A physician with the University of British Columbia (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 Victoria-based geriatrician 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 UBC’s 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.”
However, Dr. Rosenberg said the school did not identify the Jewish community directly in its policies.
Petition
In his Jan. 1 resignation letter addressed to Dr. Kelleher, Dr. Rosenberg said he was concerned about 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.
“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 to Mr. Bacon, Dr. Kelleher, and other senior UBC officials at the end of November but was dissatisfied with the response. On Dec. 21, nearly 300 other doctors at UBC wrote a joint letter to the dean about the issue.
The doctors’ letter raised concerns about a petition they said was signed by some 225 medical students, titled “A Call to Action on Gaza.”
The doctors wrote in their joint letter: “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.”
Resignation
Dr. Rosenberg said that, “basically, again, we got a very suboptimal response.”It was then that he decided to resign.
In his resignation letter, he said “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.”
“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,” he wrote.
UBC’s email to The Epoch Times said the Faculty of Medicine plans to offer opportunities to learn inclusivity and respectfulness.
“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 is effective Jan. 2.
‘We’ve Got a Problem’
Dr. Rosenberg said he is 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 is in society and 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.”
