Believing the Victims of Sexual Violence -- Unless they are Jews

"At a November psychology conference in Philadelphia, Villanova University Counseling Centre director Nathalie Edmond gave a presentation on 'dismantling oppression' featuring a slide show, including one titled 'the colonized mind', which positioned Zionism as equivalent to 'internalized racism', 

Homophobia' and 'rape culture'."

"Social media pushback came fast and furious, but no heads rolled."

Barbara Kay, Ideas, National Post 

"[W]hile APA [American Psychological Association] has issued statements in solidarity with Ukraine and apologized to People of Color for perpetuating racism, it has remained inactive regarding the 500 percent spike in attacks against Jews who represent only two percent of the population yet experience over half of all religion-based hate crimes according to FBI statistics."

Psychologists against Antisemitism open letter to APA 

The world owes many of its scientific advances to the brilliance of Jewish minds, among them Nobel Prize winners in every sector of human endeavours. Despite their modest numbers as a distinct ethnic group, Jews have overwhelmingly captured the attention of the world as Nobel Laureates. Although nominated no fewer than 32 times for a Nobel prize, Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis whose groundbreaking work in understanding the human psyche as a neurologist, medical doctor and psychologist, that prize eluded him. But his impact on human psychology and its understanding was incalculable.

 

The science of psychoanalysis owes its existence to his brilliant, inquisitive, enquiring mind. He was a Jew, just as many areas of science were pioneered by other Jews. In this current era of renewed, revitalized anti-Jew psychosis that has unraveled of late, spurred in part by the savage events of Palestinian terrorists sadistically ravaging southern Israel's kibbutzim in a chaotic spree of savagery, there are few areas of academia and the sciences that have not been impacted by an ongoing mania of surging antisemitism. 'Jewish' psychoanalysis is now considered a mind disease and its practitioners are being blackballed in the West.

 

Evidently Jewish psychoanalysis is held to be infected with Zionism and to be avoided at all costs. What was once a purely medical and mental health intervention for humanity, has become stridently political. The Facebook group Chicago Anti-Racist Therapists, in March of 2024, endorsed a blacklist of 'therapists' practices with Zionist affiliations that we should avoid referring clients to'. Posing, it seems, as a public duty to protect patients from the untoward effects of being treated by psychoanalysts infected by Zionism -- a belief in the need for a Jewish homeland. 

At a recent event sponsored by Tafsik, a group formed to oppose antisemitism in Canada, Israeli professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari was the featured speaker. Her experience as a leading expert on family law and international women's rights ensured that the topic she had selected would be framed and discussed in a forum where the illogic of believing women when they spoke of sexual assaults, yet withholding belief in a situation where more than ample hard evidence was available of sexual mutilation and savage rape was being questioned, was presented.

 

Her topic of discussion was the October 7, 2023 invasion of thousands of Hamas terrorists into Israel and the subsequent mass rape of Israeli girls and women "having to prove the rapes and violence" they were subjected to. This, despite no lack of hard evidence, including videos shown on social media taken by the perpetrators themselves. Tafsik's executive director Amir Epstein spoke of invitations that were sent out for the event to directors of Toronto and area organizations. "Not a single one of them attended or responded to our invitation", he said. 

 

Women's Support Centre, Hamilton Sexual Assault Centre, Toronto Rape Crisis Centre, YWCA, Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, the Elizabeth Fry Society, the Assaulted Women's Helpline and Women's Crisis Services all received invitations as well as reminders, and none of them deigned to attend the address. Gillian Freeman, executive director of Victim Services of York Region who spoke at the event, the sole exception. 

The American Psychological Association and antisemitism: Toward equity, diversity, and inclusion

Walker, L. E. A., Cole, E., Friedman, S. L., Rom-Rymer, B., Steinberg, A., & Warshaw, S. (2025). The American Psychological Association and antisemitism: Toward equity, diversity, and inclusion. American Psychologist, 80(1), 106–119

Antisemitism against Jews, a form of hate, bias, and prejudice leading to physical and psychological harm, is on the rise around the world. Organized psychology has not been active in either condemning all forms of antisemitism or that which occurred within its own history. This article exposes the many years of harmful antisemitism that leaders within the APA engaged in and the lack of understanding of Jewish people that continues within the organization. Antisemitism is defined, and suggestions are given for ways for psychology to move forward to include Jews in its current mission to eliminate all forms of racism both within the APA and in society. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)

Copyright: Holder: American Psychological Association, 2024