Bad Medicine: Politics, Unions, and Antisemitism in Health Care

The subcommittee on health, employment, labor and pensions will come to order. I note that a quorum is present. Without objection, the chair is authorized to call a re recess at any time. Today's hearing will examine how health care unions are using their resources to advance anti-Israel political agenda while harassing and discriminating Jewish doctors, nurses, and other health care workers. Instead of fulfilling their duty to fairly represent all employees, these unions have chosen to engage in divisive, discriminatory, and anti-semitic conduct. The subcommittee held a hearing nine months ago about the alarming rise of anti-semitic in incidents in our country and in our workplaces. Unfortunately, the problem has only worsened. Across the nation and around the world, Jewish people continue to face discrimination, intimidation, and violence. And that is just un-American. The unions we will discuss today have devoted time, money, and institutional influence to advance their divisive, harmful, and discriminary discriminatory political agenda. In doing so, they are contributing to a workplace culture in our hospitals and medical institutions that is hostile and discriminar discriminatory for Jewish employees. For example, the committee of interns and residents an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, represents thousands of medical residents, interns, and fellows across the country. After the October seventh massacre of Israeli citizens, CIR adopted a series of resolutions condemning Israel for genocide. One resolution endorsed a boy boycott, divi divestment and sanctions movement and called on CIR members to encourage teaching hospitals to cut all ties with Israel, including financial investments, pension funds, retirement accounts, academic partnerships, and in- intellectual property relationships. It is no surprise that many doctors and nurses are afraid to speak up about what their unions are doing in their workplaces. Many fear retaliation, professional is isolation, Mm-hmm. or becoming targets themselves if they exercise their rights under federal law. Workers have rights to speak out against union leadership. and to decline to fund political activities with which they disagree. The Civil Rights Act protects workers from having to sacrifice their faith and their principles to get and keep a job. In public hospitals and clinics, medical professionals also have the right to decline union membership and cannot be required to pay union dues or fees. Yet under current law, CIRR exclusively res- exclusively represents all employees in a bargaining unit even those who voted against the union strongly disagree with the union's statements and policy following October seventh. Today we will hear directly from those on the front lines of our hospitals, clinics, and doctors' offices about the anti-semitism they have experienced and witnessed in their workplaces. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle may be frustrated that we continue to discuss workplace antis- uh, anti-semitism. I'm a fr- um, I'm frustrated too, but b- until Jewish workers can dignity and safety in their workplaces and until unions return to their core mission of representing all workers we cannot afford to stop talking about it. With that, I yield to the ranking member for his open opening statement.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, I want to thank all the witnesses for being here today. Uh, I'd like to begin by saying that no one should be threatened, harassed or assaulted because of who they are, who they worship, or what they stand for. We must do more to combat anti-semitism in this country and ensure that all Americans are treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve. When it comes to health care, patients and providers must be able to rely on a safe environment, free from discrimination. If that is what has motivated this hearing, I think we should be able to come together in a bipartisan manner and discuss solutions. But I fear that yet again the majority is weaponizing the issue of anti-semitism to attract groups they disfavor, like labor unions. Today marks the eleventh time in the last three years we have held committee activity to address anti-semitism. Committee Democrats want to meaningfully address hate and discrimination. How after however, after nearly a dozen hearings, it is abundantly clear that committee Republicans have no interest in addressing the issue in good faith, or discussing an effective response. Instead, the majority has weaponized this issue for their political objectives rather than tackle anti-Jewish enemies in a serious, serious and enduring way, as I've said many times before and other people on our side have said, we're willing to work with you on that issue. If my colleagues were serious, they would call out the leader of their own party, President Trump. who has made anti-semitic statements himself and emboldened right-wing extremists to spew hate with not only impunity but with celebration. At the same time, the majority will also hold hearings to address racism, xenophobia, sexism, Islamophobia, or similar harms that Americans face. On both counts, committee Republicans have been silent. Even more critically, this committee has stood on the sidelines while this administration has dismantled the lead civil rights agencies responsible for investigating discrimination and protecting patients, health care workers, and medical students. The silence is deafening and telling. Hate cannot be tolerated anywhere, including in unions. However, it is irresponsible and unproductive to take the words and actions of a few in broadly categorized labor unions as fostering discrimination. I want to remind my colleagues that the labor movement is a large diverse coalition of workers, including Jewish Americans, many of whom have been pr- very prominent in the American labor movement. It's been a significant force in the battle against anti-semitism and other forms of hate throughout its history, not without its challenges like America as a whole. At the end of the day, the fight against discrimination in health care is not separate from the fight for affordable care. When entire communities face barriers to quality care, costs rise, preventable conditions go untreated, and working families bear the burden. Our health care system should work for everyone, regardless of who they are or where they come from. Our committee has a real opportunity to improve access to health care, make care more affordable and address inefficiencies in the health care system that cost both patients both their economic security and their lives. However, the Trump administration has taken the problems that patients and health care workers face and made them demonstrably worse. Since President Trump returned to office, his administration and congressional Republicans have waged relentless attacks on the health and well-being of the American people, particularly the most vulnerable Americans. Republicans have failed to meaningfully lower drug cost. And thanks to their big ugly bill and failure to extend the Affordable Care Act, enhanced premium tax cuts, millions of Americans have seen their health care premiums skyrocket. At the same time, President Trump's reckless economic policies and foreign wars have acerbated a cost of living crisis in one in which one third of Americans could not afford a four hundred dollar emergency expense. I think everyone here knows that a medical crisis costs a lot more than four hundred dollars. The Trump administration policies in this Congress, Congress's inaction have also harmed our ability to address discrimination, for both workers and patients. Multiple agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, has slashed programs in research they deemed to be too woke. and ban words such as black, disability, trauma, assessable, and mental health. How are we supposed to stop discrimination if we aren't allowed to describe it? These policies are not - have not made Americans, including Jewish Americans, healthier or safer. Instead, Americans are forced to scrap the bottle - the bottom of the barrel and skip doctor's appointments to avoid crushing medical debt. The leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States is medical debt. We should be addressing that. Democrats are committed to protecting people from hate and discrimination and providing safe, affordable health care so that all Americans can access access the care they need. I look forward to today's discussion and continue to look forward, Mister Chairman, to work with you in a principled way on addressing discrimination in America. I yield back.

The gentleman yields uh pursuant to c- c- committee rule eight C, all members who wish to insert written statements into the record may do so by submitting them to the committee clerk electronically in Microsoft Word format by five p m fourteen days after this hearing and without objection the hearing record will remain open for fourteen days to allow such statements and other extraneous material noted during the hearing to be submitted for the official hearing record. I will now turn to the introduction of our four distinguished witnesses. Our first witness is Miss uh Dina uh Margolis, Litigation Staff Attorney at the Louis D. Brandes Center for Human Rights, under law in New York, New York. Our second witness is Doctor Jacob uh Grauman, uh and a Cardiology Fellow in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Our third witness is Miss Jamie Burren, Chief Executive Officer of Ben the Arc in New York, New York. Our last witness is Miss Evelyn Schechman, Chief Executive Officer of the American Jewish Medical Association in Sacramento Sacramento California. We thank the witnesses for being here today and we look forward to your testimony. Pursuant to committee rules, I would ask that you each limit your oral presentation to a three-minute summary of your written statement. As commen- committee members have many questions for you, the clock will count down from three minutes. Pursuit to Committee Rule eight D and committee practice, however, you will not uh cut we will not cut off your testimony until you reach the five minute mark. I would also like to remind the witnesses to be aware of their responsibility to provide accurate information to the subcommittee. I will first recognize Ms. Mangalis ma- ma- Mangalis for your testimony.

