Attending a Professional Conference in a Time of Rising Jew Hatred: My Game Plan
Next week is the annual convention for the major organization in my field, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). I have been a NASP member since the late 1990s and have rarely missed this conference. The conference is something I used to look forward to, both for the learning and, increasingly, as a way to see former students and different professional friends I have made along the way.
I enter this year’s conference with decidedly mixed emotions. While not the focus of a federal investigation into antisemitism like the American Psychological Association (for more on APA, see here and here), NASP has not exactly been a model of Jewish support. On the positive side, NASP created an antisemitism task force approximately two years ago, and it seems like NASP may adopt some of this task force’s recommendations. Also, unlike many other professional organizations such as the American Anthropological Association and the Modern Language Association, there is no critical mass with NASP calling for BDS–yet. On the critical side, while NASP has invested much time and energy finding ways to include the perspectives of minoritized groups within its organizational structure–a positive development–Jewish voices are not represented in this structure at all, and several NASP leaders have published work–sometimes in NASP venues––that seeks to speak over Jews, supports violence against Jews, and informs readers that it’s OK to ignore Jews’ claims of antisemitism. It is........
