The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest psychological organization in the world and has 173,000 members. Yesterday a group of 3,500 mental health professionals sent a letter to the APA's President, Debra Kawahara, and its Board of Directors asking them to do something about the antisemitism present within the organization. Here's a bit of what the letter offers as evidence:

We have documented extensive evidence of antisemitic discourse and concerning behavior across APA divisions. Our archive includes statements from APA council members, leaders of APA divisions, and member postings on APA-hosted listservs that collectively demonstrate insensitivity toward Jews, a lack of concern regarding antisemitism, minimization of aggression towards the Jewish people, and outright hostility and prejudice toward Jews and Jewish heritage. Across numerous divisions of the APA, the listservs contain antisemitic discourse, often masked as anti-Zionism. Posts on listservs include statements like “Kudos to Hamas” and calls for “Intifada, Intifada,” which are synonymous with calls for violence and murder against Jewish and Israeli civilians. In addition, there have been numerous calls for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel (an initiative to demonize, delegitimize, and isolate the state of Israel including Israeli academics). Jewish APA members have been harassed, marginalized, and silenced on APA community forums even for attempting to challenge antisemitic rhetoric or correct misinformation.

The letter also singles out Dr. Lara Sheehi:

Dr. Lara Sheehi remained the president of the APA Society of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (Division 39) for two years despite repeatedly engaging in antisemitic hate speech. Dr. Sheehi has stated publicly that Israelis and Zionists are “genocidal f[**]ks,” and has called the belief in Israel’s right to exist a “psychosis,” therefore pathologizing a belief that the vast majority of Jews feel is important to their identity. The antagonism expressed by Dr. Sheehi resulted most recently in a Department of Education Office of Civil Rights complaint and resolution with expression of concern against the institution in which she was employed.

Sheehi taught for several years at George Washington University but a complaint was filed against her in 2022.

StandWithUs, a Jewish and pro-Israel advocacy organization, filed a Title VI complaint with The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in January 2023, accusing Sheehi of antisemitic behavior toward Jewish and Israeli students in the Fall 2022 Diversity I, a graduate-level psychology course. During the course, students took issue with some of her statements and lectures, including a time she allegedly told an Israeli student, “It’s not your fault you were born in Israel,” and for reportedly not featuring class materials covering antisemitism. The complaint states that University faculty and administrators “retaliated” with “disciplinary proceedings” against students who spoke up about the “hostile environment” Sheehi created in her classroom for Jewish and Israeli students.

Sheehi responded to the allegations in February 2023 in an article published in the liberal-leaning magazine CounterPunch, arguing the complaint is a “misrepresentation” of her conduct and “targets” her for being an Arab woman advocating for Palestinians. More than 2,000 students, alumni, faculty and advocates signed more than half a dozen statements supporting Sheehi between January and February 2023.

GW officials launched a third-party investigation into the Title VI complaint using GW-hired investigators from the Crowell & Moring law firm and found “no evidence” of discriminatory conduct, according to an email former interim University President Mark Wrighton sent to community members in March 2023.

Sheehi was cleared by the school's third-party investigation but weeks later the DOE's Office for Civil Rights began its own investigation based on the initial complaint. The Washington Free Beacon published a story about her personal social media comments back in 2023:

In one of those posts, Sheehi praised a statement critical of "anyone condemning the Palestinians' armed resistance" and argued that the attacks were merely Hamas's response to "Israel's genocidal intent." In another, Sheehi expressed support for George Washington University's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The group had described Hamas terrorists as "martyrs," a message Sheehi boosted. Sheehi also argued that Israelis were "NOT being killed for being Jewish" and blasted "Western media and politicians" for reporting that Hamas raped Israeli women...

"F*** ZIONISM, ZIONISTS AND SETTLER COLONIALISM using Palestinian lives as examples of their boundless cruelty and power," Sheehi said in October 2020. "If you see this and STILL entertain for even a split second that Hamas is the terrorist entity, there is literally zero hope for you, your soul, or your general existence as an ethical human being in this world," she wrote in May 2021.

She is quite literally a Hamas supporter and defender who says anyone who disagrees in unethical. This is apparently the sort of thing that GWU decided was not a problem. But even after being cleared, Sheehi left GWU to teach at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in Qatar.

The group behind the letter is led by a psychologist who left the APA in 2021:

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.”

If you're interested, Psychologists Against Antisemitism (PAAS) has a website here with more information on their goals.