Are Jewish Patients Safe In Australian Hospitals?
Have you ever been in a hospital as a patient? I am sure that most of you have. When being admitted, you are required to provide important details such as your name and your chosen faith. But what if you were taken to a hospital in a democratic Western country and the hospital administrators decided to give you a different name and redact details of your faith without your consent? Would you be upset? If the answer is no, then picture this: what if you were Jewish and the hospital changed your name and redacted your Jewish identity without your consent? Now, you might be thinking that would never happen in a Western nation in the modern day. Well, it just did. In Australia.
Before I go into details about this latest event, it is important that we revisit some relevant information to establish context. In early 2025, we bore witness to a sickening online exchange between two Australian hospital workers and Israeli influencer, Max Veifer. The employees were working at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital at the time, located in the South Western Sydney Local Health District.
In the video, Veifer asks the employees what they would do if an Israeli were to come to their hospital. One of the employees (a nurse) responds by saying: “You have no idea how many Israeli dogs came to this hospital, and I sent them to Jahannam [hell]. I literally sent them to Jahannam.”
Thankfully, the video received immediate and widespread condemnation with the two employees being criminally charged and now facing trial. Police have said there is no evidence any patient was harmed and that the alleged offending would rest on the workers’ intention. Nevertheless, it exposed a chilling question: If a Jew was treated at a Western Sydney hospital, would they be safe?
Sadly, little did we know that it would not be long until that question was robustly tested.
On the evening of 14 December 2025, two gunmen carried out a terrorist attack on the Jewish community in the iconic Sydney suburb of Bondi Beach. One of the victims was Rosalia Shikhverg.She sustained a head injury caused by shrapnel and was taken to Liverpool Hospital which is located in the South Western Sydney suburb of Liverpool. Like the Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, it is also located in the South Western Sydney Local Health District.
During Rosalia’s admission, usual protocols were followed with her name and Jewish identity properly recorded. However, Rosalia has since claimed that, without her consent, hospital staff told her that they were providing her with a new identification wristband with the name “Karen Jones.” Medication prescribed to Rosalia also bore the name “Karen Jones” and considering it is illegal to use a prescription issued to another person, one wonders how health regulators could have possibly been on board with this plan. Nevertheless, according to hospital administrators, this was done in an effort to keep prying media away. However, in a recent interview, Shikhverg said, “In my opinion, they were afraid of staff, not media,” a clear reference to the Bankstown-Lidcombe controversy.
Rosalia was not alone in finding herself with a completely new identity. According to the Jerusalem Post, Arsen Ostrovsky, who was also badly wounded in the same attack, said he felt the name change was protocol and that he was not bothered by it at all. He said, “Depending on the seriousness of the patient’s condition—and I was hit with a bullet to the head—there is not always time to consult beforehand. And I only found out my details were altered when I noted the bracelet on my arm after admission. The doctors explained this was protocol in such a situation, done purely as a matter of security to protect my privacy, given the nature and gravity of the attack and intense interest. I took absolutely no offense with the process and fully accepted it was in my best interest.”
Whatever your opinion, the optics are terrible. The year (2025) began with two nurses from a Western Sydney hospital allegedly making sickening claims about Jewish patients and concluded with Western Sydney hospital administrators completely erasing a Jewish patient’s identity. Denials have and will be given. Apologies too. Some might even accuse Rosalia of being too sensitive, particularly at a time when the hospital was dealing with a very serious and traumatic event. But Rosalia’s Jewish identity was seized from her without her consent and she is entitled to ask if history is repeating itself.
Have we again reached the time when Jews will be forced to change their identity in order to survive? If so, this represents a worrying development in one of the few nations which has been a friend to Israel and the Jewish people.
Sadly, antisemitism is growing and political leaders appear powerless to stop it. The tentacles of this devilish movement have crept around the world, gradually reaching into almost every nook and cranny of civilisation, including, unfortunately, the church. But worse is to come.
In Revelation 12:13-17 we see that in the second half of the Tribulation Period, the pent-up wrath of Satan will be profusely vented on the Jews. You see, although antisemitism has found fertile ground in the hearts of hateful people, it did not originate there. In truth, it is a manifestation of Satan’s millennia-long struggle against God and His Chosen People. But it will not last forever. Praise God for that. Until then, through God’s wisdom and strength, may we be a bold witness to His divine plan that reaches back to the promises made to Abraham, assuring us that the people of Israel live and will continue to live well past the time that the last antisemite is judged and silenced.