Chairman Allen, ranking member Desogne. and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to testify. My name is Dina Margulies and I'm an attorney at the Lewis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, where I represent Jewish and Israeli individuals facing anti-semitic harassment and discrimination. Before joining Brandeis, I worked at a health care organization monitoring quality of care under Medicare and Medicaid. Since the October seventh Hamas terror attacks, We have seen an unprecedented surge in requests for help from Jewish individuals facing anti-semitism, including for refusing to disavow Zionism as part of their Jewish identity. Hostility to Zionists often functions as a proxy for hostility to Jews, especially when it is used to exclude, demonize, or demand that Jews abandon a part of their identity as a price as a as a price of admission to a school, workplace, professional association or union. Today I will focus on health care labor unions that use the power and privileges of union representation not to protect workers' rights but to promote anti-semitic and anti-Zionist campaigns that demonize Israel and marginalize Jewish and Israeli health care workers. The issue is not whether health care workers may hold political views. Of course they may. The problem arises when health care unions use their authority and resources to promote anti-semitic campaigns outside their labor mission. Jewish and Israeli health care professionals are then placed in an impossible position. The union that is supposed to represent them is also helping to create the hostile work environment they must endure. We are seeing this in health care unions across the country. For example, at the National Union of Health Care Workers, Jewish and Israeli health care professionals report that union spaces became increasingly hostile after October seventh, and that they had been pressured to adopt anti-Zionist statements, have met hostility from union leadership, and their request for meaningful anti-semitism training was not addressed. The harm is not theoretical. A Jewish physician at a major academic medical center shared a wanted poster included in my written testimony that was posted throughout his campus identifying him and accusing him of complicity in ethnic cleansing. The poster created a threatening workplace, affected his work in the hospital for months, and led patients and colleagues to interrogate him about Israel, even though Israel had nothing to do with his work as a physician. Patients do not want politics in health care. When they are vulnerable in an exam room, hospital bed, or operating room, they need to trust that every member of the care team is focused on their well-being, not on shunning excellent doctors because they are Jewish or Israeli. When that is happening, the harm is not just to the workplace environment, but it also affects patient care and safety. We are also seeing anti-semitism enter health care through clinical language. In some mental health settings, so-called decolonizing therapy frameworks pathologize Zionism itself, treating a core part of Jewish identity as morally or psychologically defective. Anti-semitism can be dressed up as labor solidarity or clinical language. but the effect is the same. Jewish and Israeli health care professionals and patients are treated as morally suspect and unable to participate fully and equally in clinical settings. Congress can and should act. They should ensure that health care unions cannot use workplace power to promote anti-semitic and anti-Zionist campaigns that marginalize Jewish and Israeli workers, or threaten patient care. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.

Thank you, and now I now recognize Doctor Agronin uh for your testimony.

Chairman Allen, Ranking Member de Saulnier, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Jacob Agronin, I'm a cardiology fellow at a major medical academic center, and I've been training for numerous years to take care of patients. That is what I'm supposed to be doing today, with with my time and energy. Instead, I'm here because my union formally discriminates against physicians based on national origin, openly supports terror sympathizers, and has made its obsession with a single geopolitical conflict a defining feature of its identity. I will soon be compelled by federal law to fund it. I did not choose this union. The Committee of Interns in Residence, CIR, was voted in at my institution. No contract has been signed yet, but when it is, a portion of my salary, funded in part by Medicare's direct graduate medical education program, will flow to an organization whose conduct I will describe today. CIR represents thirty-seven thousand resident and fellow physicians across this country. In May of twenty twenty four, it passed a formal resolution titled " House Staff Against Apartheid" declaring Israel guilty of apartheid and genocide as an official organizational doctrine. That resolution endorses the boycott, divest, and sanction movement, and explicitly calls on hospitals to divest, and I quote, all resources, including, but not limited to, direct financial contributions, human capital, pension funds, and retirement programs. Human capital means people. CIR has formally recommended that hospitals exclude my Israeli colleagues from employment, and then compels dues from those same colleagues to fund that position. If any employer in this country adopted that policy, we would call it what it is, discrimination. CIR has publicly supported Mahmoud Khalil, whom the Secretary of State determined posed serious adverse foreign policy consequences, and who was alleged to have distributed Hamas associated materials. CIR has also publicly supported Doctor Rasha Al-Uweah, a physician who expressed sympathy for Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization that has killed hundreds of Americans and she even attended its leader's funeral. These are not the views of rogue members. In fact, they're documented public organizational choices. My union supports terror sympathizers. This is not a characterization, it is a description of their own conduct. Jewish and Israeli colleagues who face CIR's hostility will often not speak publicly, not because they don't care, they certainly do, but because they are afraid it will affect their employment, their ability to finish training, and most importantly, is their ability to care for patients in an environment where they uh don't face harassment from their peers. A union is supposed to protect workers, and this one has made some of its members afraid to speak. While this is happening, the resolutions, the rallies, the statements, the political campaigns, my colleagues and I are just trying to take care of patients. That is why we're here. CIR's relentless focus on this one geopolitical conflict is a distraction from our mission. I am a Jewish American, and I want to be very clear. I am here as an American physician, telling this subcommittee that federal law will soon require me to fund an organization that supports terror sympathizers, and formally recommends the exclusion of my colleagues based on where they're from. When Americans come to the hospital, they are not thinking about geopolitics. They should not have to wonder whether their doctor's unit supports terror sympathizers. But mine does. And Congress has the authority to do something about it. Thank you very much.

Next, I'll recognize Miss Barron for your testimony.

