The Jewish Social Work Consortium, Gesher Community Care (GCC), Trauma Informed Learning Alliance, the Chicagoland Jewish Therapists Group, and the Jewish Grad Organization are issuing a public warning about concerns regarding whether the University of Illinois Chicago’s School of Social Work, has met its obligation to provide a safe, discrimination-free environment for Jewish graduate students.

Ally Frank, a social work student at the Jane Addams College of Social Work, reports a pattern of incidents, including an alleged group harassment event in which Jewish students report they were surrounded and felt unable to leave the area while being accused of genocide. Her account also describes course materials that were perceived as framing Jewish identity primarily through an antizionist ideology, omitting core aspects of Jewish history and culture.

Frank’s account details a pattern of experiences raising serious ethical and professional concerns, including:

• A classroom environment in which a Jewish student reports that a professor publicly questioned aspects of their identity in a manner they felt was not applied to other identities.

• Classroom materials that frame Jewish identity primarily through popular antizionist ideology including a course reading that, in the student’s view, presented the claim and others like it, that “the Israeli state is racist by design and intent” without alternative perspectives. The course did not include core aspects of Jewish history and culture. When concerns were raised, Frank’s request to remove the material and to offer alternative readings reflecting mainstream Jewish identity and culture was deflected.

• An alleged group harassment incident in which Jewish students were surrounded, trapped behind a table, blocked from leaving, and subjected to accusations of genocide.

• A determination that the incident did not meet the threshold for harassment.

• Concerns that not all identified individuals were interviewed during the investigation.

• The case was reportedly closed before, in the student’s view, a full investigation was completed.

No student, and in this case, a student entering a profession grounded in ethics, cultural humility, dignity, integrity, and compassion, should face hostility or have their identity publicly questioned because they are Jewish.

JCRC Statement

February 18, 2026

The following is a statement from Guila Franklin Siegel, chief operating officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, in response to the International Federation of Social Workers today rejecting a pair of motions to suspend and expel the Israeli Union of Social Workers from the international body.

“These votes are a victory for inclusion over discrimination. For years, the Israeli Union of Social Workers (IUSW) has worked tirelessly to support the mental health and well-being of Israelis and Palestinians alike. Their work has taken on new and added meaning over the past two years in the face of Hamas’ horrific mass slaughter of Jews on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza. The heroic efforts of Israeli social workers during such a difficult time — amid a surge of antisemitism generally and directed at them in particular — are a model for those affiliated with the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) worldwide to follow.

“While it is disappointing that the IFSW even considered such exclusionary motions, we are hopeful that this closes the door on any effort to isolate Israeli social workers initiated by international bodies that should be supporting and lifting them up. JCRC is proud to stand with the ISUW, the Jewish Social Work Consortium, and the thousands of people who signed a petition urging opposition to these votes. We hope IFSW will not go down this path again.”

The following is an additional statement from Jennifer Kogan and Andrea Yudell of the Jewish Social Work Consortium, with whom we worked closely on this issue.

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“Rejecting this motion affirms that collective punishment and exclusion have no place in social work for any group.

“Israeli social workers continue to serve on the front lines, providing critical care and support to all who need it, across lines of identity, religion, and background. That is what ethical practice looks like and what solidarity should mean. We are especially thankful to the National Association of Social Workers for choosing to use its voice to condemn this effort and to stand firmly for principle. Their leadership in this moment reflects the profession at its best.

“At the heart of social work is honoring the dignity of our colleagues and clients, which requires cultural humility and the courage to examine our own assumptions rather than make sweeping judgments about entire groups of people.

“We remain hopeful that this stance is not only a rejection of exclusion, but the beginning of deeper engagement, listening, and repair so that Jewish and Israeli social workers can participate fully, safely, and with dignity in the global social work community.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
We commend the National Association of Social Workers for choosing ethics and principle over silence and collusion. We have just learned that NASW issued a public statement opposing the suspension or expulsion of the Israeli Union of Social Workers from the International Federation of Social Workers. In a moment when remaining quiet would have been easier, NASW chose transparency and moral clarity. We are deeply grateful for this clear and public commitment and appreciate NASW’s decision to take a principled stand.
This moment arises in the context of serious and ongoing concerns within the field of social work. For more than two years, Jewish social workers have raised alarms about the rise of antizionist hate circulating in our professional and clinical spaces. This has included recurring libels, dehumanizing rhetoric, exclusionary practices, and assumptions directed at Israelis and at the vast majority of Jewish people, attacking core identity. Too often, these harms have flowed unchecked through workplaces, training programs, conferences, classrooms, and professional discourse.
This vote and NASW’s clear ethical stance is a welcome start. At the same time, it it does not resolve the climate many colleagues here in the US continue to experience. The patterns that have been documented and in many cases directly endured require sustained attention, ethical leadership, and courageous engagement. Silence in the face of discrimination contradicts the core values of our profession. By taking this public position, NASW has signaled that principle must guide us.
We remain hopeful that this marks the beginning of mutual dialogue, meaningful listening sessions, and concrete efforts to right the wrongs that have taken root. Repair, accountability, and a renewed commitment to pluralism and human dignity is possible. This moment can be a turning point.
We, The Jewish Social Work Consortium, respectfully renew our request for a meeting with NASW leadership to discuss the ongoing hostility affecting Israeli and Jewish professionals and to explore tangible steps to ensure that our field remains grounded in ethical practice, inclusion, and respect for the full diversity of Jewish identity.
We appreciate NASW’s leadership and courage. We remain committed to constructive engagement and believe that, together, we can strengthen our profession and restore trust.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 30, 2026

Jewish Social Work Consortium Statement on the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) Targeting of Israeli Social Workers

After formally censuring the Israeli Union of Social Workers last year, the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) is now moving toward suspension or expulsion. The IFSWs planned February 18, 2026 vote marks a clear escalation in a selective enforcement campaign. Presented as accountability, the proposal advances an ideologically driven effort to isolate Israeli social workers as a collective, based on nationality rather than actual professional conduct.

