This webinar is presented by Frank Sommers, MD, FRCPC, DLFAPA, DFCPA, and Steve Samuel, MD, FRCSC
Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Time: 5:00 pm PT / 6:00 pm MT / 7:00 pm CT / 8:00 p.m. ET
Webinar length is approx 60 min, ZOOM link will be sent a few days before the event.
Learning Objectives
- Become familiar with the 16-year history of Doctors Against Racism and Antisemitism (daradocs.org)
- Focus on major accomplishments such as Holocaust Education in medical schools
- Illuminate some personal histories of 2 founding members of DARA, one a Holocaust survivor/refugee, a psychiatrist, and a plastic surgeon with an incredible family history
Bio for Frank Sommers:
As a child survivor of the Holocaust, and former refugee, personally torn by World War II, life under a brutal communist dictatorship, escaping after the failed Hungarian Revolution, 1956, and very frightening days of the ‘Cold War’, he has indelible emotional scars, buttressing his interest, motivation and resolve to mitigate the devastating physical and psychological damage inflicted by war, terrorism, or disaster from any source, that can turn lives upside down, sometimes in an instant. These experiences compelled Dr. Sommers to become a physician. Life in medicine and psychiatry has provided meaningful opportunities to provide relief of suffering, and to find ways to contribute, with others, to keeping our world safe from violence, especially the ultimate catastrophe of nuclear annihilation.
He is a founding executive board member of Doctors Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (daradocs.org), where he leads the ‘Holocaust education—a medical imperative’ project. A Distinguished Fellow of the Canadian and American Psychiatric Associations, he now serves as founding chair of the Section of Disaster Psychiatry in the CPA, and of Disaster Psychiatry Canada in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto. Also, he is Honorary and Founding President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War – Canada; Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Born in Israel in 1948 during the War of Independence, Steve (Efraim Shmuel) Samuel is a child of Holocaust survivors, one of whom had survived Auschwitz while the other served in the British Army and "liberated" his own father from Dachau. At the age of 12, he immigrated to Canada with his parents and brother, ultimately studying Medicine and completing a residency in Plastic Surgery at the University of Toronto. He obtained his Fellowship from the Royal College in 1980 and has been in practice at a few community hospitals. He has served as Chair of the Section on Plastic Surgery of the OMA.
Aside from his professional career, he has had a lifelong interest in music (plays the violin), and history with a focus on the evolution of Christianity from Judaism and the persecution of the Jews culminating in The Holocaust and its personal consequences to his parents and their families. As “a second generation survivor” he has become alert to signs of rising hatred and antisemitism, including the threat of a repeat genocide in the Middle East through the existential threats to Israel, which are openly manifested today. The invasion into the medical literature and academia of such sentiments, masquerading as science, has spurred his involvement as a founding member and first Chair of DARA (Doctors Against Racism and Antisemitism) 16 years ago and ongoing activity on its Board.
Steve is married to Kathy, who was born in Czechoslovakia and whose family was also greatly decimated in Auschwitz, Majdanek and Terezin. They have 4 children who have been raised with a fiery love of Israel and are actively involved in the community as well as supporting organizations in Israel, such as MDA, Brothers for Life, The Association for IDF Widows and Orphans, etc. Kathy and Steve have 12 grandchildren.
Doctors Against Racism and Antisemitism Over A 16-year Journey
"*" indicates required fields
