Update from APA leadership on our continued work to combat antisemitism
June 19, 2026
Dear APA Members,
We are writing to update you on APA’s ongoing efforts to counter antisemitism.
Earlier this month, we published a special issue of our flagship journal, American Psychologist, focused on “Antisemitism and Psychology,” representing a multiyear effort to advance the psychological scholarship on combating antisemitism. Today, we want to update you on additional steps APA is taking to strengthen this work, informed by insights from member listening sessions, recommendations from two task forces on Division/APA collaboration appointed by the APA Board of Directors, recommendations from APA’s Collaborative of Jewish Psychologists (CJP) (a Board appointed advisory group), and ongoing Board deliberations.
Some of the complaints of antisemitism reported by members relate to conduct within member email listservs, event programming, or other public-facing content managed by divisions. APA’s 54 divisions are autonomous membership organizations that must comply with APA’s bylaws, rules, and policies, but manage their own governance, programming, communications, finances, and member engagement. This independence is a strength as it allows divisions to serve the specialized interests of their members, but it has also created challenges.
The reforms below are designed to address those challenges by strengthening APA’s oversight, clarifying accountability, and ensuring that division affiliation with APA does not imply that APA sanctions conduct that violates our values, policies, and bylaws.
On June 5, 2026, the APA Board of Directors approved the following actions:
APA’s continuing education portfolio. APA administers a rigorous program to approve continuing education (CE) providers in psychology, ensuring that their offerings meet high standards of scientific integrity, ethics, and nondiscrimination. There are approximately 900 independent entities currently authorized by APA to offer CE credit. These providers, ranging from hospitals to government organizations to universities, are subject to APA’s periodic approval, audit processes, and ongoing compliance requirements. APA does not manage these entities or approve every learning session or every speaker offered by approved CE providers. As issues have been raised about the sessions offered by some CE providers, we are directing current CE sponsors to more rigorously review complaints involving antisemitism and other bigotry under existing standards.
APA social media. APA’s social media channels reach more than 2 million followers across platforms including LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X, and Threads. These channels are publicly visible and open to comment from members of the public. We are strengthening our monitoring and moderation of these channels, including AI-assisted tools that help us identify and act on inappropriate comments, including antisemitic comments, more quickly and consistently.
Adjudication of complaints. APA is creating a central repository for complaints related to divisions to better track, classify, and address concerning activity, including antisemitism and other forms of hate and discrimination. We are also strengthening our member ethics complaint referral model to more clearly direct complaints to appropriate external bodies—licensing boards, institutional grievance processes, and other oversight authorities. Over the coming months, we will explore building a resource page on our website directing users to various institutional complaint processes.
Support for clarifying division/APA roles. APA will launch a pilot annual APA-Division Affiliation Agreement that clearly delineates roles, responsibilities, compliance obligations, and services applicable to APA and each division. In addition, we will provide structured triage for issues stemming from division activities that do not comply with APA bylaws, rules, and policies. Division leaders will receive targeted modules on handling complaints of antisemitism, discrimination, and bigotry, including escalation procedures. We will be reaching out to division leadership shortly to provide guidance and training as we implement these changes.
Clarity on division public content. The Board has committed to using the existing Article VI process in APA’s Bylaws for formal sanctions assessed by APA’s Council of Representatives where a division refuses to comply after adequate due process. For example, the Board recently directed an APA division to immediately remove program materials that had bypassed required review procedures for content that could be perceived as a statement of public policy and had been the subject of complaints of antisemitism. This is part of a continuing effort to ensure division adherence to APA bylaws, rules, and policies.
APA and division-managed listservs. APA is modernizing the technology infrastructure for division listserv communications. As part of this effort, APA will be assisting divisions in transitioning their listservs to an updated online announcement and conversation space with enhanced reporting and monitoring capabilities, including AI-assisted moderation and the ability to permanently remove posts. Divisions may also explore launching their own communication platforms. More information will be provided to divisions in the coming weeks.
APA member safety. We continue to strengthen our monitoring and security for APA’s Convention, scheduled for August 2026 in Washington, DC. We are committed to making this a safe space for learning, dialogue, and networking for our members and all attendees. In these and other ways, APA is reinforcing and strengthening its internal standards and practices to more effectively confront antisemitism. We will communicate additional implementation details in the coming weeks. We welcome your continued input as we implement these reforms. You can read more about our efforts here.
As we’ve shared, APA is continuing to cooperate with the active House Committee on Education and Workforce investigation. On June 2, 2026, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation following a complaint filed in August 2025 alleging antisemitic discrimination within APA. APA’s work to combat antisemitism did not begin with these inquiries, and it will not end with them. We are cooperating with relevant oversight bodies because transparency and accountability are consistent with our values.
APA will not desist from its work to counter and address antisemitism. We will not allow hate to intimidate or create a hostile or unwelcoming environment for our members and the communities we serve. We remain committed to fostering an organization in which all 190,000 of our members feel safe, welcome, and supported.
Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD
Chief Executive Officer/Executive Vice President
American Psychological Association
Wendi S. Williams, PhD
2026 President
American Psychological Association