Harvard Medical School Affiliates Protest American Medical Association President on Match Day

Dozens of Longwood affiliates gathered outside Harvard Medical School on Friday to protest American Medical Association President Jesse M. Ehrenfeld’s speech for Match Day.

Several groups — including Boston Healthcare Workers for Palestine — helped organize the rally, which was held on the day when fourth-year medical school students receive their residency assignments.

The affiliates organized the event to criticize what they described as the AMA’s insufficient response to the war in Gaza, despite being “usually very vocal about what happens to health care workers overseas,” according to HMS assistant professor Hibah Osman, who participated in the rally.

The AMA “has refused to make any comments about what’s going on in Gaza despite the killing of hundreds of doctors and nurses and dentists and medical students,” Osman added.

Osman said that medical students who attended Ehrenfeld’s lecture also protested his speech.

HMS spokesperson Ekaterina D. Pesheva confirmed that a protest occurred during Ehrenfeld’s lecture in an emailed statement.

“Ehrenfeld was invited to Harvard Medical School to deliver the annual Class of 1958 Commemorative Lectureship, whose purpose is to reinforce the idealism, humanism, and nobility of medicine for our graduating class of medical students,” Pesheva wrote.

“Dr. Ehrenfeld saw and acknowledged some of our medical students who chose this forum to silently protest the AMA in a manner that was respectful and upholds our community values and guidelines and, in doing so, he personified the goal of the lectureship,” she added.

HMS Dean George Q. Daley ’82 sent an HMS-wide email detailing the guidelines for protests on Monday, four days ahead of the Match Day protest.

Daley wrote in the email that “those who do not respect the guidelines expressed in the HMS statement, the University-wide statement, and the January 19 guidance will be subject to review and possible disciplinary sanction.”

Daley added that “community members should understand that violations may carry long-term professional consequences.”

Osman said that the “hypocrisy of the positions that our leaders have taken” with regards to Israel and Palestine has marginalized some affiliates at HMS.

“To threaten students who want to protest a genocide is awful,” Osman added. “To threaten them with long-term professional consequences when they are graduating doctors at the beginning of their careers is horrific.”

Grant P. Laster, a Harvard Graduate School of Design student whose partner was matching with a residency program on Friday, said the timing of the protest on Match Day was of particular significance.

“It's basically when they move on to serving a greater public,” Laster said.

“A lot of people inside wanted to make sure their values were reflected by protesting inside,” Laster added. “We wanted to be out here supporting them as they took that step into doctorhood.”

—Staff writer Veronica H. Paulus can be reached at veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @VeronicaHPaulus.

—Staff writer Akshaya Ravi can be reached at akshaya.ravi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @akshayaravi22.