A former resident at the Cleveland Clinic was discovered to have made anti-Semitic statements online, comparing Jews to “dogs” and “Nazis,” and claiming that she would give Jewish patients the wrong medications.
The Cleveland Clinic announced on Monday that a resident doctor, Lara Kollab, is no longer employed after allegations she made anti-Semitic social media posts. The clinic added that the doctor’s beliefs “in no way” reflected those of the hospital.
“Cleveland Clinic was recently made aware of comments posted to social media by a former employee,” said the hospital in its statement, “She is no longer working at Cleveland Clinic — We fully embrace diversity, inclusion and a culture of safety and respect across our entire health system.”
The Cleveland Clinic also mentioned that Kollab had worked for them between July and September 2018. According to a revised statement released after this article first published, Kollab was fired for these posts. The statement reads, “Her departure was related to those posts and she has not worked at Cleveland Clinic since September.”
Kollab’s social media posts were dredged up by Canary Mission, a website dedicated to exposing anti-Semitism, which is mainly focused on students and recent graduates, and is motivated by a “desire to combat the rise in anti-Semitism in college campuses.”
“ill purposely give all the [Jews] the wrong meds…” read one of Kollab’s tweets captured by Canary Mission.
“[look, Haifa is sweet (nice), but it’s full of Jewish dogs, and it looks like America, meaning, it wasn’t that special to me],” said Kollab in another tweet.
“I blame Israel for everything. everything that goes wrong, i say [Allah will kill the Jews],” read another tweet.
“[Allah will take the Jews who exiled us from our country],” read another.
“jewish settlers in palestine are the descendants of the nazis,” tweeted the doctor.
The full — and lengthy — list of Kollab’s anti-Semitic social media posts can be viewed on Canary Mission’s website. The doctor graduated from Touro College, a private school in New York City.
The college reacted to Kollab’s social media posts on Twitter, stating that the school was “shocked” and “appalled” upon discovering what their alumna had said, adding that her sentiments are antithetical to those of the college.
Kollab is a 27-year-old Cleveland-area native, who, despite no longer being employed at Cleveland Clinic, still has an active medical license that will remain valid until June 2021, according to Cleveland 19 News.
Update — After this story published, the Cleveland Clinic released a revised statement providing more information on this incident. The statement in full reads:
This individual was employed as a supervised, first-year resident at our hospital from July to September 2018. When we learned of the social media post, we took immediate action, conducted an internal review and placed her on administrative leave. Her departure was related to those posts and she has not worked at Cleveland Clinic since September.
For first-year residents, multiple safeguards and direct supervision are required for patient care and prescribing medicine. In addition, there have been no reports of any patient harm related to her work during the time she was here.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.
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