Chairman Allen, Ranking Member Desaulnier, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me here today. The organization that I lead as CEO, Bend the Arc Jewish Action, is the nation's largest Jewish membership organization focused on domestic policy. We fight anti-semitism, racism, and other forms of hate. And right now, many American Jews are understandably afraid. Devastating acts of anti-semitism and increasing attacks on Jews, including as a proxy for Israel, are impacting our physical and emotional well-being. Anti-semitism is never acceptable, and it is heartbreaking to encounter it in a healthcare setting. Imagine being the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor having her therapist dismiss her fear, claiming videos of Hamas's attack on October seventh were a conspiracy. Increased anti-semitism leaves many Jews feeling isolated and unsure who to trust. I feel this fear myself some days when I drop my own children off for religious school at our conservative synagogue. But this is not the only reason that we feel alone. The Trump administration is using Jewish safety as a pretext for policies that endanger our neighbors and our democracy. And as a Jewish leader, that angers me to see our safety used to justify violating rights, detaining immigrants, or destroying parts of civil society. These disingenuous attacks advance ulterior political goals without making Jews any safer. They don't combat anti-semitism, they weaponize it. To effectively fight anti-semitism, we must not broadly characterize First Amendment protected speech or criticism of Israel as illegal. Criticism of the government of Israel is not inherently anti-semitic. But both supporters and critics of Israel can fuel anti-semitism by indiscriminately conflating Jews with the State of Israel or invoking anti-Jewish tropes. Unions and professional organizations are engaged in the same debates happening across America. These disagreements are not inherently a legal anti-semitic discrimination or harassment. In fact, some of the loudest voices in these organizations on both sides of these debates are themselves Jewish. These organizations should apply their conduct rules uniformly and adhere to federal civil rights laws. But to smear the institutions themselves as anti-semitic because of what some members say is politically motivated. It's gross governmental overreach to constitutionally protected speech among adults and the administration itself has built a dangerous permission structure for bigotry and anti-semitism through their embrace of white nationalists and extremists. This normalizing of hate endangers not just Jews but all Americans. Because anti-semitism does not exist in a vacuum. When racism and xenophobia are allowed to flourish, anti-semitism inevitably flourishes alongside it. That is one of the many reasons we can only fight anti-semitism alongside other forms of hate. So let's talk about the dangers of to Jewish safety in health care right now. The administration's cuts to Medicaid and the ACA have made access to health care harder for all Americans including Jews. Unbelievably, they've also frozen funding for the HHS Office of Civil Rights, gutting the agency responsible for investigating medical bias. And there is another threat to Jewish safety in our health care system. The rabbis teach us to trust women to make decisions about pregnancy and ensure that everyone has access to safe reproductive health care, including abortion. Just this month, thirty Jewish organizations from every denomination in America joined an amicus brief to the Supreme Court organized by the National Council of Jewish Women in support of medication abortion. Jews are not safer with access to scientifically sound, sorry, Jews are safer with access to scientifically sound, culturally appropriate health care that is not contingent upon other people's religious beliefs. Instead of adopting the punitive approach favored by the administration, Congress should take actions that actually fight antisemitism, which I have detailed in my written testimony, and so I'll be brief. Support the improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act and the Support the Antisem- and Support the Antisemitism Response and Prevention Act. Use antisemitism definitions as educational tools and not divisive speech codes that can be used as pretext to curtail First Amendment protected speech. Call out antisemitism whenever and wherever you hear it. and refuse to normalize conspiracy theories and anti-semitic tropes from elected leaders. Ben-Yark has a dismantling anti-semitism messaging guide that explains in detail how to talk about Jewish safety effectively. The future for this country that is safest for Jews is the future of this country that is safest for everyone, a thriving multiracial democracy, where every person has access to dignified, appropriate, and affordable health care because there is no higher Jewish value than pkuach nefesh, saving a life. Where the medical professionals keeping us healthy are protected on the job and can bargain as a unit. Where anti-semitism and all hatreds are dismantled. And where Jewish people refuse to remain silent as our safety is used as a pretext to harm our allies and neighbors. Thank you.

Thank you. And lastly, I recognize Mrs. Schechman for your testimony.

Chairman Allen, Ranking Member Desaulniere, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me here to testify on anti-semitism in health care. My name is Evelyn Checkman, and I serve as CEO of the American Jewish Medical Association, and I have more than twenty-five years of experience within the healthcare sector. I am the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and a first generation American born to a family of Jewish refugees. I am testifying today with a sense of urgency that I did not expect to feel in twenty twenty six. Anti-semitism is not new, but we have entered a new era in which Jew hatred hides behind the guise of anti-Zionism. The vast majority of American Jews identify as Zionists or support Israel's right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state. That means that when Zionism is targeted, Jewish people are targeted. We are seeing calls to fire Jewish doctors, the praising of terrorist groups in and outside of clinical settings, the refusal to treat patients because of their faith, national origin or Zionist identity, and the demand that Jewish colleagues renounce Israel as a condition of This is antisemitism. This is discrimination, and it is a distraction. It has no place in medicine, yet we are seeing it within hospitals, medical schools, associations, and unions. Every health care professional has the right to a workplace where they can focus on the patient thereby fulfilling their their Hippocratic oath. But Jewish health care professionals are denied that right because geopolitics and activism have infected the health care space. When employers fail to protect their workers, employees rely on labor unions for help. Today, many unions have created an environment where Jewish professionals no longer feel welcome, because union resources have focused on politics instead of patience. Worse yet, Jewish members are compelled to fund these activities through mandatory dues. The Committee of Interns and Residents, the nation's largest health staff union, has become inhospitable to Jewish members, actively institutionalizing anti-semitism. In May twenty twenty four, CIR passed resolutions blacklisting political candidates who accept donations connected to the so-called Israel lobby, and another endorsing the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. CIR has openly supported terrorist sympathizers and plastered hospitals with posters accusing Israel of the false charges of genocide and apartheid. Jewish CIR members who asked the union to focus on patient care instead of geopolitics are routinely silenced, ostracized, and isolated from union dialogue. Other unions are not immune. National Nurses United has even distributed a guide on how members can bring anti-Israel politics, sentiments, and polarizing activity within the clinical setting. Anti-semitic conduct must be investigated and punished with the same urgency as any other form of discrimination. Every Jewish health care professional, every patient, And every person who walks through a hospital door deserves nothing less. Thank you for this opportunity to testify for Jewish voices in health care. I look forward to your questions.

Thank you all for your opening statement. Um, yeah, now we are ready for um, under committee rule nine, we will now question witnesses under the five-minute rule. I will recognize myself for five minutes. Doctor Groening, it takes real courage for you to be here today. Like you said, you'd really like to be taking care of your patients. But to speak about something uh this uh these anti-semitic actions of the CRI CRI CRI CIR union and some of its members. Can you discuss how the CIR leadership and some members have created what you call in your written testimony a climate of enforced silence for Jewish and pro-Israel medical trainees.

Thank you, Chairman Allen, for your question. Um, on a policy level, they very clearly created a culture of discrimination, of intimidation, of exclusion, uh, amongst my Israeli colleagues, my Jewish colleagues, and a large number of others that support the State of Israel or just don't like this activity. Um, Many of my colleagues are really afraid to speak up about this. Um, I've tried to have them sign petitions, and people are really afraid to have their name on anything that goes against this union. Um, I think most importantly when it comes to this point is Americans really do not want their doctors supporting terror sympathizers, which is exactly what this union is doing. It's creating a culture of fear and intimidation in our hospitals.

Thank you. Um. Ms. Margolis, uh your written testimony describes Jewish physicians being shunned and isolated in hospital settings because of perceived support for Israel. How does that kind of con conduct affect the work floor the workplace and patient care?

Well, thank you for the question. And I I I think that first and foremost, health care depends on trust, teamwork and professional cooperation. So if Jewish doctors, and and they are, are being isolated and marginalized and ostracized, it affects patient care. Um, it doesn't make it a a safe place for patients. You know, they feel vulnerable when they come into a hospital setting, and they're certainly gonna be concerned about the quality of care that they're gonna receiv receive if a pac- if a doctor right in front of them is being ostracized by their coworkers. Um, at the same time, it's also, um, besides affecting patient care, we should be concerned that there are hostile work environments for for Jewish and for Israeli doctors based on protected characteristics. If this were for any other group, it it would it would it would be addressed.

