EXCLUSIVE: Hundreds of Jewish Health Professionals Say 'End the Genocide' in Gaza

"To be silent is to be complicit," the healthcare workers write in an open letter.

Sep 21, 2025

Injured Palestinians, including children, are brought to the Kuwaiti field hospital after the Israeli army targets the tents in al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis. Photo by Mahmoud Bassam/Anadolu via Getty Images

“As Jewish professionals in medicine, public health, and related fields, we cannot remain silent in the face of a genocide being carried out against the Palestinians in Gaza by the state of Israel.”

This is what more than 400 Jewish doctors and other healthcare professionals worldwide write in an open letter, adding to the mounting international pressure on Israel, as several members of the US Congress, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, and world-renowned figures declare Israel’s war on Gaza a genocide.

The healthcare workers, some of whom have also served in Gaza, published the letter on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

In the letter, the healthcare workers reflect on how the Jewish High Holidays call upon them to act, including: “Desisting from destructive deeds - immediate ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access; Regret - over the destruction we have been complicit with; Confession - listing the wanton destruction wrought in our name; and Resolution for the future - that we no longer will participate in the suffering we cause to another people.”

The doctors call on their colleagues to denounce the Israeli government’s genocidal actions and reject “the weaponization of accusations of antisemitism to suppress criticism of Israel and expressions of solidarity with Palestinians.”

Alice Rothchild, a signatory who served in Gaza before October 7, told Zeteo that charges of antisemitism have been weaponized to “destroy” people like her who have long spoken out on Israel’s violence against Palestinians. Rothchild, who was born in 1948 to a traditional Zionist family, said universities across the country have canceled lectures she was supposed to give on Gaza.

She added that American physicians can be fairly apolitical. “But everybody has a limit. And with every assault on Gaza, more people, you know, meet their limits.”

International doctors who have served in Gaza have recounted violence that corroborates allegations of Israel’s genocidal behavior. Doctors themselves, namely Palestinians, have been victims of relentless Israeli attacks. No hospital in Gaza is fully functioning, and those still running are far beyond capacity.

Israeli forces have killed more than 65,200 people and injured over 166,270 in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s latest figures. At least 442 people, including 147 children, have died of starvation. The numbers are feared to be much higher.

Read the Jewish healthcare workers’ full letter below:

End the Genocide in Gaza: A Public Letter from Jewish Health Professionals

As Jewish professionals in medicine, public health, and related fields, we cannot remain silent in the face of a genocide being carried out against the Palestinians in Gaza by the state of Israel. Our tradition and training bind us to the defense of life and dignity. Too many of our colleagues and institutions have yet to dissent while an entire population, half of them children, has been starved, bombed, denied care, and displaced. To be silent is to be complicit.

Since the horrific Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, the Israeli government has unleashed a deliberate campaign to destroy Gaza. The consequences are staggering:

64,656 Palestinians killed and 163,503 injured as of September 10, 2025, with women, children, and the elderly comprising the majority. Independent humanitarian analyses suggest these numbers are substantial undercounts.
A shocking 83% civilian death proportion has been documented.
Over 700 attacks on health facilities have left more than 94% of Gaza’s hospitals destroyed or damaged. Gaza now has the highest per capita number of child amputees in the world.
Healthcare and aid workers have been killed, detained without charge, tortured, and even murdered in captivity. Hundreds of journalists and humanitarian workers have also been targeted.
The blockade and deliberate destruction of life sustaining infrastructure inflicted critical food insecurity on all Gazans, with a third now suffering catastrophic famine.
Life expectancy in Gaza has been reduced to nearly half of what it was before October 2023.
These are not “war mishaps”. These are the foreseeable and intentional outcomes of a military strategy targeting civilians and life sustaining infrastructure, and the consequences of a brutal, long-lasting dispossession and occupation lasting decades. Human rights organizations, genocide scholars, and Israeli intellectuals have stated what Palestinians have experienced and reported - but too many ignored - that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
As health professionals, we are bound by ethical principles that transcend politics and borders, including the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, the obligation to safeguard life and dignity without discrimination, and to resist and denounce genocide

The Jewish High Holidays call upon us to set out on the four Maimonidean levels of penance: Desisting from destructive deeds - immediate ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access; Regret - over the destruction we have been complicit with; Confession - listing the wanton destruction wrought in our name; and Resolution for the future - that we no longer will participate in the suffering we cause to another people. Therefore, we call on all our colleagues to join us and:

Validate and uplift Palestinian narratives of their own destruction.
Denounce the genocidal actions of the Israeli government
Reject the weaponization of accusations of antisemitism to suppress criticism of Israel and expressions of solidarity with Palestinians.
Call on medical associations, schools, and journals to break their silence: acknowledge the destruction of Gaza, publicly condemn the genocide, solicit and publish articles on Gaza, hold symposia, protect dissenting voices, and advocate for accountability of those complicit.
Urge medical centers and institutions to contribute to the restoration of Gaza by providing medical supplies, training, volunteer options, and access to remote or on-site high-level care to Gazans in need.

Stand with us. Break the silence. Sign this letter.

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