cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/34824378
August 13, 2025
Last year, Claire Raizen, a social worker at Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Hospital[…] put up a small postcard at her desk bearing the words “Gaza Must Live.” Raizen said this affirmation of her values in her workplace was an attempt to manage the disconnect that arose from “knowing atrocities are happening” in Gaza while she went about her daily life. The postcard was in a space where only co-workers came and went, she said, and was out of view of patients.
At first, other employees at the top-ranked hospital who saw the postcard reacted positively, Raizen said. “I had co-workers that would come into my office and say, ‘it’s so amazing to know that this is a safe place to talk about Palestine."
Historically Jewish hospital demands removal of pro-Palestinian message? I am shocked!
https://www.mountsinai.org/locations/mount-sinai/about/history
But look, the real story here is less pernicious.
Employee puts up pro-Gaza message in an employees only space.
Someone complains, she’s told “No political messages, take it down or get fired.”
She’s given multiple chances to take it down, refuses, gets fired, as promised.
If the hospital were being bad guys here they wouldn’t have given her a chance. They would have just taken it down and fired her.
Also like this bit:
"complying with this order felt like it was going to compromise my most core ethical values”
If your core ethical values allowed you to continue working for the preeminent Jewish hospital in the nation, then they aren’t very “core” or “ethical” at that point.
If your core ethical values allowed you to continue working for the preeminent Jewish hospital in the nation, then they aren’t very “core” or “ethical” at that point.
Are Jewish institutions all zionists? Surely not, but I don’t know the recent history of that specific institution.
I mean, I would personally widen it to religious institutions in general. I would not be able to suck it up and work for a Catholic hospital for example.
I wouldn’t either, since I’m an anti-theist. I just think the wording on that comment could use some revision to show it’s about theists doing evil things in the name of religion rather than an equation of Jewish = Zionist ethnonationalist sympathizer, since there’s a lot of people looking out for that comparison on the left to justify it as a substantial problem or help minimize that same problem on the right.
The hospital had no problems with pro-Israel and other political messages. They’re clearly selectively enforcing this rule and then lying about it. Even “Jews for Palestine” not allowed in a Jewish hospital shows their hypocrisy.