Thank you. Uh, Miss Schechman, your written testimony provides examples of disciplinary action taken against Jewish medical professionals because of their public condemnat condemnation of Hamas or speaking out against anti-semitism. What impact does retaliation or fear of retaliation have on Jewish medical professionals?

So the clinical environment is highly regulated, it's highly coordinated, um if anyone who's seen what goes on in an in um in an operating room, everything there has to be synchronized um and it's planned out. Um if there is something that comes in that is unplanned, that is a distraction, that is disruptive, you are uh uh disrupting the whole system and you are impacting patient care. There is a trust that's involved, there are relationships that involved, and everyone there needs to be focused on the patient and nothing else but - but the patient you need to create an ideal setting um that is - is um keeping the patient in mind not politics not geopolitics just the patient.

Good, thank you, and again I appreciate your courage for standing up for what you believe in, and you know there there's gonna be an attempt to change the subject here today, a point uh at the administration, uh but I can tell you this, never in history has an administration united the entire Middle East against the most evil in in in in the world, and that is people, a nation that says they want to destroy Israel and everyone that supports the people of Israel. That is what, that is the conflict we're in today. It is a righteous conflict. And uh thank goodness for the courage of this administration in taking on this uh very difficult uh situation. And again, that's courage, and we're seeing courage today, and we've seen it throughout biblical history. So uh, i- we- you know, we're in this - we're in this conflict together. So thank you very much. And I yield my time, and I now call on Mister Courtney for his line of questioning.

Uh, thank you, uh, Mister Chairman, and thank you to all the witnesses for being here. take a point of personal privilege just to particularly welcome uh, Miss Shechman, who's here today. Her twenty five years of um experience in health care I've personally benefited from as well as uh her husband Mark who's uh incredibly talented surgeon who uh made sure that I can actually get around a golf course, Mister Chairman, because of uh a knee replacement surgery that he just did for me a a few months ago.

Mm.

So um uh in any

Oh. You tell me, you tell me, you're playing best.

I am.

You can reclaim your task.

Thank you. Um so Um the the seriousness of this uh issue today is um undeniable in terms of what's happening in twenty twenty six um as was mentioned earlier um Elie Wiesel once famously said that anti-semitism affects more than its victims it affects the society in which it lives and breathes and unfortunately we are seeing it um uh you know manifest itself um in the most unexpected places uh in quiet suburban Connecticut uh a few weeks ago, in Coventry, Connecticut. the town council meeting which was being presided over by the council chair, which is like the mayor of the the the city there, uh Lisa Thomas, who is Jewish and the granddaughter of uh Jewish refugees. The meeting was suddenly interrupted by individuals uh s- doing Nazi salutes and saying Sieg Heil, um which again was just, you know, beyond shocking and uh offensive. Um as you know, this statement that Lisa uh put out uh afterwards is that this is not free speech, it's hateful. These gestures and symbols represent loyalty to a regime that committed genocide and their use today is intended to intimidate and dehumanize uh Jewish people. Lisa uh is a retired teacher, a long time member of the NEA union, she was the head of a local uh in Hebron, Connecticut, which is uh nearby. And the good news I I just wanna share is that the Eastern the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut has organized um a community conversation and gathering, which is gonna happen in a few days, uh encountering the Holocaust and anti-semitism. Uh and the ADL has also stepped forward in terms of trying to uh connect with uh Jewish public officials elected officials who again are experiencing unfortunately what what happened to Lisa uh a few uh weeks ago. Um last night the New London Police arrested an individual who threatened the Sikh American um mayor of Norwich. uh to take out his him h him and his family. Um so a- as Wiesel said, the you know this this virus, you know, really um becomes systemic and wide-spread and and we've really gotta be smart about making sure that we we take the the appropriate steps. So, Miss Schechman, in your um testimony you um really explicitly said that we need to ensure robust enforcement of the Civil Rights Act as one of the you know suggestions to Congress, and I really appreciate that because I I think frankly there's a broad consensus that if there's um well there in law school as you may recall Miss Margolis there was a legal um uh statement uh ubi jus ubi jus ebi remedium which basically says without a remedy, there is no right. And right now because of the fact that the Office of Civil Rights has been basically um disappearing in in plain sight um there is no remedy. for for people who have complaints in terms of anti-semitism, whether it's in medical schools or medical institutions. Um, and again, the the civil rights office for the Department of Education, which has jurisdiction over medical schools, resolved only one percent of cases in twenty twenty five because between Doge and decisions made by um uh Secretary McMahon, that office was basically dismantled. She's scrambling now to rehire people. to because they realized that they went too far and that there the backlog of cases um has piled up um in in the wake of you know really a a very bad decision. So, Miss Barron, I mean again, uh just for your to give you a second to talk about again the OCR and just how that's actually a very concrete way that Congress in Washington can help address this issue.

Yeah, for sure. I I think that we can all agree that funding the office of civil rights is one of the key steps that we can take to combat anti-semitism. And, you know, seventy-two percent of Jewish American voters don't approve of the job this administration is doing. And physical assaults against Jews in the US were at the highest rates in nearly fifty years in twenty twenty five. So while I understand that, um, a lot of conversation about anti-semitism has been happening, I think funding these offices that can take proactive steps in actually investigating complaints is one of the most important things that can happen.

And and again, as we learned in first year law school, if you don't have a remedy, you just don't have a right. You can have all the fancy language in there and and deplore um injustice, but frankly, if you don't have a remedy, it it it's it's all for naught without a yield back.

Uh, the gentleman yields, now I call on our Chairman of the full committee, Mister Walbert, for your line of questions.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and thanks to the panel for being here. And uh, Miss Eckman, uh if you and your husband are able to get uh representative Courtney's golf game better, we need to talk after this. Well, maybe maybe it'd take a miracle anyway for me, so thanks for being here. Um, Mr. Margolis, uh your testimony discusses uh health care unions moving beyond mandatory bargaining uh subjects that normally would be things like wages and working conditions into anti-semitic and anti-zionist uh campaigns. I think I know the answer, but I'd like you to discuss with us why is that especially concerning in a healthcare setting.

Happy to address this. Um, healthcare settings are incredibly delicate settings, okay. Uh, a hospital setting is supposed to be about patient care. And I think everybody here agrees that patients in America should have quality of care. If you have a hostile work environment in a hospital setting, right, where you need trust and cooperation between doctors and nurses and support staff, it's gonna affect the quality of care that patients receive. The other thing is, is that there is no place for politics inside of a hospital That's why if you notice there are dress codes, right? And you see people in different color gear so you can identify the doctor, or the nurse, or the technician. Because nobody should know what your views are, whether you're a doctor in an emergency room or if you're a psychiatrist or a therapist. Right? You're supposed to be a blank slate. And you're supposed to provide people care, no matter what their protective characteristic is.

