This is the third column in a multi-part series by the author on “Antisemitism in the Medical Field.”

From biblical times when “there rose a king who knew not Joseph” (and all the good he did for Egypt) and began enslaving the Israelites, throughout the medieval era when Jews were expelled from Spain, leaders have feared the presumed power of the Jews.

Although they were often restricted to professions of trade, moneylending and medicine, the public resented their success.  When times turned difficult due to plague, famine or political instability, they made the Jewish community their scapegoat.

The era that included Maimonides, the Jewish physician whose oath many medical professionals recite today, inevitably ended when Jews were no longer useful to their rulers and lost their precarious protections.

We saw this pattern repeat during the Holocaust when German Jews, who thought themselves well integrated into society, suddenly were “othered” and deemed unacceptable. They were not simply exiled; they were slated for extermination.

German physicians were complicit in legitimizing the Nazi plan, buying into the belief that the nation’s health was more important than the rights of individuals. They began by expelling Jewish physicians from hospitals, universities and professional societies; eventually, they stopped caring for Jewish patients.

What we are witnessing today is this same pattern of excluding Jewish physicians from medical conferences, publications and professional societies. Jewish patients are being publicly shunned, especially on social media, where the medical term “going viral” has been bastardized. Ideology is replacing medical ethics and those “pesky” oaths.

This discrimination and exclusion of Jews is especially painful considering how involved Jewish professionals were in ensuring civil rights for other minorities, particularly during the Civil Rights movement. Jewish physicians helped create inclusive, socially conscious medical institutions that became leaders in the profession. Now these same movements are excluding Jewish practitioners, following........

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