Lawsuit exposing antisemitism at the Karolinska, home of the Nobel Prize in medicine

The Lawfare Project, working with local counsel in Stockholm, Sweden, recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of Dr. Svensson (we are using a pseudonym to protect his identity), a physician who was subjected to antisemitic discrimination and abuse at the Karolinska University Hospital and the Karolinska Institutet (whose Nobel Academy selects Nobel Prize laureates in physiology or medicine) (collectively, the "Karolinska").

Dr. Svensson and other Jewish physicians were targeted with virulent harassment and discrimination that included a supervisor posting antisemitic statements and images on Facebook and subjecting the physicians to classic antisemitic tropes. Dr. Svensson was told that he has a "Jewish nose," is stingy, and “whines like a Jew.” He was prevented from operating to the same extent as his colleagues, reassigned, and blocked from continuing important research. He and another Jewish physician received the lowest salaries among their colleagues, despite better qualifications.

When Dr. Svensson complained about the antisemitism, the Karolinska did nothing to stop the harassment and discrimination. Instead, it retaliated against him with a years-long campaign of reprisals to intimidate and silence him.

In a shocking display of institutionalized Jew-hatred, the Karolinska even submitted a complaint against him to the Health Ministry, identifying Dr. Svensson's Jewish identity as "relevant information" with regard to the risk he allegedly posed for patient safety.

The unfounded complaint was ultimately dismissed, but the Karolinska continued to retaliate against Dr. Svensson by lowering his salary, preventing him from seeing his patients or continuing his research, demoting him, and assigning duties beneath his skills and abilities with no clinical duties whatsoever — in the midst of a global pandemic.

Ultimately, he was fired after he notified Swedish government officials about the antisemitism, discrimination, and retaliatory conduct he was subjected to at the Karolinska.