Mm. Yeah, agnostic as far as the peripheral stuff. Just make me well. Put my shoulder back together and like, thank you. Um, Doctor, uh, Gronin, uh, a majority of your colleagues, um, voted for CIR to represent them. Uh, which was their right, of course. Probably wrong. Their right to be wrong. But otherwise, now the hospital is in the middle of collective bargaining with CIR. which means it has legal responsibility to bargain in good faith. What does bargaining in good faith, keying on that, bargaining in good faith mean to you?

Thank you for your question. Bargaining in good faith has to mean bargaining in the interest of all members you're representing. Um, in this case they're clearly not, it's impossible for them to bargain in good faith when they on a or by organizational doctrine want to exclude a portion of those that will that apply under their purview. Um, namely my Israeli colleagues. Um, this is not collective bargaining, this is actually selective bargaining,

OK.

where they're referring to they w- they wanna help those that agree with them, and they want to fire those that don't.

And that's not what you would hope out of bargaining, I take it?

Certainly not.

And what you would hope out of bargaining would be?

What I would hope for is the option for those that disagree with this union on a fundamental level, to not be compelled to pay dues to this union, um, I think it's absurd that the union can call for blatant discrimination against Israeli colleagues and then compel those same colleagues

To pay.

to pay them.

Yeah. To pay, to take action on you, against you, and to weaponize the system.

Exactly.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, Ms. Schekman, your testimony uh cites materials produced by the National Nurses Union twenty-two and twenty-two, which as I understand describe Israel as an apartheid system, an occupation of indigenous Palestinian lands, and a European settler colonial project, fairly explicit as in their description. Um, that was their position before October seventh. Uh, what reports have you received from your members about the activities of the Nurses' Union since October seventh?

Um, so a nurse's union, um, just to remind, um, the everyone here, uh, a union is meant to improve the conditions of the employees to create an ideal situation for patient care. Um, so in bringing in a political situation or a geopolitics, um, for something that is a, uh, a halfway a- around the world, is, um, irrelevant to the patient care setting. So within that context, um, since then, um, the nurse's union has put forth a guide um to try and educate their members in order to how they can bring that into the clinical setting and that's extremely dangerous so you wanna keep that whole setting sterile and um uh uh making sure that you keep patient first. So they are right now trying to educate and bring the tools into a space that has it has no space for it has no place for it.

Which should bring terror into the hearts and minds of some of the patients that could come under their care.

Correct.

So Thank you. My time has expired. I yield back.

Gentleman yields now. Call on the ranking member of the full committee, Mister Scott, for his uh five minutes of questioning.

Thank you. Um, thank you, Mister Chairman. Um, and as um question to Mrs. um Buran. The committee of Republicans have turned a blind eye to anti-semitism when it inconveniences them politically. For example, the leader of their party, Donald Trump, And his allies have repeatedly said vile anti-semitic statements and Republicans have been silent. Trump has even hosted a Holocaust denier at Mar- Mar- Mar-a-Lago. Committee of Republicans have now held three hearings on anti-semitism in unions, yet reports of anti-semitism of young among young Republicans, including news reports of students in the University of Florida's College Republicans chapter doing a Nazi salute. has evoked no response at all. Uh, Mr. Chairman, I'd ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a Washington Post article entitled, College Republican Group Disbanded After Students Allegedly Give Nancy's Salute. A N- a New York uh Time article entitled, White House Shrugs Off Leaked Chants uh Chats from Young Republicans Praising Hitler. A Politico article entitled, leaked messages, exposed young Republicans' racist chant, thousands of private messages, reveal young GLP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape. A New York Times article entitled, the far right is dividing collie college Republicans. A Politico article entitled Donald Trump dined with White House Nash uh Nationalist Holocaust Denier, Nick Fuentes. An article from the Jewish Democratic Council of America entitled, Donald Trump's long record on anti-semitism, which lists the countless examples of anti-semitism espoused by the President in the White House. I'd ask you not to consent to those articles being inserted in the record.

Without objection.

Mr. Chairman, earlier this month I sent a letter to Chairman Wahlberg asking him if and when he plans to conduct oversight on those kinds of examples, and we obviously haven't had such a um uh hearing and so, Ms. Brand, what are the dangers of a double standard when it comes to calling out and tackling anti-semitism?

Thank you for the question, Mr. Scott. Yeah, American Jews really don't want to be at the center of these political debates, and when it feels like the administration is trying to have it both ways. As you said, it's deeply troubling to watch this administration give a permission structure to Christian nationalists, um and to met- surround themselves with people who regularly peddle anti-semitism. while saying from the other side of their mouth that they care deeply about fighting it. Um, when that government turns and tries to tell us that they're cracking down on civil society organizations to protect us, how on earth are we as American Jews supposed to trust that? Um, I don't trust that. I don't feel protected by those, those, uh, choices by the administration. Um, and I hear from Jewish people every day about how it scares us that, uh, the Office of Civil Rights and many of the other, uh, ways that anti-semitism and other forms of hate are able to be reported on effectively, um, are are being dismantled and and undermined.

Well that um, you mentioned the Office of Civil Rights in various organizations, and I'd point out that this committee under Republican leadership does not have a subcommittee on civil rights, used to under Democrats it has a subcommittee on civil rights, not this one. Uh, those organizations can investigate and address um anti-semitism and uh did you what did you say about their funding

yeah that that they've defunded many of these institutions um and that has real world consequences on on the ability to actually investigate claims of anti-semitism uh which which deeply concerns me and i think being able to have a whole of government response by passing something like the anti-semitism response and prevention act that funds these offices um that puts a national coordinator in place so we can actually have all of our government agencies working together to investigate these these various forms of hate.

And then the Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights is being effectively dismantled. Uh, does the politicization of anti-semitism make Jews safer, and does you feel that some policies advanced by this administration have actually undermined the fight against anti-semitism?

Yeah, that's right. I mean, we're a small minority community that is

Gentlemen yields, and now I'll call on Mister Owens.

Mr. Owens.

for your five minutes of question time.

Thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman, uh, for convening this - this hearing. I can't express how deeply disappointed it is to, uh, that we're sitting here today, uh, talking about antis- antisepticism and the health care system. And somebody mentioned there's a virus, uh, it's - it's a cancer. And it's - since we've seen growing, and you're right, twenty twenty-six is hard to believe we're having this conversation in this particular area. Particularly, this is an area where people should be more concerned about saving lives and helping the public instead of creating division and selling fear. Uh, so I wanna thank the witnesses who have bravely and boldly, uh, coming forward to shine a light on what's been going on. Um, Miss Mogollis, uh, you said in your t- written testimony that health care workers are within their rights to hold political views about the Middle East, Israel, and other other topics. Uh, where is the line between legitimate crit- criticism of Israel uh Israeli government policy and antis- and antisemitic uh, antisemitic and uh discriminatory conduct targeting Jewish Israeli and Zionist health care workers?

