Dr Oz Suggests NY’s Chasidic Jews Are Behind Health Care Fraud

 

The Anti‑Defamation League on Wednesday condemned comments by Dr. Mehmet Oz about Hasidic Jews, sharing excerpts from a two-week-old interview with Epoch Times’ “American Thought Leaders.” The ADL said the remarks “fuel harmful stereotypes and discrimination” and could contribute to rising antisemitism.

In the video clips, Oz Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, was discussing healthcare fraud investigations in Minnesota and sought to illustrate that the issue is not unique to one state. However, he referenced the Hasidic community in New York in a way the ADL said was prejudicial, portraying them as “foreign, criminal, or ‘not real Americans.’”

“Casting Hasidic Jews as foreign, criminal, or ‘not real Americans’ is straight out of the antisemitic playbook,” the ADL wrote on X. “This kind of rhetoric fuels harmful stereotypes and discrimination. Falsely blaming New York’s Hasidic population directly contributes to the climate in which the city just reported a 182 % year-over-year spike in antisemitic hate crimes in January. Words matter, and public officials must do better.”

Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, former Republican Senate nominee in Pennsylvania, and self-described secular Muslim, has increasingly engaged in political commentary. While attempting to compare fraud cases across states, his remarks singled out New York’s Hasidic community, prompting criticism from advocacy groups.

Civil rights leaders have emphasized that statements from public figures about minority communities can shape social climates and influence discrimination or violence. The ADL’s action underscores how even past remarks, once widely circulated or discovered, can be scrutinized amid rising antisemitic incidents nationwide.