Under Secretary Nicholas Kent
U.S. Department of Education 
Office of Postsecondary Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202

Re: Jewish Community opposition to suspending federal recognition of the American Psychological Association’s accreditation authority
 
Dear Under Secretary Kent:

I write as Chief Executive Officer of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action to urge you to reject the recommendation of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) that the Department of Education suspend the accreditation authority of the American Psychological Association (APA). Suspending recognition of the principal accreditor of psychology graduate programs and internships will not make Jews safer. Instead it will undermine the quality of psychological and other medical care available to Jews and all people who rely on mental health services—as all Americans should be able to. This includes those groups who are experiencing the distress and trauma that accompany living as targets of antisemitism and bigotry.

Bend the Arc represents and mobilizes Jews across the country who are fighting for Jewish safety and against antisemitism, and for policies that support the safety of all of our neighbors. We advocate for federal, state, and local policies that prevent antisemitism, and we have trained thousands of non-profit professionals, clergy, educators, elected officials, policy makers, and everyday Americans on how to talk about and fight antisemitism. 

As I said in my May 20, 2026 testimony to the House Committee on Education and Workforce, Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, antisemitism is affecting the physical and emotional wellbeing of Jewish people. The threat is increasing in many sectors, including health care. To experience antisemitism in a clinical setting is to experience it where a person's health is on the line and Jewish health-care workers are also experiencing it in their place of employment. Antisemitism is present in all parts of our society and no profession is immune. I carry that fear, and I know how many Jews carry it with me.

I also testified that a majority of Jews polled oppose this administration's response to antisemitism, even as fear of antisemitism has grown. Additionally, many Jews are overwhelmingly opposed to politically motivated attacks—made under the pretext of fighting antisemitism—on the professional organizations and labor unions that protect frontline health-care workers. As a Jewish leader, it angers me to see my people’s safety used as a pretext to harm critical civil society institutions that we rely on.

Political leaders should work with civil society, including vital associations supporting health professionals, rather than sanction them. As I told the subcommittee: the most immediate need is not punishment. It is to help more Americans understand what antisemitism is, and to strengthen the institutions Jews and all Americans need.

Jewish community voices across a wide spectrum agree that antisemitism is a serious problem, but suspension and other punitive solutions are not the answer. Even Jewish community organizations whom NACIQI cites as influencing its recommendation are not asking you to punish the field. Karen Paikin Barall, Chief Policy Officer of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told Jewish Insider that Brandeis' goal "was never to punish the APA or the programs that it accredits." The organization wants progress on antisemitism "which they have not addressed or taken seriously enough."

In the same article, the American Jewish Medical Association framed the moment the same way. Its Chief Executive, Eveline Shekhman, described serious reports from Jewish trainees and then called the proceeding "an opportunity for APA to demonstrate that its accreditation standards are more than standards on paper—that they are enforced with the rigor, consistency, and diligence expected of a recognized accrediting agency." That is a demand that standards be upheld. It is not a request to strip recognition and put funding and licensure in doubt.

A final decision now rests with you. The APA's Commission on Accreditation, which operates under its own leadership, is the main accrediting body for U.S. psychology graduate programs and internships. Without recognized accreditation, programs can lose eligibility for federal funding, and graduates can be blocked from roles and licenses that require an accredited program. Hundreds of doctoral programs, internships, and postdoctoral programs, and the students training in them, would be thrown into uncertainty. So would patients who already cannot find care. 

Action that constricts the pipeline of qualified psychologists, and that may imperil the federal funding those training programs rely on, does little to protect Jewish students, trainees, or patients. To put it plainly: stripping the APA of its accreditation would harm Jewish Americans, not make us safer.  

I ask you to follow the initial Final Staff Report recommendation of NACIQI and to renew accreditation. Bend the Arc stands ready to support the APA, the APA Commission on Accreditation and the programs it accredits to take concrete steps to address situations in which Jewish students and trainees are harmed, and to deepen understanding and education about antisemitism. That’s how we can address antisemitism as the danger it poses. 

Sincerely,

Jamie Beran
Chief Executive Officer
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action