Ohio doctor fired for anti-Semitic tweets, including threats to give Jews "the wrong meds"
A prominent hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, fired a first-year resident after discovering anti-Semitic comments in her social media posts.
Lara Kollab worked as a first-year resident at the Cleveland Clinic from July to September 2018. She has since deleted all of her social media, but screenshots of her posts — dating back to 2011 — have been documented by the Canary Mission, a site dedicated to exposing anti-Semitism in an effort to combat its rise on college campuses.
According to the Canary Mission, Kollab's posts called for violence against Jews, defended Hamas, trivialized the Holocaust and repeatedly compared Israel to Nazi Germany. The group saved dozens of similar posts from 2011-2017.
In one now-deleted tweet from 2012, Kollab said, "ill purposely give all the yahood the wrong meds..." Yahood is an Arabic term for Jewish people. Other tweets made reference to "Jewish dogs" and said in Arabic, "Allah will take the Jews."
"In no way do these beliefs reflect those of our organization," The Cleveland Clinic said in a statement, adding that it took immediate action when it learned of the posts and that Kollab has not worked at the hospital since September.
The Cleveland Clinic confirmed that Kollab's departure was related to her social media activity. It also emphasized that she was under constant supervision during her residency, an apparent response to her tweet about giving Jewish people incorrect medication. "For first-year residents, multiple safeguards and direct supervision are required for patient care and prescribing medicine," the hospital said. "In addition, there have been no reports of any patient harm related to her work during the time she was here."
The statement continues, "We fully embrace diversity, inclusion and a culture of safety and respect across our entire health system."
Kollab graduated from Touro College, which also denounced her rhetoric on Twitter. "Touro College is appalled by the anti-Semitic comments reportedly made by Lara Kollab, a graduate of the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine," the school tweeted. "The mission of Touro College is to educate, perpetuate and enrich the historic Jewish tradition of tolerance and dignity."