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A physician with the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Faculty of Medicine has quit, saying the school is not doing enough to deal with anti-Semitism on campus.
“I didn’t do it lightly,” Dr. Ted Rosenberg told The Epoch Times. “It was done with a very heavy heart. But I felt like I had no choice.”
Dr. Rosenberg is a geriatrician based in Victoria who has been a clinical professor at UBC for 30 years.
He said he raised the issue with the school that anti-Semitism is not included as part of their diversity and inclusivity policies, but was told he should file a human rights complaint.
“It’s been basically ignored. And just saying deal with it the way you would deal with any other human rights complaint,” Dr. Rosenberg said.
UBC’s medical school emailed a statement to The Epoch Times that said “antisemitism, or discrimination of any kind, is completely unacceptable.”
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“We are committed to creating a safe and respectful environment for all of our community members and will continue to take steps to do so,” UBC said.
UBC noted that its discrimination policy includes discrimination based on religion, race, and place of origin.
However, Dr. Rosenberg said that the school did not identify the Jewish community directly in its policies.
“There are some unique nuances related to anti-Semitism that need to be addressed. And it needs to be recognized by the university because they’re not recognized in any of their programs.”
In his resignation letter, Dr. Rosenberg said he was concerned over the lack of recognition of anti-Semitism.
“I checked the recommended links to your and the President’s statements on respect and compassion, as well as the EDI site,” he wrote to Dr. Kelleher. “Two words are conspicuously absent from all these documents: 1. Jew(ish) and 2. Antisemitism. Moreover, I searched the UBC DEI/REDI site for the words ‘antisemitism’ and did not find this word, amongst the multitude of other ‘anti’s’ that appeared.”
Dr. Rosenberg said he raised the issue in a letter at the end of November 2023, but was not happy with the response. Then, nearly 300 other doctors at UBC wrote a joint letter to the dean about the issue.
“A group of the Jewish doctors and other doctors at UBC … 284 signed a letter to the dean requesting that he acknowledged that anti-Semitism is an issue, come up with guardrails, like the IHRC guardrail for dealing with anti-Semitism, and more clearly define what hate speech is, to give guidance for that, and then to develop some workshops to improve education,” he explained.
In the letter, the professionals raised concerns over a petition they said was signed by 225 medical students and residents, called “UBC Medical Student Petition: A Call to Action on Gaza.”
“We question the validity of such a petition existing at all, because the petition contains many inaccuracies, is one-sided, is unrelated to medical care, and is causing deep divisions within the medical student community,” the letter read. “We urgently request that you respond to this petition by taking action to protect the integrity of the medical school and the safety of medical students and staff.”
“And, basically, again, we got a very suboptimal response,” Dr. Rosenberg said.
It was then that he decided to give his resignation.
In the resignation letter, Dr. Rosenberg said that students and faculty have expressed their dislike of him because he is Jewish.
“One third of the medical students and some faculty, have publicly expressed their contempt towards me, as a Jew. I cannot take the risk of being accused of implicit harassment or racism, which is indefensible, by a ‘triggered’ student,” he wrote.
“Unfortunately, I have no faith in due process in a faculty that does not even acknowledge the existence or presence of antisemitism/Jew-hatred, or my right to work in a depoliticized environment.”
In the email from UBC, it said the Faculty of Medicine planned to offer opportunities to learn inclusivity and respectful dialogue.
“In response to concerns raised by faculty and learners, the Faculty of Medicine is also working expediently to develop educational opportunities for inclusive learning and respectful dialogue within the faculty in areas that directly reflect our stated values, including how we address issues such as discrimination, harassment, and hate speech,” the email said.
Dr. Rosenberg said his resignation was effective Jan. 2, 2024.
“It deeply saddens me to end my academic career on this note,” Dr. Rosenberg wrote to the dean.
‘We’ve Got a Problem’
Dr. Rosenberg said he was concerned about the amount of violence and aggression he has been seeing.
“There’s nothing wrong with legitimate protest or legitimate advocacy. But when the protest turns into aggressive protests that are demonizing people here in town, recommending boycotts and isolation and marginalization, we’ve got a problem.”
He said the problem was in society and the universities.
“My concern was that UBC, up until now, has done nothing, and it’s created this toxic environment—or at least has not created a toxic environment, is tolerating the toxic environment.”
According to the Government of Canada, the country is home to the fourth-largest Jewish community in the world.
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