Thank you for that question, and I I think this is a really important question, and I gives me an opportunity to also talk about one of the ways in which we determine what is anti-semitic conduct is with a definition of anti-semitism. And the gold standard for that is the IHRA definition, including its contemporary examples, which are really important for showing what the contemporary manifestations of anti-semitism are today. And I wanna be clear that it's not about regulating speech. It's about regulating conduct and the discriminatory intent to that conduct. The other thing that's incredibly important here about the IRA definition is that it says that legitimate criticism of Israel, similar to criticism of any other country, is fine. It's not anti-semitic. But when you demonize Israel or you hold it to a double standard, or you hold it to a standard that you hold no other country to, and you collectively blame Jewish people for the actions of Israel, and you alienate them and marginalize, that is different. That is contemporary manifestations of anti-semitism. And those are the things that I see every day. I talk to students, medical students, doctors, professors, Jewish employees. And these are the kind of problems that we are seeing. These are the manifestations of contemporary anti-semitism that we are seeing today.

Thank you, and this gonna kinda lead into this next question, uh, Mr. Ghani. Uh, CIRS, CIR's May fifth, twenty twenty four resolution, house staff against apartheid includes the commitment that CIR CIR will provide legal and logistical support to staff and members who speak in solidarity, solidarity with uh uh Palestine and and other causes that they suffer harassment, uh disciplinary disciplinary actions, or other forms of retaliation. Um, Quick question, they mentioned logistical and legal, does that mean that they will bust people in um, if they act out, disrespectful, bully people, and get arrested they'd also help with that process? Using the dues?

Uh, that's what it seems to me and um

It really seems like to me too.

and I, while I don't know any specific examples of this taking place yet, um, I would point out the egregious double standard, um, as Miss Margulies was just pointing out, um, how they focus solely on this one issue, they're offer they offer legal support for those that are speaking up against this one issue when we know that they're actually promoting the exact opposite, for those with opposing views.

Uh with that, uh can you can you discuss whether CAR has offered similar support to union members who speak in solidarity with Israel, or suffer harassment, disciplinary actions, or other forms of retaliation for opposing the union's pro-Balkan div- divestment and sanctioned positions.

they absolutely have not and they would not. Um, in fact, quite the opposite. Um, I'm in regular contact with dozens of former CIR members that have left the organization specifically because of their conduct regarding Israel. Um, it's just plain and simple Jew hatred and discrimination.

Mr. Chakram, you've al- I think you've kind of discussed this, but just to address it one more time. One, uh, one purpose of the union is to advocate for bettering conditions for the members. Can you tell me if CRR's pa- uh uh passage of resolution supporting bike boycott divestment and sanctions improve conditions for workers, and do you think these resolutions could lead to a negative health outcome?

Um, absolutely. They can lead to negative health outcomes. Um, resources are being taken away from the job of what a union is supposed to do. There are worthy, there's a worthy role of unions. Um, that's to improve the conditions of residents. So anyone who has seen a a resident who's worked eighty hours a week or more, um, understands the - the type of conditions that need to be addressed. Um, when resources are - are not allocated towards what is needed, um, by the member base, and they're actually - and they're instead being used for a geopolitical situation, um, uh, uh, such as a false statement of apartheid and genocide, um, then it is a misallocation of funds and resources. Therefore, the patient care team and, um, all the members there are learning how not to take care of patients.

I wanna thank you first of all for um for standing up for this, for your courage to come forward and uh uh we need to make sure we're addressing it. So thank you so much and uh you're back.

Gentleman Yales, and now I'll call on our ranking member, Mister Tissonier, for your five minutes of questioning.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. I wanna thank all the witnesses again. This has been a a good discussion, and I think if we could focus on the issues we've talked about here, we could really make a bipartisan difference. I'm reminded um by a couple of statistics uh anti-semitic and islamophobic hate crimes have become more common in recent years a crime and justice research analysis alliance analysis showed that there's been a twelve percent increase in anti-jewish hate crimes in twenty twenty four and an eighteen percent increase in anti-muslim hate crimes in forty major us cities and an f. b. i. um, report said that anti-Jewish hate crimes accounted for roughly sixty-nine percent of all religious-based hate crimes in twenty-twenty-four despite, uh, Jewish Americans making up two percent of the US population. I think to me that's good framing, that we do have a challenge here, to the degree we can work on it together without distractions in every field, is an, is really important. Um, I unfortunately just, uh, got a alert that our former colleague Barney Frank um just passed away in in the New York Times article he's quoted as saying, prejudice is based on ignorance. Um so Barney, thank you for that reminder as a gay Jewish uh public official. Miss Barron, could you um give me a a response to what the international um, sorry, I need my glasses, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance describe uh frames about defining anti-semitism.

Sure, thank you for that question, Mister Chesonia, and may Mister Frank's memory be a blessing. Um the Jewish community is deeply divided on definitions of anti-semitism. There are three definitions that all have merits and have challenges. Um but the key point is that they were never intended to be legislated, uh and codified into federal law. They're really good educational tools, but um even the - the author of the IHRA definition uh did not intend for it to actually be codified into federal law. And so um it it it has the risk of impacting uh protected free speech through codification.

Thanks. I wanted to ask that question in context of Congressman Frank because of his quote is that prejudice is based on ignorance. So let's talk a little bit about um I'd like to ask you a question of the effect of the actions of hr one on what is already a pretty discriminatory biased health care system for all of the greatness of the american health care system and i agree with everything everyone said about as a consumer of health care um in my life uh particularly recently we want the best and the brightest working as a team when you go into that emergency room so let's talk about the effect of um what the big ugly bill did on what i would view as an very uh biased healthcare system right now the impacts of that legislation on minorities in particular

yeah i mean you know we're talking about the largest medicare cut in history and seeing rollbacks of say tax credits and um you know it puts everyone in this country in a terrible squeeze including jewish americans who want to be able to afford their healthcare want to be able to get the care that we all all americans need um and so you know it's it's devastating that people have lost access to care. Um, and even for, you know, American Jews who can still afford to go to the doctor, it's still a crisis because, um, it's - it's indication - it's an indicator of a society that's actually not treating our most vulnerable, um, and - and allowing them to get the health care that - that they deserve.

So in terms of the most vulnerable, many people who are in minorities and disadvantaged and civil rights protected classes of people, um, They're gonna be - end up in the emergency room because in a community like the one I represent in the Bay Area, we've spent a lot of efforts in primary care. We make sure that people who have to get Medi-Cal in California have a primary care physician, but we're going to have to eliminate that, which means that people who don't have resources will end up where?

Yeah, I mean, people that don't have resources will end up not being able to get health care and not being able to afford it. And, um, it's - it's really a - it's a shanda, it's a shame. Um, And, you know, I think that, um, because of the ways that our communities overlap, right? Uh, American Jews sit at every identity intersection. So we, we aren't just Jewish, right? We're many, we're many things and we are vulnerable to the same things that all Americans are vulnerable to.

And in that context again, the cuts that have come to, um, federal grants for people to go into the health field. Could you respond to that?

Yeah, I mean, I, I think that in, in, across all of these, uh, issues, the the cuts are impacting our health care system across the board, and are making it harder for people to access care, harder for um people to stay in the health care field, uh and it it's gonna have long-term ramifications for our country.

Thank you. Thank you, Mister Chairman.

