{"id":294791,"date":"2026-02-16T23:51:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T23:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/294791\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T23:51:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T23:51:06","slug":"apa-minority-psychologists-reject-jewish-ethnic-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/294791\/","title":{"rendered":"APA minority psychologists reject Jewish ethnic recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"

The coalition of minority ethnic psychologists within the American Psychological Association<\/a> (APA) has opposed the recognition of the Association of Jewish Psychologists<\/a> (AJP) as an Ethnic Psychological Association, claiming that most Jews \u201cidentify as white.\u201d<\/p>\n

As first reported by The New York Times on Sunday, the Coalition of National Racial and Ethnic Psychological Associations<\/a> (CONREPA) released a statement criticizing the recognition of a separate ethnic minority group for Jewish psychologists, saying that Jews are not underrepresented in the APA.<\/p>\n

The statement was endorsed by the Asian American Psychological Association, the American Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African Psychological Association, the National Latino\/a Psychological Association, the Association of Black Psychologists, and the Society of Indian [Native-American] Psychologists. The groups collectively represent about 2,000 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cConflating religion, race, and ethnicity is a critical issue with serious consequences in that it obscures the role of racism, white privilege, and white supremacy in the historical and contemporary oppression of people of color,\u201d CONREPA said.<\/p>\n

It added that \u201cThe majority of Jewish Americans in the United States identify as white\u201d and that Jewish psychologists of color<\/a> \u201calready have a home in each of the existing EPAs [Ethnic Psychological Associations].\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"(credit: INGIMAGE)<\/p>\n

\u201cEPA seats were intended to address underrepresented groups within APA. Jewish psychologists are not underrepresented within APA.\u201d<\/p>\n

CONREPA went on to describe antisemitism as a form of religious discrimination.<\/p>\n

This is not exclusively the case. As antisemitism refers to the targeting of Jews as a group, it can encompass religious discrimination, racial discrimination, and ethnic discrimination.<\/p>\n

ADL slams APA group over dismissal of Jewish identity<\/p>\n

\u201cThis statement is not just troubling \u2013 it is indefensible,\u201d said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. \u201cIt reflects a profound and dangerous distortion of Jewish identity and a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of antisemitism. Jewish identity encompasses religion, ethnicity, and culture, a complexity that CONREPA\u2019s statement dismisses entirely. To suggest that Jewish psychologists do not face discrimination or deserve representation within this group is both factually wrong and harmful.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is notable that the CONREPA statement came amid an ongoing investigation by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce into antisemitism at the APA, which is the largest psychological organization in the world.<\/p>\n

The move followed multiple reports of harassment of Jewish members \u201cbecause of their Jewish identity, their efforts to speak out against antisemitism, and their Zionist beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Committee said it was \u201cgravely concerned\u201d about the reports of antisemitism, as well as about claims that the APA failed to take sufficient action against a former APA division president who made deeply antisemitic statements.<\/p>\n

This was a reference to Dr. Lara Sheehi, who served as president of the APA\u2019s Division 39 (Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology) from 2023 to 2025. She reportedly taught that Zionism is a mental illness, called to \u201cdestroy Zionism,\u201d referred to Israelis as \u201cgenocidal f**ks,\u201d and, after the October 7, 2023, massacre, wrote, \u201cHow dare you slander the names of our martyrs as terrorists?\u201d<\/p>\n

The APA has previously used educational credits for members to attend conferences where speakers endorsed \u201cviolence against Jews and Israelis; antisemitic tropes; Holocaust distortion; minimization of Jewish victimization, fear, and grief; and \u2018pathologizing of Jewish people\u2019s connection to their indigenous homeland,\u2019\u201d the Committee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the APA\u2019s recent claims that it is addressing antisemitism through listening sessions and the formation of a Collaborative of Jewish Psychologists, the organization\u2019s failure to oppose CONREPA\u2019s discriminatory statement demonstrates that these efforts fall far short of meaningful action,\u201d Greenblatt added.<\/p>\n

The ADL called on the APA to reject CONREPA\u2019s position and to recognize the Association of Jewish Psychologists, ensuring that Jewish mental health professionals have a voice within their professional community.<\/p>\n

The Jerusalem Post reached out to AJP and the APA for comment, but they had not responded by press time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The coalition of minority ethnic psychologists within the American Psychological Association (APA) has opposed the recognition of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16867,111,14926,85,46,43,1587],"class_list":{"0":"post-294791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-anti-defamation-league","9":"tag-antisemitism","10":"tag-ethnic-and-religious-minorities","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-psychology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}