The Anti-Defamation League slammed comments by Dr. Mehmet Oz, accusing the Trump administration official of reinforcing antisemitic stereotypes and contributing to a climate of rising hostility toward Jewish communities.

In a statement and series of posts on X, the ADL highlighted excerpts from a two-week-old interview Oz gave to The Epoch Times program “American Thought Leaders,” in which he discussed healthcare fraud investigations in Minnesota. While attempting to argue that fraud is not confined to any single state, Oz singled out New York’s Chasidic Jewish community as an example.

“Casting Hasidic Jews as foreign, criminal, or ‘not real Americans’ is straight out of the antisemitic playbook,” the organization wrote. “This kind of rhetoric fuels harmful stereotypes and discrimination.”

Oz, who currently serves as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, made the remarks while discussing enforcement efforts against healthcare fraud. The ADL said that rather than offering a neutral comparison, Oz’s comments portrayed the Hasidic community in a prejudicial way, echoing long-standing tropes that depict religious Jews as outsiders or lawbreakers.

The civil rights group warned that such language carries real-world consequences, pointing to New York City’s reported 182 percent year-over-year increase in antisemitic hate crimes in January.

“Falsely blaming New York’s Hasidic population directly contributes to the climate in which antisemitic attacks are rising,” the ADL said. “Words matter, and public officials must do better.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)