“It’s absurd for a medical union to ignore other issues and just demonize Israel and Zionists,” American Jewish Dr. Jacob Agronin, a Philadelphia-based cardiology fellow, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
He testified at the recent subcommittee of the US Committee on Education and Workforce that his union, the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR), publicly supports terror sympathizers and formally endorses the exclusion of Israeli colleagues based on national origin. He also said the union has declared the State of Israel guilty of apartheid and genocide as a matter of official organizational doctrine.
CIR is the largest house staff union in the United States, currently representing approximately 37,000 resident and fellow physicians.
Resident physicians and fellows represented by a CIR chapter typically pay union dues (around 1.5% of base pay), which go directly toward supporting collective bargaining, legal representation, and contract negotiation costs. Whether employees have to pay dues or agency fees depends on the state and the hospital.
While Agronin told the Post he has had “essentially zero contact,” a lawyer for the American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA) drafted a letter over the summer and sent it to Agronin’s hospital, saying CIR is “antisemitic” and that the hospital should not force its Jewish residents to pay dues if they don’t want any connection to the union.
Jewish residents and fellows request option to dissociate from union
“Basically requesting the hospital leave out the forced dues clause from the contract,” he explained. Agronin said he thinks they’re getting closer to a final contract, but that there’s still some negotiation meetings that are happening in June.
“We’re sending another letter on behalf of the AJMA, reiterating a request to exclude a forced dues clause. My hope would be that this would set a precedent that we could take to other programs and other hospitals that are either, you know, like starting initial negotiations with CIR, or whether contracts are up for renewal.”
The main purpose of the CIR union is to negotiate fair contracts on behalf of residents and fellows. This protects residents and fellows from predatory practices from their individual hospitals.
Should any members need legal representation or someone on their behalf to support them against some hospital or disciplinary actions, the union would be there to do that.
“However, in their own documents and their own postings, they’ve said that they will provide support to those who are facing disciplinary action for speaking in support of Palestine or against Israel. Basically, their focus is on resident wellness – as it should be – and Israel.”
In May 2024, it passed a formal resolution, titled “Housestaff Against Apartheid.” The resolution formally declares, as a matter of CIR organizational doctrine, that Israel maintains “an apartheid occupation against the Palestinian people” and that Israeli actions constitute genocide under the UN definition. The resolution also formally endorses the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and directs CIR to pursue it through a specific set of actions.
A contact of Agronin, who was formerly very pro-CIR and pro-union, left CIR because of its antisemitism. This contact said that Israel was the dominant topic of the entire convention, during which the resolution was passed.
“They had to cancel discussions on actual resident focus issues because there was such lively debate and discussion about this one resolution. I cannot say enough that it’s a total distraction. And it’s a distraction from patient care, distraction from the physician’s mission as doctors. It’s just a blatant violation of medical ethics, and actually fundamentally incompatible with medical ethics,” he told the Post.
“They would immediately cancel this union, but because it’s the Jews, it’s treated so differently. It would be unequivocally condemned if it was any other group. It’s just a crazy double standard and has no place in medicine and no place in any other institution.”
“And it’s just absurd for a medical union to be devoting any effort at all, but especially this much effort, where they actually ignore other issues, to just demonize Israel and Zionists.”
Israel has become a central issue of union's priorities
This fanatical obsession with Israel is not confined to CIR, but a “totally ubiquitous issue,” Agronin said.
“It’s everywhere. I’ve gotten blocked by colleagues for my pro-Israel postings [on social media], including one person that was in charge of making my schedule.
“I mean, it’s a rising sentiment in every institution of America. It started in the universities, and it’s just absolutely out of control there. It’s absolutely in healthcare. It’s really in any space of higher education, that you’re seeing a really pervasive, ‘anti-Zionist’ perspective, which is, I think, very clearly, antisemitism.”
He said Jewish doctors and Israeli doctors across America are experiencing a similar problem.
“Some doctors go beyond the simple sharing of Hamas propaganda. Some doctors will just really go into unhinged, full Jew-hatred, which raises extreme concern for their ability to care for Jewish patients, [and] Israeli patients.”
“As I mentioned in my hearing, should patients and families have to be worried about speaking Hebrew in the hospital? One of my colleagues is Israeli, and she has to worry that she’ll get different treatment from her peers.”
“It’s definitely becoming a big problem that I’m noticing more, year after year in the medical space,” he concluded.