Dr. Lara Kollab, a 27-year-old medical resident with a history of hundreds of anti-Semitic social media posts, apologized for her actions but for some, the apology is far too little and far too late.
Kollab, a recent medical school graduate, was a supervised resident at Cleveland Clinic from July until September 2018. Kollab issued an apology, saying she made the statements between 2011 to 2017 when she was in her teens and twenties. Kollab emphasized that the timeline of her posts did not excuse her from “causing pain, anguish, and a public outcry,” and said it was not reflective of her character today. Her apology was posted on her website:
My Sincerest Apologies
Several social media comments posted on my twitter account years ago have surfaced recently, causing pain, anguish, and a public outcry. I wish sincerely and unequivocally to apologize for the offensive and hurtful language contained in those posts. This statement is not intended to excuse the content of the posts, but rather to demonstrate that those words do not represent who I am and the principles I stand for today.
I visited Israel and the Palestinian Territories every summer throughout my adolescent years. I became incensed at the suffering of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation. The injustice and brutality of the occupation continues to concern me, and I believe every champion of human rights owes it to humanity to work towards a just and peaceful resolution of this crisis.
As a girl in my teens and early twenties, I had difficulty constructively expressing my intense feelings about what I witnessed in my ancestral land. Like many young people lacking life experience, I expressed myself by making insensitive remarks and statements of passion devoid of thought, not realizing the harm and offense these words would cause.
These posts were made years before I was accepted into medical school, when I was a naïve, and impressionable girl barely out of high school. I matured into a young adult during the years I attended college and medical school, and adopted strong values of inclusion, tolerance, and humanity. I take my profession and the Hippocratic Oath seriously and would never intentionally cause harm to any patient seeking medical care. As a physician, I will always strive to give the best medical treatment to all people, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, or culture.
I have learned from this experience and am sorry for the pain I have caused. I pray that the Jewish community will understand and forgive me. I hope to make amends so that we can move forward and work together towards a better future for us all.
Kollab’s anti-Semitic comments were first reported in September by Canary Mission, an organization that documents individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the USA, Israel, and Jews on college campuses. The website reported over 100 anti-Semitic and anti-Israel social media posts by Kollab including one in which she tweeted her intention to, “…purposely give all the yahood [Jews] the wrong meds…”
Kollab also called for violence against Jews, spread anti-Semitism, trivialized the Holocaust, defended the terror organization Hamas and supported terrorists on Twitter.
She has also compared Israel to Nazi Germany, spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and hatred of Israel, and accused Israel of exploiting the Holocaust.
Kollab’s Training Certificate With the Ohio Medical Board Was Issued in July 2018 & Remains Active Until June 2021. On Wednesday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization based in Los Angeles, called for Kollab’s medical certification to be revoked.
“While the Cleveland Clinic did the right thing, this person remains a menace to the community-at-large and has made a mockery of the Hippocratic Oath through her hatred,” Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of Global Social Action for the center, said in a prepared statement.
