A Jewish doctor in Britain says he was exposed to serious antisemitic remarks by medical colleagues, including statements that they would allegedly refuse to provide lifesaving treatment to patients from Israel. He said he also witnessed cases in which Jewish patients were not given kosher food during hospitalization.
The doctor, who identified himself as Baruch and asked to protect his privacy, told Britain’s ITV that some of his colleagues expressed troubling views about treating Israeli patients.
“It really scares me that I’ve met doctors who said they would not directly treat someone who came from certain parts of the world,” he said. “If someone is dying in an emergency room and he is from Israel — there were doctors who told me they would not treat him. I think that is shameful.”
2 View gallery
Some British doctors said they would not provide life-saving care to Israelis
(Photo: : Ceri Breeze/Shutterstock)
Baruch, who works as a doctor at a London hospital, lives with his wife, Daniela, and their children in Golders Green, a neighborhood with a large Jewish population where several antisemitic incidents have recently occurred. The couple said they are preparing to make aliyah to Israel, in part because of a growing sense of insecurity in Britain.
According to Baruch, antisemitism is not limited to the public sphere but is also felt inside the U.K. health care system. He said he had witnessed cases in which Jewish patients were not given kosher meals, and said he himself had experienced antisemitic harassment in the street, including calls to “go back to where you came from” and even a threat to throw acid in his face.
“When I was growing up in northwest London, I never thought I would be afraid to live here as a Jew, to walk with a kippah or to be out openly with my daughter as a Jew,” he said. “It is something I never imagined I would have to think about.”
Baruch said his family has lived in England for hundreds of years, since the 17th century, when Jews were allowed to return to Britain. Still, he said, he is expected to be the last member of his family to leave Britain, after his parents and five sisters already immigrated to Israel.
“It is sad that a family that has been here for almost 400 years is being forced to leave,” he said. “We love Israel and want to be there, but part of the reason for leaving is antisemitism.”
His wife, Daniela, also addressed the planned move to Israel, saying people sometimes struggle to understand the decision to move to a country facing security conflict.
“People in Israel are actually worried about us,” she said. “They ask how we are coping with the antisemitism here, because you never know when some random person in the street will attack you.”
According to the British Jewish newspaper The Jewish Chronicle, Baruch and his family previously lived in Manchester, and over the past year experienced the rising tensions around Jewish institutions in the local community firsthand. Among other things, he and his family were at a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, not far from where terrorist Jihad al-Shamie murdered two Jewish worshippers.
Britain’s Department of Health and Social Care responded to the remarks, saying the “reports are shocking.” The department said it was “unacceptable that people do not feel safe working in or receiving care from the health service.”
It added that “recent antisemitic incidents have raised significant concerns about organizational culture and how incidents of racism are handled,” and that the government had ordered an urgent review of antisemitism and other forms of racism in the health system, led by Lord Mann.
“We will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that Jewish NHS staff feel safe in their workplace,” the department said.