New York, NY, Oct. 30, 2026 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today issued the following statement in response to hte release of the findings from the House Education and Workforce Committee report, “Antisemitism at the American Psychological Association (APA),” which documents the climate for Jewish and Israeli psychologists within APA.
This report confirms the gravest concerns ADL has long raised: Antisemitism at the American Psychological Association is not isolated; it is embedded in its ranks and in its leadership. An organization devoted to the science of the mind has instead become a case study in how propaganda works, discarding facts in favor of political narratives and deepening the trauma of the Jewish psychologists among its members. When a healing profession treats one group's pain with such indifference, Jewish patients are right to wonder whether they will be met with compassion or with contempt.
The report documents how APA leaders repeatedly denied and downplayed the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, purposefully removing the word “terrorism” from its statement and sidestepping a request to recommend trauma psychologists for a screening of a documentary about the sexual violence Hamas committed. It further documents the persistent promotion of antisemitic and biased anti-Israel ideologies within APA leadership, listservs, newsletters and resolutions, and the silencing of Jewish and Israeli members. This includes the dismissal and callous disregard of concerns raised by Jewish members and the hostility Jewish psychologists faced when they sought to establish an Ethnic Psychological Association (EPA) for Jews within APA. Additionally, the APA recently delayed for the second time this year a vote on recognizing the Association of Jewish Psychologists as an EPA. The latter actions demonstrate how utterly hollow APA’s stated commitment was to addressing antisemitism within its ranks.For more than a year, ADL and other Jewish organizations publicly and privately told APA leadership exactly what needed to change, and it failed to act. Last month, a federal advisory committee recommended that the Department of Education suspend recognition of APA’s Commission on Accreditation for 12 months, citing its failure to address a pervasive culture of antisemitism.
ADL thanks Chairman Tim Walberg and the House Education and Workforce Committee for this report and their continued commitment to combating antisemitism in professional associations. ADL hopes that this report moves the APA to publicly condemn antisemitism, strengthen its policies and bias incident reporting mechanisms, launch an independent investigation, require antisemitism training for all leadership and staff and recognize the Association of Jewish Psychologists as an EPA.
ADL is the leading anti-hate organization in the world. Founded in 1913 to protect the Jewish people, ADL works to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment to all. In the face of rising antisemitism and extremism, we protect, advocate, and educate, through a mix of programs and services using the latest innovations and technology, and seek to create a world without hate. More at www.adl.org.