Gentlemen, years, and now I call on Doctor Under for his uh five minutes of questioning.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. As a physician and member of Congress, I believe that every American should feel safe. in obtaining medical treatment without worrying about facing discrimination based on his or her ethnicity, religion, personal convictions, or other arbitrary factors. Unfortunately, many Jewish patients now confront the troubling reality that anti-semitic attitudes exist within parts of the medical community. Major medical organizations have permitted anti-semitism to infiltrate health care settings, undermining confidence in patient care and weakening public trust. According to a recent peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, forty percent of Jewish health care professionals reported experiencing anti-semitism in their professional or academic environment, um, j- um, in the - in the years after Hamas's September seventh terrorist attack against Israel, which is truly alarming. No physician, therapist, medical student, or health care worker should face intimidation or harassment. simply for being Jewish. One recent example, it, which is deeply disturbing, was a protest outside Massachusetts General Hospital. Eyewitnesses reported seeing posters developed by the Committee of Interns and Residents depicting bloody raised hands, alongside anti-Israel messaging. And of course, this is a reference to the two thousand Ramallah lynching of two Israelis, where one of the killers notoriously held up his blood-soaked hands to a cheering crowd. CIR is the largest house staff union in the United States, representing uh more than forty thousand resident physicians and fellows across sixty hospitals. Ms. Schechman, uh you are CEO of the American Jewish Medical Association, which was created in response to rising anti-semitism in health care settings after the October seventh Hamas attacks. From your experience, what do you think can be done um when major medical associations

Uh, thank you for that question. It's an important question. I think um what we also have to understand is that this piece of it is called institutionalizing of antisemitism. So when it enters into the institutions and it codifies it, then you're entering into dangerous gowns. It becomes um systemic and it's something that we have seen previously um in history. Um there are a number of different actions that can can be taken. um members can speak up, uh there are committees for ethics, um there are reviews, um it can be elevated as well into uh um outside condemnation, and then it can go all the way up into civil rights actions, because these are uh uh title six and title seven discriminatory actions.

Yeah, no, thank you for that answer. And um could you share some examples of medical institutions that have taken action against anti-semitism?

Um, I love that question. I think it's worthy of - of also sharing systems that have done well. Um, we're working with a system - we're working with UC San Diego who had some, um, some issues of their own, and we've been developing a curriculum with them, um, that has been enlightening. I've gone to every single session, um, of them, and, um, as things have come up, they have been, uh - there have been discussions in order to address them. Um, I can also say locally, you know, from - from the state of - of Connecticut, uh we've worked very well with our own you know health care system there and and and hartford health care they have been able to walk a very nice um line and promote uh uh uh you know say israeli technology innovation and those that um that are really bringing forth partnerships and and health care

well thank you for your answer and i'd like to yield the balance of my time to the chairman of the whole full committee chairman walberg

well thank you gentlemen and uh i just wanted to respond in a way to my good friend and colleague, the ranking member of this committee, uh in his concern that we have not addressed or even spoken about what went on at the University of Florida with a Republican organization. Uh in this committee our our normal process is to bring in institutions like Columbia um and and others when they do harm and don't do the right thing. University of Florida did the right thing reprimanded, disciplined the Republican club. I made public statements in support of that, an objection to the Republicans for making those anti-semitic statements, uh, as - as students. That's the difference. And we have record of that. I would like to submit, Mister Chairman, uh, to go alongside of the record that I don't think gave the accurate information. We will go after offenders And, Miss Shipman, maybe we should do better, maybe bringing University of Florida in to thank them for what they did immediately in taking action against the anti-semitism. So I would uh re- uh uh request that these documents be submitted for the record as well.

Without objection.

Thank you. I yield back to Mister Under.

Uh, the gentleman yields, and now I uh I yield back, Mister Chairman. I call on mis- uh, Mister. find for his li- uh five minutes of questioning.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize. I missed what sounds like a bunch of lies about the University of Florida. Um, I come from Florida. Uh, actually, in Florida we were the first state to pass the IRA definition and we applied it to our medical schools and all of our education institutions in K through twenty. And because we passed the IRA definition, when that so-called Republican club had that event, they were immediately thrown off of campus. by the university. See, that's the difference between Republicans and Democrats. We do something about it. They like to talk about it. Um, but I want to give an example of even where there is an issue. I want to give an example, and I have a question for Miss Buran about it. Um, I want to talk about a a dentist in the state of Florida. Um, his name is Doctor Fadi Kablawi. Um, he's not just a dentist in Florida. He's a mainstream Muslim imam at a mosque in North Miami. And he said the following, um, "Oh Allah, This is in his sermon when he's not practicing as a dentist, he's practicing as the Muslim religious leader, the imam of his mosque. He said, " Oh Allah, annihilate the tyrannical Jews. Oh Allah, annihilate them." He also said, " Oh Allah, annihilate the brothers of apes and pigs," referring to Jews. Should a Muslim religious leader who's a dentist, who refers to, I guess, his Jewish patients as the brothers of apes and pigs, should he be allowed to practice medicine in the United States?

I mean, that's a uh an abhorrent thing to say, and I don't think anybody uh that kind of discrimination is OK in any context.

So you would agree that he should lose his license.

I'm not a professional on who gets medical licenses, but I can agree with that.

In your opinion, if if it was up to you, and you could say should a Muslim religious leader who says his Jewish patients are the brothers of apes and pigs is that someone that should be allowed to practi to stick tools into the mouths of his Jewish patients, In North Miami, by the way, where there are lots of Jews, is that someone who you believe should be allowed to practice medicine in the state of Florida?

I think that would probably not be somebody who, yeah.

All right. So, so, look, it is an issue. This is a real issue and it's an ironic one. I can't say I've ever experienced this personally. One of my mother's great disappointments is that I did not become a Jewish doctor. Um, so I, I could not live up to her. I, I didn't have a thing. I couldn't, I can't deal with blood. But this is a real issue that is out there, and my question is, for Miss Margulies. Um, what I find outrageous in today's testimony is this isn't just a campus problem. It's affecting hospitals, residency programs, and as my example just pointed out, patient care itself. We've got refusals to treat Jewish patients, health care workers calling Jews the brothers of apes and pigs. Patients hearing pro-terror slogans, Intifada, Intifada, long live the Intifada, which is a call for violence, um, from hospital rooms. Jewish patients have learned They have to h- hide their identity just to safely receive care. I actually talked to a kid just this morning who told me he's afraid to wear his kippah here on Capitol Hill. He works in one of our offices and he's afraid to wear it because he's Jewish. That's part of why I wear mine, to tell people that they should not be afraid. So I have a question for you. If a nurse publicly said she would refuse to treat black patients, or if patients were lying in hospital beds, hearing staff chant slogans associated with violence against them, there'd be national outrage, justifiably, and people would lose their jobs immediately. So when Jewish patients are being denied care, intimidated, being called the brothers of apes and pigs, or made to fear the people treating them, why instead of zero tolerance are so many institutions still rationalizing this as free speech instead of what it is, outright bigotry that's putting patient lives at risk?

