House Committee Probes Antisemitism Inside The Nation’s Top Psychology Group

The House Committee on Education and Workforce is investigating antisemitism at the American Psychological Association (APA), which represents more than 172,000 researchers, clinical professionals, professors, and students across the country in the field.

An open letter written last February to the association’s leadership delineated antisemitism within the association. The letter noted “insensitivity towards Jews, a lack of concern regarding antisemitism, minimization of aggression towards the Jewish people, and outright hostility and prejudice towards Jews and Jewish heritage.”

“The letter points to antisemitic statements on APA division listservs, which include claims that ‘Hamas fighters in Gaza … are just protecting civilians’ and giving ‘kudos’ to Hamas,” the committee wrote to the APA, also noting that the APA had “offered educational credits for members to attend conferences where speakers endorsed ‘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.’”

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“In addition, Jewish advocacy groups have condemned the APA’s flagship journal, which published an issue that “repeatedly labels Israel a ‘settler colonial’ and ‘apartheid’ state, accuses it of ‘genocide,’ and refers to ‘Palestinian freedom fighters,’ language that distorts history, legitimizes violence, and erases Jewish self-determination,” the letter pointed out.

A former APA division president “allegedly taught that Zionism is a mental illness, called to ‘destroy Zionism,’ referred to Israelis as ‘genocidal f**ks,’ and, after the October 7 Hamas massacre of Israelis, wrote of Hamas, ‘how dare you slander the names of our martyrs as terrorists,’” the letter asserted.

“Some APA divisions are also attempting to revise the APA’s 2005/2007 Resolution on Antisemitic and Anti-Jewish Prejudice,” the letter continued. “These divisions introduced a new business item (NBI) in August requesting that the APA repeal its adoption of the widely recognized International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. The NBI makes light of antisemitism experienced by the association’s Jewish members by pointing to ‘weaponized antisemitism,’ which it defines as ‘the strategic and bad faith use of accusations of antisemitism, […] that […] has been used in particular to silence and punish people of color.’”