Calling for Recognition and Equal Representation of Jewish Psychologists Within the American Psychological Association

JFRG joins the American Jewish Medical Association and Leading Jewish Organizations Nationwide 

in Urging APA Council to Recognize the Association of Jewish Psychologists (AJP). 

Below is the letter submitted to the APA Council of Representatives.

February 19, 2026

Dear Members of the American Psychological Association Council of Representatives, 

We, a coalition of Jewish American Organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL); the American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA); American Jewish Committee (AJC); Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America; Jewish Federations of North America; Jewish Council for Public Affairs; Jewish Labor Committee; StandWithUs; The Jewish Grad Organization; and The Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies write in recognition that the Association of Jewish Psychologists (AJP) is a representative body of Jewish psychologists and support its inclusion and voting representation within the APA Council of Representatives. The language and rationale advanced by some groups within APA and outside of APA are discriminatory, insofar as they conflict with established legal recognition of Jewish identity as encompassing both ethnic and religious dimensions. Supreme Court precedent and federal civil rights protections make clear that Jews constitute an identifiable ethnic group entitled to equal representation and protection under the law.

Together, our organizations represent all facets of Jewish communal and professional life across the United States. We represent Jewish healthcare practitioners, educators, advocates, faith congregants and community institutions. More significantly, we represent Jewish and allied patients and their families - those who are most vulnerable and at risk of a lack of representation. Collectively, we serve, support, and engage the breadth of Jewish communities nationwide, bringing perspectives shaped by clinical practice, public service, academic leadership, and community-based work. Lack of representation by AJP, an organization that is, indeed, representative of Jewish communities throughout the world, would be detrimental to the entirety of our global Jewish community.

The arguments presented by groups antagonistic to AJP reflect a profound and intentional lack of understanding of Jewish identity as a people and ethnic group, and the increasingly dangerous reality of antisemitism. Jewish identity encompasses ethnicity, culture, shared ancestry, peoplehood, and religion. Such rhetoric deepens exclusion at a moment when many Jewish professionals already feel vulnerable within academic and professional spaces.

This moment is particularly concerning given the documented rise in antisemitism across the United States, and especially within professional and educational establishments. Jewish mental health professionals, like all communities represented within APA, deserve access to spaces where they can collectively address the unique professional and social challenges affecting their work and well-being. That includes having equal access to a voice - and a vote. Recognition of AJP would simply ensure that Jewish psychologists have the same representation afforded to other defined groups within APA.

We therefore urge you, as representatives of APA Council, to vote in support of the recognition of AJP as an Ethnic Psychological Association. Doing so would affirm a commitment to fairness, inclusion, and the protection of all communities from discrimination, and would send a clear signal that Jewish professionals belong fully and equally within the profession and the Association they serve. We respectfully ask that the Council reject frameworks that delegitimize Jewish identity and Jewish representation. 

We, a coalition of the major Jewish organizations in the United States, remain ready to serve as partners to APA. We welcome the opportunity to support ongoing dialogue and consultation for the benefit of not only Jewish psychologists, but all psychologists who have been victimized by persecution, racism, antisemitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, and hatreds that have no place in an inclusive, democratic society. 

With faith and sincere thanks,

American Jewish Committee

American Jewish Medical Association

Anti-Defamation League

Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations

Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America

Jewish Council for Public Affairs

Jewish Faculty Resilience Group

Jewish Federations of North America

Jewish Labor Committee

StandWithUs

The Jewish Grad Organization 

The Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies

Issued by the American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA)

The American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA) is the sole nationwide U.S. organization representing Jewish healthcare professionals across all disciplines and career stages.