Thank you, Congressman, for that question, and I just want to say as another disappointment who should have been a doctor, but also has problems with blood, I I feel your pain. So, uh, Congressman, Jewish patients and health care workers should never be the exception to basic civil rights protections. And I do feel that we often are, because there isn't a legitimate definition to explain what constitutes anti-semitism, and that People don't, because people don't understand it, they don't often identify it. So I do think that's a problem, because I agree with you that if similar conduct were directed at any other protected group, um, if patients res- feared they would receive worse care, you know, for showing a part of their protected identity, if doctors were shunned because of their identity, institutions would immediately recognize it as discrimination.

Well, thank you. And since I only have twenty seconds left, that's why I've filed a bill, which I'm hoping this committee is gonna hear soon, which does two simple things. It uses the IRA definition, which is what we use to eliminate this problem in Florida, and it simply says that anti-semitism has to be treated the same way as racism. That solved the problem in Florida. That's why anti-semitism is largely a forty-nine state problem, and not as much of a problem in Florida. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. And gentlemen yields, and now I call on our Chairman Emeritus. Uh, Miss Fox for her five minutes of questioning.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and thanks to our witnesses for being here. Um, Doctor Groening, your testimony talks about the resolution your union adopted on May fifth twenty twenty four, titled House Staff Against Apartheid, which called for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel and encouraged affiliated academic institutions to divest all resources from Israel including financial contributions, human capital, pension funds, retirement programs, and intellectual property. What do you understand this call to divest all human capital to mean?

Thank you for your question. Uh, human capital very clearly refers to Israeli colleagues, but I would also say extends to other American Zionists, which includes most Jews, a large number of Christians, and a number of other Americans that just don't support this.

Thank you very much. What effect has the human capital provision in the resolution had on the Jewish and Israeli doctors you work with?

Thank you. It's created a really problematic culture of uh intimidation and exclusion. Um as I mentioned previously, my uh colleagues are afraid to speak up against this union because of provisions like that. Um and I do worry it extends uh to patients. It totally impacts patient care, you know, should patients' family members have to worry about speaking Hebrew, uh, when their family member is sick in the hospital over fear of how they may be treated differently by some of their doctors that support some of these things?

Well, thank you very much. Miss Margolis, workers in unionized workplaces have rights to decline to financially support their union's political activities. Under the Civil Rights Act, they may also obtain a religious accommodation to funding the union's activities. What additional approaches might Congress consider to protect better Jewish and Is- Israeli health care workers from being forced to fund or accept representation from unions that promote hostility toward their identity?

So, conduct oversight into how health care unions use due funded resources, platforms, member communications, and representative authority. And also Congress should be examining whether unions promoting anti-semitic and anti-Zionist hostility can fairly represent Jewish and Israeli members. Um, also the Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, the EEOC, and HHS OCR can also clarify anti-semitic harassment in health care workplaces is unlawful, and whether it comes from employees, coworkers, professional associations, or unions.

Thank you very much. Uh, I yield back, Mister Chairman.

All right, the gentlelady yields and um let's see where's Space, OK. All right, uh, now I'd like to recognize our ranking member for your closing remarks, since it looks like we have no further questions.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, uh first I wanna ask unanimous consent to enter into the record uh three items. The Senate Help Democratic Staff Report entitled Justice Denied, how Trump's Office of Civil Rights reached a twelve-year low in protecting students from discrimination. Number two, a Politico Pro Mourning Education article un- titled A Sinking Ship employees flee ed's civil rights office and uh number three a national council of jewish women's amicus brief signed by fifty faith-based organization to protect uh metaf metafrist pristine poor pronunciation access to the supreme court

without objection

thank you mr. chairman i i do really wanna thank all of the witnesses i think all of your testimony has helped me um And we really um um wanna just say again how much I feel like we should work together. Uh we can have legitimate differences, I can see some of the differences,

Mm-hmm.

having many friends in uh the union movement and healthcare unions in particular in um California and across the country. So let's have that conversation, but let's focus on what's undeniable, that anti-semitism is unacceptable in any form and we should work together to make sure that there are consequences for people who practice it. And to the question about education and Barney Frank, we must deal with the ignorance around um anti-semitism and its effects in the workplace. So with that, Mister Chairman, um again combating anti-semitism and every every form of discrimination is a moral imperative that demands action by all of us. As a member of the bipartisan task force for combating anti-semitism I take this responsibility very seriously It is not enough to ask promise to make promises or change slogans. We must fight every day to ensure that no one is threatened, harassed, or assaulted because of who they are in America, particularly in medical settings where people are giving and receiving lifesaving care as all of our witnesses have have mentioned. Those involved must be provided with dignity and respect. Regrettably, discrimination and inequalities in health care are not new issues. Many individuals and groups have been treated as lesser than and given inadequate treatment and although we have taken steps to change that we still have a long way to go in this country I however I fear that only focusing on anti-semitism in that in that way that weaponizes it against unions and healthcare entities my colleagues are not only failing to address the concerns of million millions of Americans who also experience discrimination every day but are also failing to exercise appropriate oversight regu- regarding this administration's policies that have sidelined civil rights agencies and have and have distracted from this, their mission. These agencies should be fully resourced in staff to focus on the enforcement of our federal civil rights laws. Instead, they are complicit in the degradation of these agencies, undermining their ability to combat anti-semitism and enforce the laws we have in place. to defy - to fight that discrimination. We need to take anti-semitism and all of its forms of discrimination seriously. But too often my colleagues across the aisle use these hearings as an excuse to threaten any person institutional movement that ha- that they happen to disagree with, with or without offering any solution, often - rather often than to get rid of the offending party entirely. It may be politi- politically expedient to do so, but that fails to serve the broader goal of protecting Jewish Americans and others from discrimination and conducting robust enforcement of our civil rights. Democrats remain committed to working with you to do just that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

I thank the ranking member. Um And I'd like to thank our witnesses for sharing your experiences and perspectives on how unions are fanning the flames of antisemitism in our hospitals and healthcare institutions uh the reason we have these hearings is to work toward solutions we wanna hear what is uh you know what w- what we what we're saying on the ground we are the people's house here and uh and we hear you and uh and in fact uh as representative find a line you mentioned he is going to uh put a uh uh put a bill together uh as they did in Florida to deal with this problem. And uh so you you got a cut to the chase here and uh that's why we do this and uh and again, I wanna thank you for your courage to be here to highlight the the issues that it that it it's it's disturbing that we have to deal with and in our nation. Um, you know, today's hearing also highlights the importance of having labor laws that respect the choices of Jewish workers and and who do not support their union's political priorities. Uh, no worker in America should have to pay dues to a union that celebrates violence against Jews, seeks the destruction of Israel, and advocate advocates for the fire firing of Jewish and Israeli workers. In the state of Georgia, we have a right to work law. It says to hold your job, you do not have to be a member of a union, and you have the free choice to do that. Unions should represent all members fairly, even those with different political or religious views. I look forward to working with committee members in the administration to protect the dignity of workers in America, and shield Jewish workers from hate and harassment at work. Like I said, this is un-American. Again, I'd like to thank our witnesses for taking the time to testify before this subcommittee today. Without objection, there being no further business, the subject committee stands adjourned.