Brandeis Center Attorney and Former Healthcare Compliance Professional to Testify Before Congress on Alleged Anti-Semitic Harassment and Ostracizing in Healthcare Workplaces

May 18, 2026 by Susan Rosenbluth

Washington, D.C. – As reports mount of Jewish and Israeli healthcare workers allegedly being ostracized by colleagues, pressured to hide their identities, excluded from union leadership and subjected to anti-Semitic harassment in hospitals and professional settings, Deena Margolies, litigation attorney at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, will testify before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions on Wednesday, May 20, about anti-Semitism in healthcare settings and labor organizations.

Margolies previously worked in healthcare compliance at Healthcare Quality Strategies, Inc. – formerly the Peer Review Organization of New Jersey – where she conducted oversight related to hospital quality-of-care standards, medical audits, and Medicare and Medicaid compliance. She has also spent more than a year helping lead a Brandeis Center task force examining anti-Semitism in healthcare settings nationwide.

The hearing, titled “Bad Medicine: Politics, Unions, and Antisemitism in Health Care,” will examine the rise of anti-Semitism within healthcare institutions and labor organizations, including how political activism and anti-Israel rhetoric have impacted hospitals, clinics, medical schools, and other healthcare institutions since October 7, 2023.

Margolies’ testimony will detail allegations that Jewish and Israeli healthcare workers have been pressured to conceal their identities, pushed out of union leadership roles, publicly targeted over perceived Zionist beliefs, and encouraged by union representatives and colleagues to be socially and professionally ostracized in workplace settings.

Her testimony also examines allegations that healthcare unions and professional organizations have promoted inflammatory anti-Israel rhetoric – including accusations invoking classic anti-Semitic tropes – contributing to increasingly hostile environments within hospitals, unions, and medical institutions.

Among the examples highlighted in the testimony are reports of Jewish physicians being singled out with accusatory posters in medical settings, union members allegedly being told Jews are “white colonizers,” and healthcare professionals fearing retaliation or exclusion for objecting to anti-Israel activism in union spaces.

The hearing will be held by the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions as part of the House Committee on Education and Workforce’s ongoing oversight of labor organizations, workplace discrimination, and civil rights protections.

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law

is an independent, unaffiliated, nonprofit corporation established to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all. LDB engages in research, education, and legal advocacy to combat the resurgence of anti-Semitism on college and university campuses, in the workplace, and elsewhere. It empowers students by training them to understand their legal rights and educates administrators and employers on best practices to combat racism and anti-Semitism.

(The Brandeis Center is not affiliated with the Massachusetts university, the Kentucky law school, or any of the other institutions that share the name and honor the memory of the late U.S. Supreme Court justice)