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Gregory-Zvi Wirschubsky, a 69-year-old consultant physician at a Meliva health center in the Swedish capital of Stockholm has publicly alleged that a colleague accused him of “killing Palestinian children” during a coffee break last year before hurling an antisemitic slur.
Wirschubsky told Swedish newspaper Expressen the colleague first asked whether he was Jewish.
Wirschubsky said he told the colleague he had no ties to the Israeli military and had lived in Sweden since age seven. The colleague replied, “You can go to hell, you f___ing Jew,” before ending the conversation. Several coworkers witnessed the exchange and stayed silent.
Wirschubsky reported the incident to his manager, calling it discrimination and noting that staff had previously agreed to avoid discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at work. Management said the matter would be handled internally.
Wirschubsky was later informed that his consulting assignment had ended, with no explanation given. Because a staffing agency, not Meliva itself, employed him, the health center could terminate the placement on one month’s notice without cause. Wirschubsky said he did not believe his Jewish identity drove the decision, attributing it instead to tensions surrounding the Israel-Hamas war.
The center’s medical director backed Wirschubsky’s account and pressed management for answers. Management responded only that the episode had been exaggerated.
Meliva denied any discrimination, saying an internal investigation found no evidence that Wirschubsky’s background influenced the outcome and describing the episode as a “personal conflict.” The company confirmed neither Wirschubsky nor his accuser remains on staff, adding that “discrimination and antisemitism are incompatible with Meliva’s values.”
Wirschubsky said he decided to speak publicly after healthcare workers staged an anti-Israel demonstration outside Karolinska University Hospital last week, some in work attire. Swedish Health Minister Elisabet Lann called the protest a display of “poor judgment,” saying a hospital entrance is no place for political activities.
The episode echoes a 2022 court ruling that found Karolinska had wrongfully dismissed a Jewish neurosurgeon after years of antisemitic harassment, and a 2018 Simon Wiesenthal Center finding that ranked the hospital’s treatment of three Jewish physicians among that year’s worst antisemitic incidents.
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CAM has launched Report It, a secure app to report antisemitic incidents anonymously and in real time. Don’t stay silent. Download it today on the Apple App Store or Google Play. See it. Report it. Stop it.
