An association representing ethnic minority psychologists within the American Psychological Association (APA) has drawn condemnation for issuing a statement opposing Jewish members of the profession from creating their own such group, as “most Jewish-Americans identify as white”.
The Coalition of National Racial and Ethnic Psychological Association (CONREPA) released a statement criticising the attempt by a separate ethnic minority group for Jewish psychologists to gain official recognition.
The association claims that Jews are not under-represented in the APA and that antisemitism is a form of religious, rather than racial, discrimination.
“While we recognise that many forms of prejudice are on the rise in today’s climate, including antisemitism, we have several considerations to raise regarding the Association of Jewish Psychologists as an Ethnic Psychological Association (EPA),” read the letter.
“Conflating 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 colour,” said the association, which consists of groups representing Asian, Hispanic, black, Native American, Arab-American, and Middle Eastern psychologists.
The coalition claimed that the “majority of Jewish-Americans in the United States identify as white” and that Jewish psychologists of colour “already have a home in each of the existing EPAs”.
“EPA seats were intended to address under-represented groups within APA. Jewish psychologists are not under-represented within APA.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned the letter as “indefensible”, arguing that the targeting of Jews as a group can encompass religious, racial, and ethnic discrimination.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, said the coalition’s statement “reflects a profound and dangerous distortion of Jewish identity and a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of antisemitism”.
The CONREPA statement comes amid an investigation by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce into alleged antisemitism at the APA.
It follows multiple allegations of harassment of Jewish members because of their “Jewish identity, their efforts to speak out against antisemitism, and their Zionist beliefs,” according to the Committee. It said it was “gravely concerned” about the reports of antisemitism within the APA, which is the largest psychological organisation in the world.
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