American Psychological Association Slammed for "Virulent" Jew Hate

Thousands of mental health professionals have signed a complaint using the world's largest psychological organization of growing antisemitism.

Published in The Free Press on February 25, 2025.

More than 3,500 mental health professionals have sent a letter to the leaders of the world’s largest psychological association, rebuking them for allowing “virulent antisemitism” to fester in their ranks.

The letter, sent last night, calls upon the president and the board of the American Psychological Association (APA) to “address the serious and systemic problem of antisemitism/anti-Jewish hate.” The APA, which was established in 1892, has 173,000 members.

The 3,556 signers, who submitted the letter to APA president Debra Kawahara and the 15 additional members of the board of directors, claim that “Jewish APA members have been harassed, marginalized, and silenced on APA community forums even for attempting to challenge antisemitic rhetoric or correct misinformation.”

The signers, who comprise thousands of APA members and other psychological professionals, write that they “have documented extensive evidence of antisemitic discourse and concerning behavior across APA divisions.”

Their examples include:

• APA-hosted listservs that “contain antisemitic discourse, often masked as anti-Zionism, including statements like ‘Kudos to Hamas’ and calls for ‘Intifada, Intifada,’ which are synonymous with calls for violence and murder against Jewish and Israeli civilians.”

• Numerous calls for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel—“an initiative to demonize, delegitimize, and isolate the state of Israel including Israeli academics.”

• APA conferences where speakers “notorious for antisemitic rhetoric” have been invited and made official statements that rationalize “violence against Jews and Israelis; antisemitic tropes; Holocaust distortion; minimization of Jewish victimization, fear, and grief; and pathologizing of Jewish people’s connection to their indigenous homeland.”

• Dr. Lara Sheehi, the president of the APA Society of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology from 2023 to 2025, is singled out in the letter “for repeatedly engaging in antisemitic hate speech.” In addition to diagnosing Zionism as a “settler psychosis,” she has also posted expletive-laced messages on social media, including one that states “destroy Zionism,” and another describing Israelis as “genocidal fucks.” Sheehi, who was an assistant professor of clinical psychology at George Washington from 2017 until 2023, now lives in Doha, Qatar.

According to the letter, Sheehi’s antagonism has “resulted most recently in a Department of Education Office for Civil Rights complaint and resolution against the institution in which she was employed.” And yet, “APA leadership has failed to take meaningful action or respond in any significant way” to the complaint against Sheehi or the larger problem of antisemitism within the organization.

Although the letter was addressed to Kawahara, Thema S. Bryant was APA president in 2023—the year Hamas invaded Israel, killing 1,200. Bryant was known for fostering “decolonial psychology”—an orientation that calls for “an appreciation of indigenous science” and presumes a patient’s group identity determines the nature of the problem for which they seek psychological help.

An email from The Free Press to Kawahara seeking comment was forwarded to the APA’s communications team. An APA spokesperson later said, “The American Psychological Association stands against hate and discrimination in all its forms, recognizing its painful impacts on mental health and well-being. Promoting and respecting human rights, fairness, and dignity are central tenets of our mission and work. APA is committed to amplifying the voices of historically marginalized communities to create systemic and true change. We acknowledge that change will take time, patience, and resolve.” Bryant and Sheehi did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Psychologist Julie Ancis, who spearheaded the letter, told me she left the APA in 2021 when she saw early signs of Jew hatred infiltrate the organization—but has been monitoring the problem ever since.

“The APA needs to demonstrate accountability,” said Ancis, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Informatics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. “I left the APA because of the antisemitism that steadily started to creep into the organization and its refusal to address it. Many Jewish colleagues were impacted by this and have since left.”

This is not the first time therapists have been accused of antisemitism. Last March, for example, I reported that a group of Chicago-based therapists had circulated a “blacklist” of their Zionist colleagues, warning them not to refer patients to them. After October 7, 2023, two New York psychologists founded Gesher Campus Care, a network for Jewish students and faculty concerned about antisemitism in psychotherapy, in order to connect them to “safe” and “culturally competent” therapists.

Last night’s letter to the APA notes that the organization has been quick to speak out on behalf of other marginalized or minority groups, such as voicing “solidarity with Ukraine” and apologizing “to People of Color for perpetuating racism.” But there has been a “stark contrast” between the APA’s “swift responses to other issues and its relative silence on antisemitism”—even though there has been “a 500 percent spike in attacks against Jews, who represent only 2 percent of the population yet experience over half of all religion-based hate crimes according to FBI statistics.”

Back in 2005, the APA adopted a Resolution on Anti-Semitic and Anti-Jewish Prejudice. The signers of the letter remind the heads of the APA of this pledge and have urged them to enforce their own standards “regarding inclusive language for all minoritized groups,” return to the science of psychology “rather than relying on ideologically driven and politically motivated discourse,” and “address antisemitic rhetoric in APA-affiliated forums and official communications,” among other actions.

“This situation has severe consequences for the education and training of students in APA-accredited programs, the welfare of Jewish patients, the mental and spiritual health of Jewish mental health professionals, and the credibility of the psychology profession as a whole,” the letter states. “We call on you to undertake immediate remedial action.”