Report: Ohio State Medical Board to Discipline Doctor Over Anti-Semitic Tweets

The Ohio State Medical Board told Dr. Lara Kollab that they would be issuing disciplinary measures over her anti-Semitic tweets, Cleveland Jewish News reports.

Ohio State Medical Board Secretary Dr. Kim G. Rothermel wrote in a July 10 letter to Kollab that in a June 19 deposition, she admitted to writing a series of anti-Semitic tweets from 2011 to 2013, including her tweeting that she would give Jews “the wrong meds,” referring to Jews as “dogs” and that Israel supporters “should have their immune cells killed so they can see how it feels to not be able to defend yourself from foreign invaders.”

Rothermel went onto say that Kollab told the board in a February 2019 statement that her anti-Semitic statements occurred while she was an undergraduate student at John Carroll University, but she wrote more anti-Semitic comments to social media after she graduated in May 2013. Rothermel also wrote that the Cleveland Clinic fired Kollab from her residency program in September due to the tweets; when she applied for a residency training program in Kerns Medical Center in Kernville, Calif., Kollab didn’t disclose that she was terminated over anti-Semitic tweets, Rothermel wrote.

Additionally, Rothermel wrote that Kollab initially claimed in December that Canary Mission, the watchdog group that unearthed her tweets, created a fake account to frame her; Kollab told the board she knew that this claim was false.

“Although you asserted at your June 2019 deposition that you now feel ashamed of your discriminatory comments, when asked if your tweets reflect good moral character, you admitted that they do not,” Rothermel wrote.

The board will therefore “determine whether or not to limit, revoke, permanently revoke, suspend, refuse to grant or register or renew or reinstate your training license/certificate to practice osteopathic medicine and surgery, or to reprimand you or place you on probation” over her actions, Rothermel wrote.

Kollab has a right to request a hearing in 30 days however she has not yet requested one on the matter. Ziad Tayeh, Kollab’s attorney, declined to comment to Cleveland Jewish News.

Kernville Medical Center announced on April 1 that they withdrew their residency acceptance to Kollab on March 25 because “she submitted information that was false, misleading, and incomplete to Kern Medical during the interview and match process.”

Kollab apologized for anti-Semitic tweets in January, saying that stemmed from her being “incensed at the suffering of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation.” Journal columnist Tabby Rafael wrote in a February that Kollab’s apology was “a short-sighted and half-hearted apology — one which I unequivocally reject. Her post never mentions the term “anti-Semitism,” nor does it even espouse one statement that would humanize Jews, given that she previously referred to Jews as “dogs.” In fact, her apology doesn’t include a single positive word about Jews.”