Ohio Medical Resident Says She’s Sorry for Vowing to Give ‘Wrong Meds to Jews’

Kollab finally spoke out about the controversy on Jan. 4, apologizing for the language in a blog post but doubling down on the anti-Israel stance conveyed through some of her missives.

“I wish sincerely and unequivocally to apologize for the offensive and hurtful language contained in those posts,” Kollab wrote. “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.”

She blamed the content of her messages on youth, despite some being made in 2017.

“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,” Kollab wrote.

“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.”

Kollab said that she hopes to make amends. “I pray that the Jewish community will understand and forgive me,” she added.

The missives began circulating widely after being highlighted by the Canary Mission in late December 2018.

In them, she called for violence against Jews, supported terrorists, and compared Israel to Nazi Germany. In one post, she wrote, “Typical nazi mentality. zionists are the spawn of hitler.”

Dr Lara Kollab, 27, a former resident at The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, wrote in now-deleted posts that she hoped 'Allah will kill the Jews' and referred to Jewish people as 'dogs'. https://t.co/zyzc3gGR6U

— Steven R. Green (@athens_lawyer) January 3, 2019

A number of the posts were made in 2017, despite Kollab’s claims that they were all made many years ago.

“Zionists will basically use every opportunity to use the words ‘Israeli’, ‘victim’, and ‘terrorist attack’ in the same sentence,” she wrote in one. In another, she added: “Further proof that Israel is more about hatred and white supremacy than it is about world Jewry, in case you didn’t know.”

In 2016, she wrote in one tweet: “Every Palestinian get-together ever discussion topics include: Politics, religion, marriage, ye5reb bayt el e7telal [May he destroy the occupation’s house].”

The Cleveland Clinic, which had listed Kollab as a worker on its website, said that Kollab was no longer working there.

Touro College, a Jewish medical college from which Kollab graduated, spoke out about the posts, said: “We are shocked that one of our graduates would voice statements that are antithetical to Touro and to the physicians’ Hippocratic Oath. We have received word from the Cleveland Clinic where Dr. Kollab was last affiliated and learned that she is no longer employed there.”

The college added, “Touro College is appalled by the anti-Semitic comments reportedly made by Lara Kollab, a graduate of the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. The mission of Touro College is to educate, perpetuate, and enrich the historic Jewish tradition of tolerance and dignity.”