Medical resident in Cleveland fired for antisemitic social media posts

Kollab studied at the Touro Medical School and was accepted at the Cleveland Clinic as a resident.

By MARCY OSTER/JTA
Updated: JANUARY 1, 2019 19:42
A patient in a hospital receives intravenous (IV) therapy (illustrative) (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
A patient in a hospital receives intravenous (IV) therapy (illustrative)
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
A medical resident at the Cleveland Clinic was fired after her antisemitic social media posts were discovered.
Dr. Lara Kollab worked at there from July 2018 to September 2018. The clinic fired her after the messages – which were posted over the last seven years – were flagged.
On Monday, the clinic confirmed in a statement Kollab’s firing, after reports over her posts began circulating online.
“This individual was employed as a supervised resident at our hospital from July to September 2018. She is no longer working at Cleveland Clinic. In no way do these beliefs reflect those of our organization. We fully embrace diversity, inclusion and a culture of safety and respect across our entire health system,” the statement said.
Her social media accounts were closed as of late Monday.
When she was a medical student in 2012, one tweet got a great deal of attention in the last couple of days on social media, where it was preserved in screenshot form.
“hahha ewww.. ill purposely give all the yahood [Jews] the wrong meds…,” she tweeted in January 2012.
In an August 2013 post, Kollab wrote in Arabic, “May Allah take back [end the lives] of the Jews so we stop being forced to go to those unclean ones.”
The controversial website Canary Mission that hosts dossiers on pro-Palestinian student activists, professors, and organizations, focusing primarily on those who work in North American universities, published and linked their site to dozens of such tweets by Kollab.