A surge in discrimination, exclusion and hostility is being reported by Jewish patients, doctors and medical students in therapy sessions, hospitals and university programs. Some patients are even being told by their therapists that they cannot talk about Oct. 7 and its aftermath. Physicians are being fired, marginalized or silenced for raising concerns about the hatred of Jews.
Students and professors in health-care fields face increasing pressure to disavow Zionism—or remain silent—to protect their academic standing. Most disturbingly, Zionism is being framed by some academics and professionals as a psychological pathology, some kind of mental illness to be diagnosed, treated and eliminated. This is not a professional dispute; it is a moral crisis.
Activist psychologists: Targeting Zionists
These disturbing ideological trends will be prominently featured at the August national conference of the American Psychological Association (APA), the largest organization of psychologists in the country. Several sessions are set to portray Zionism as inherently violent and advance anti-Zionist activism as an ethical responsibility in clinical practice.
Planned presentations by the APA’s Peace Psychology Division are particularly troubling. One asserts that Israel’s war against Hamas “began on Oct. 7 in response to Palestinian attacks on Israeli military bases,” a description that erases the murder, rape and kidnapping of more than 1,500 Israeli children, women and Holocaust survivors. Another session on “decolonial understandings of Palestine” features a psychologist who encourages therapists to “use your voices as psychologists as a form of resistance.”
Another symposium for continuing education credit focuses on “anti-Palestinian racism,” a concept that redefines political disagreement as psychological harm. It argues that denying that Israel’s creation was a “catastrophe” (the nakba), opposing the destructive Palestinian right of return and challenging false claims against Israel are considered forms of racism. In contrast, the APA’s only session on antisemitism lasts just one hour.
Kenneth L. Marcus, founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, calls this trend a red flag: “If Zionism is being treated as a mental disorder, how can Jews expect fair treatment?” He warns that when ideology overtakes clinical standards, Jewish professionals and patients are left increasingly vulnerable.
Jewish therapists: ‘A blacklist of Jews’
Jewish therapists across the country are being fired, blacklisted and pushed out of their profession. In Dallas, clinicians Jackie Junger and Jacqueline Katz were terminated days after raising concerns about the erasure of Jewish trauma in a staff meeting. A non-Jewish colleague asked for help understanding a Jewish client’s distress, but their supervisor cut them off and later banned discussion of “Palestine-Israel,” even though there was no mention of this. Junger concluded that the Jewish patient will “not be allowed to get competent health care” and questioned if “this rule only applies to Jewish clients.”
Therapists in Chicago who responded to a referral request for a “Zionist” clinician to help a patient dealing with the conflict in Israel were added to a public blacklist, alongside others who had said nothing at all. Licensed clinical social worker Anna Finkelshtein: “It was a list of Jews. How is this considered OK, today?” Illinois state regulators issued a formal reprimand, but this did not stop Heba Ibrahim Joudeh from continuing her blacklist. Clinical social worker Dana Cohen: “We are still traumatized by this experience a year later.”
Jewish patients: ‘Traumatic invalidation’
Trauma therapists Miri Bar-Halpern and Jaclyn Wolfman described how “rather than being met with compassion and care, many Jewish patients following Oct. 7 were instead met with a stunning mix of silence, blame and exclusion, and even the outright denial of the atrocities, along with any emotional pain stemming from them.” They call this “traumatic invalidation.”
Such discriminatory treatment is causing patients to increasingly search for Jewish therapists. A patient returning from Israel was told by her therapist: “Wow. It’s good you were assigned to me. No one else in this practice will treat a Zionist.”
Another patient, Rachel, had been treated by her therapist from middle school through adulthood. She is the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. Rachel was struggling with the surge in hatred against Jews after Oct. 7. She broke down in tears during a therapy session. Her therapist said the massacre videos filmed by Hamas were “fake.”
Jewish professionals: ‘We have a responsibility to raise our voices’
Jewish therapists state that the profession has become openly hostile. Psychologist Allison Resnick read that “therapists are being told to conceal their Jewishness for fear of offending colleagues and clients.”
For young Jewish clinicians who are just beginning their careers, the message is clear. “I have very deep and sincere concerns that my involvement in these issues will negatively impact my career,” said Dr. Caroline Kaufman. “But I have a responsibility as a Jewish psychologist to raise my voice.”
