my agency’s number one priority because of the weight of incidents we’re seeing play out in this country,” Burgess told the Senate. “Antisemitism and significant antisemitism acts are prominent in our investigation caseload at this point in time.”

In a recent 2025 threat assessment declassified by ASIO, Burgess warned that the surge in antisemitic attacks across Australia could escalate, as extremists are increasingly self-radicalizing and “choose their own adventure” toward potential terrorist activity.

“Threats transitioned from harassment and intimidation to specific targeting of Jewish communities, places of worship, and prominent figures,” he said. “I am concerned these attacks have not yet plateaued.”

The post Second Australian Nurse Charged Over Viral Video Threatening to Kill Israeli Patients first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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