CLEVELAND, Ohio – A former Cleveland Clinic resident who posted anti-Semitic remarks on social media apologized and asked for forgiveness, saying she “would never intentionally cause harm to any patient seeking medical care.”

Lara Kollab, in a statement released by her lawyer Friday, said, “I wish sincerely and unequivocally to apologize for the offensive and hurtful language contained in those posts. This statement is not intended to excuse the content of the posts, but rather to demonstrate that those words do not represent who I am and the principles I stand for today.”

Kollab worked at the Clinic as a first-year resident from July to September 2018 and left the system after the Clinic learned of her social media posts. Her social media accounts have been deactivated.

In her statement, Kollab said the posts were made years before she was accepted into medical school when she was “a naïve, and impressionable girl barely out of high school.” She said she had visited Israel and the Palestinian territories every summer for years and “became incensed at the suffering of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation.”

“As a girl in my teens and early twenties, I had difficulty constructively expressing my intense feelings about what I witnessed in my ancestral land. Like many young people lacking life experience, I expressed myself by making insensitive remarks and statements of passion devoid of thought, not realizing the harm and offense these words would cause,” she said.

Kollab said she adopted “strong values of inclusion, tolerance and humanity” during her years in college and medical school and takes her “profession and the Hippocratic Oath seriously.”

“As a physician, I will always strive to give the best medical treatment to all people, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, or culture,” Kollab said. “I have learned from this experience and am sorry for the pain I have caused. I pray that the Jewish community will understand and forgive me. I hope to make amends so that we can move forward and work together towards a better future for us all.”

Kollab was issued a medical training certificate in Ohio in July 2018. That certificate cannot be used unless she is working for the Clinic, according to a spokesperson for the state medical board. The Clinic notified the state in September 2018 that Kollab was no longer with their program.

“Ohio training certificates are only valid as long as the individual is actively part of the program which was indicated on the training certificate application by the supervising entity,” said Tessie Pollock, director of communication for the State Medical Board of Ohio.

Pollock said that a training certificate "may remain ‘active’ online while the board conducts complaint investigations against individuals.” However, she could not confirm if the state was investigating Kollab because all complaints and investigations of the state medical board are confidential.

The Clinic said “there have been no reports of any patient harm” related to Kollab’s time at the hospital.

“When we learned of the social media post, we took immediate action, conducted an internal review and placed her on administrative leave. Her departure was related to those posts and she has not worked at Cleveland Clinic since September,” the Clinic said in an earlier statement.

The Clinic said that first-year residents are under direct supervision and that there are “multiple safeguards” in place regarding patient care and prescribing medicine.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization based in Los Angeles, on Wednesday called for Kollab’s medical certification to be revoked.

“While the Cleveland Clinic did the right thing, this person remains a menace to the community-at-large and has made a mockery of the Hippocratic Oath through her hatred,” Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of Global Social Action for the center, said in a prepared statement.

Kollab’s full statement:

"Several social media comments posted on my twitter account years ago have surfaced recently, causing pain, anguish, and a public outcry. I wish sincerely and unequivocally to apologize for the offensive and hurtful language contained in those posts. This statement is not intended to excuse the content of the posts, but rather to demonstrate that those words do not represent who I am and the principles I stand for today.

"I visited Israel and the Palestinian Territories every summer throughout my adolescent years. I became incensed at the suffering of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation. The injustice and brutality of the occupation continues to concern me, and I believe every champion of human rights owes it to humanity to work towards a just and peaceful resolution of this crisis.

"As a girl in my teens and early twenties, I had difficulty constructively expressing my intense feelings about what I witnessed in my ancestral land. Like many young people lacking life experience, I expressed myself by making insensitive remarks and statements of passion devoid of thought, not realizing the harm and offense these words would cause.

"These posts were made years before I was accepted into medical school, when I was a naïve, and impressionable girl barely out of high school. I matured into a young adult during the years I attended college and medical school, and adopted strong values of inclusion, tolerance, and humanity. I take my profession and the Hippocratic Oath seriously and would never intentionally cause harm to any patient seeking medical care. As a physician, I will always strive to give the best medical treatment to all people, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, or culture.

“I have learned from this experience and am sorry for the pain I have caused. I pray that the Jewish community will understand and forgive me. I hope to make amends so that we can move forward and work together towards a better future for us all.”