Courageous Conversation: Antisemitism in Healthcare, University and our Larger Society
Mar 21, 2024 — 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
The Courageous Conversations Series is an initiative spearheaded by Awad Ibrahim, the Vice-Provost of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusive Excellence at uOttawa. It encourages open dialogues that move beyond safe spaces to courageous spaces, where difficult topics are addressed with civility and respectability.
Event Details
Join us on March 21st for a session led by Dr. Joanna Krongold, Dr. Ariel Lefkowitz, and Dr. Ayelet Kuper as they engage in courageous conversation about antisemitism in health care, universities, and broader society. This talk will investigate how the concepts of equity and anti-oppression apply to the social context of Jewish patients and colleagues. We will learn about how narratives and conspiracy theories about Jews inform and contribute to marginalization and hatred of Jewish people today, how to reflect on our own biases about Jewish people that may impact patient care or conduct with colleagues, and how we can develop strategies to identify and challenge antisemitic language and policy to protect and ally with our Jewish patients and colleagues.
List of all panelists :
Ayelet Kuper
Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto
Dr. Ayelet Kuper is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto and a member of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. A child and grandchild of Holocaust survivors, she has a doctorate in Holocaust literature and is cross-appointed to the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, many of which relate to power, equity, inclusion, and social justice, and is frequently invited to speak about those topics internationally. Between June 2021 and June 2022 she served as the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Senior Advisor on Antisemitism.
Dr. Ariel Lefkowitz
Internal Medicine and the Education Lead
Dr. Ariel Lefkowitz is an Internal Medicine and the Education Lead for the Division of General Internal Medicine at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, and is the lead for novel education sessions at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine on Religious Discrimination in Health Care and on Lessons for Physicians from the Holocaust. His scholarly interests include ethics, equity, professionalism, and narrative medicine in medical education.
Dr. Joanna Krongold
Postdoctoral Research Fellow investigating antisemitism in health professions education
Dr. Joanna Krongold is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow investigating antisemitism in health professions education at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Office of Inclusion and Diversity, the Wilson Centre, and the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto. Her work explores Holocaust memory, literature, and pedagogy; the intersections between antisemitism and the COVID-19 pandemic; EDI and social justice-oriented education; and experiential learning. She has taught at many levels in both university- and community-based settings, and her scholarly monograph is forthcoming from Lexington Books.
Awad Ibrahim
Moderator
Professor Awad Ibrahim has been appointed Vice-Provost, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusive Excellence, for a five-year term beginning on June 1, 2023. Professor Ibrahim is a full professor at the Faculty of Education and holder of the Air Canada Professorship on Anti-Racism.
Professor Ibrahim has contributed significantly to research in the fields of Black youth and popular culture, social foundations, social justice and community service learning, diasporic and continental African identities, ethnography and applied linguistics. He has a track record of funded research, has published widely, and contributed to teaching and graduate supervision in these emerging areas. His expertise will be invaluable in enabling the University of Ottawa to create an inclusive and accessible environment that takes into full account the diversity of its community.