The APA has failed to meet the moment. Jewish professionals were invited to an antisemitism “listening session” alongside the very individuals who had targeted them, including an activist psychologist who defended the man who murdered two Israeli diplomats in the nation’s capital. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) has called out the APA for “trafficking in malicious falsehoods against Zionism, Israel and the Jewish community.”
Physicians: ‘Harassed for being Jewish’
Jewish American health-care professionals are suffering across the country, according to a StandWithUs survey:
- Medical residents are refusing to work with Jewish colleagues.
- Jewish health-care workers were called “baby killers,” “white supremacists” and other anti-Jewish slurs.
- Colleagues organized biweekly pro-Hamas rallies and spoke about “fundraising for Hamas.”
These comments coincided with 39% of Jewish health-care professionals experiencing antisemitism in their workplace and 26% who felt unsafe or threatened at work. Hatred of Jews was five times higher at university medical centers.
Some doctors publicly celebrated the Iran-backed Hamas atrocities committed on Oct. 7, 2023:
- Nurse Raeda Saeed commented on a message about a Chicago mother and daughter kidnapped by Hamas: “I hope they get burned alive and fed to the Israeli dogs.”
- Surgeon in Tampa, Fla., Dr. Shiraz Farooq: “About time!!!”
- New York University medical resident, Zaki Massoud: “Let them call it terrorism. Extremism. Barbarianism. We call it liberation. Decolonization. Resistance. Revolution.”
Discrimination against Jews in the medical field is also an international problem. Canadian doctors have been “doxed and subjected to targeted harassment simply for being Jewish.”
The path forward: A recent win
Jewish leaders continue to call for change and to take action. They are asking professional associations, including the APA, to uphold their own codes of ethics and are demanding training programs that respect diversity rather than enforce conformity. Several Jewish groups are collecting stories, filing lawsuits and building support networks.
There was one recent win. Delegates of America’s largest teachers’ union—the National Education Association—voted to boycott cooperation with the Anti-Defamation League, the nation’s leading Jewish civil-rights organization, at their annual meeting in July. In response to intense dialogue and concerns voiced by 250-plus Jewish groups, the NEA’s executive committee rejected the move to cut ties with the ADL.
Points to consider:
- Jews are not safe when Zionism is diagnosed as a disease.
If Zionism is treated as a pathology—and support for Israel is cast as racism—what happens to every Jewish patient who walks into a doctor’s office? What happens to Jewish doctors, students or patients who wear a kippah or speak Hebrew? The politicization of health care creates a climate where ideological litmus tests replace clinical standards, and the Jewish people are cast as dangerous based on their ethnicity, religion or national affiliation.
- America’s next generation of psychologists are being taught to “do harm.”
“Do no harm” is the guiding principle of medical ethics, but at next month’s American Psychological Association conference, professors, clinicians and students will promote radical ideologies as professional best practices. These are not fringe voices. They train students at top graduate programs and medical schools, shaping the future of mental-health care. Students are being tested on politicized theories and pressured to conform. These trainees will soon be therapists, counselors and professors themselves, redefining clinical standards in ways that erase Jewish identity.
- Trust is broken when Jewish trauma is dismissed.
Mental health begins with trust, but Jewish patients and clinicians are learning that their pain is being invalidated. Therapists have been fired for speaking about antisemitism. Others are blacklisted for being “Zionist.” Patients are told their grief after Oct. 7 is “political”—or worse, that the atrocities never happened. In this climate, Jewish identity becomes something to hide. Healing is not possible when individuals are silenced. Every patient deserves care. Every therapist deserves safety. And every profession must reject ideological litmus tests that marginalize Jews.
- Jewish group unity can lead to positive outcomes.
Jewish groups need to stand together to protest discrimination and prejudice against American Jews. The executive board of the National Education Association recently overturned the malicious vote by its members to boycott the Anti-Defamation League, following protests by more than 250 major Jewish American organizations.
- While Jews are ostracized in America, Arab and Jewish medical professionals thrive and cooperate in Israel.
Arab and Jewish medical professionals work side by side across Israel’s hospitals, especially at Hadassah Medical Centers, a striking contrast to the growing exclusion of Jews in U.S. health-care spaces. While anti-Israel activists vilify Jewish doctors and push ideology into medicine, Israel shows what true coexistence looks like. Israeli Arabs make up 16% of the population, but account for 25% of physicians, 27% of nurses, 27% of dentists and half of all pharmacists. These numbers are rising. Israeli doctors, including Jews, regularly treat Palestinian terrorists. It is a model of shared humanity, not division.
