MERCAZ – THE MOVEMENT TO REAFFIRM CONSERVATIVE ZIONISM INC (“MERCAZ USA”)

Is Zionism a Mental Disorder?

July 22, 2025

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No Place to Heal: The Crisis Facing Jewish Patients and Professionals

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 (antisemitism). 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 now being framed by some academics and professionals as a psychological pathology – a 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 – 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 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 the “Palestine Israel topic” – even though there was no mention of this. Junger concluded that the Jewish patient will “not be allowed to get competent healthcare” 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 okay 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.”

This 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 explained that 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,” explained 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. U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres has called out the APA for “trafficking in malicious falsehoods against Zionism, Israel and the Jewish community.”

Physicians: ‘Harassed for being Jewish’

Jewish American healthcare professionals are suffering across the country, according to a StandWithUs survey:

  • Medical residents are refusing to work with Jewish colleagues.
  • Jewish healthcare 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 healthcare 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.”
  • Tampa surgeon, Dr. Shiraz Farooq: “About time!!!”
  • NYU 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 also is 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 teacher’s 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 more than 250 Jewish groups, the NEA’s executive committee rejected the move to cut ties with the ADL.

  1. 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 healthcare 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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 the hatred of Jews (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.
  4. Jewish groups 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.
  5. 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. healthcare 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.

Jewish organizations are mobilizing to push back. The resources below offer support, community and legal tools for therapists, clients and advocates working to restore integrity and inclusion in mental health and medicine. Whether you are looking to share your story, find an ethical clinician or hold institutions accountable, these organizations can help.

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This content is developed by The Focus Project in partnership with MERCAZ USA. The Focus Project distributes weekly news and talking points on timely issues concerning Israel and the Jewish people, including antisemitism, anti-Zionism and the delegitimization of Israel. It represents a consensus view across a spectrum of major American Jewish organizations. MERCAZ USA recognizes and respects the diversity of views on these issues among its readers and the community at large.

The Focus Project develops and distributes news, background, history and weekly talking points on timely issues to inform individuals and organizations about issues affecting the American Jewish community and Israel, and help readers speak with more consistency and clarity. The editions also provide potential responses for addressing incidents of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. With input from a spectrum of major American Jewish organizations, we focus on that which unites us, rising above political and individual agendas.
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