The vote is not grounded in any documented ethical violation rather, it effectively singles out an Israeli institution. This is a defining feature of antizionism as an identity-based hate movement.

At the core of the motion is a discriminatory premise: that Israeli social workers are ethically compromised by citizenship alone and by mandatory military service required under law. This collapses individual moral agency into state policy and subjects Israelis to a standard applied to no other national association. Selective enforcement of this kind is not ethical rigor; it is blatant prejudice.

These efforts have escalated through coordinated pressure by antizionist organizations, including Shatat–USA–Palestine Mental Health Network and Social Workers for Palestine, aimed at persuading national associations, particularly the National Association of Social Workers, to endorse the expulsion. Claims that continued Israeli participation “undermines global social work ethics” invert ethical reasoning. This is exclusion based on nationality and ideological litmus tests that undermine all ethical credibility.

This campaign erases the professional reality of Israeli social workers as clinicians, trauma specialists, peace practitioners, and coexistence advocates, including those working directly with Palestinian communities and those who actively oppose violence and extremism. Their work is dismissed through a flattening narrative that treats Israeli identity itself as evidence of ethical failure.

This is not principled critique or ethical debate. It is antizionism operating through professional institutions, denying Israelis moral complexity, collective legitimacy, and equal participation in global social work. When professional bodies adopt this framework, they normalize collective punishment under the guise of ethics.

If the IFSW proceeds with this vote, and if national associations such as NASW lend their support, they will be complicit in transforming social work ethics from a universal commitment to human dignity into a mechanism of exclusion.

• We call on the IFSW to halt this vote immediately.

• We urge NASW and other national social work associations to reject endorsement of expulsion and to affirm that ethical accountability must be conduct-based, not identity-based.

• We ask social workers worldwide to speak out against the misuse of professional ethics to legitimize discrimination.

The Jewish Social Work Consortium was founded by a group of Jewish social workers in the US and Canada—clinicians, academics, educators, writers, and advocates—committed to restoring the foundational values of our profession. At the heart of our mission is a call to uphold cultural competence, cultural humility, ethical care, and safety for all people, including Jews and Israelis.

CONTACT:

Jewishsocialworkconsortium@gmail.com

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Four Days of Silence

It took four days for NASW to make any mention of the pogrom carried out against Jews gathered on Bondi Beach celebrating the first night of Chanukah. It remains unclear what prompted the statement today.

The image chosen to accompany their words, whether intentional or not, evokes the red hands, a deeply traumatic symbol for Jews and Israelis. For many, it is an enduring emblem of violence and hatred tied to a specific history of bloodshed.

Institutional Antizionism

NASW’s statement might carry more weight had it also acknowledged its own role in perpetuating antizionism within the organization. Years of brush-offs, inaction, and exclusionary practices have had real consequences for the emotional safety and well-being of Jewish social workers and Jewish clients.

For many of us, even this past week alone has kept our nervous systems on high alert. We will endure, as we always have. Those of us who have been in the field for decades, who are relatively resourced, and who have learned how to build community when institutions fall silent, will find our footing. But what of those who are struggling? Newer clinicians. Jewish colleagues already marginalized in the field. Those without financial or professional stability. Does NASW not bear responsibility to them, as it claims to do for every other minority group it represents?

NASW is social work’s governing body. It is meant to provide steadiness, leadership, and moral clarity in moments of collective harm. The organization takes pride in its stated commitment to social justice and care. Yet in practice, NASW has engaged in the intentional exclusion of its Jewish members. Again and again, we have looked to NASW wondering whether its systemic antizionism might finally shift.

Performative Concern

For days, there was silence. No acknowledgment of the massacre carried out by two terrorists who murdered a Holocaust survivor, a ten-year-old girl, and fourteen others gathered peacefully in community. No recognition that Jews were killed while celebrating Chanukah, a holiday that commemorates an ancient attempt to annihilate us in Jerusalem, and when the Maccabees against all odds, persevered against those who wished us dead?

When a statement finally appeared, NASW declared itself appalled by the rise in antisemitism, writing: “When the dignity and value of any human being is denied, the dignity and value of every human being is threatened, and at NASW we simply cannot be silent and allow that to happen.”

This rings hollow. NASW has remained silent when Jewish members sent letters, emails, and petitions to no avail. The organization was silent when Israeli social workers were collectively censured, a censure later weaponized by some US social workers to justify discrimination, dehumanization, gaslighting, and hate toward Israelis and Jews.

Even the brutality of October 7 was acknowledged only when folded into a broader statement, rather than named plainly and independently, as any other group would expect. Since October 7, antisemitic incidents within our field have multiplied. NASW’s social media pages erupted with vitriolic hate following a simple Jewish Heritage Month post. Jewish social workers reached out asking for support, or at the very least, for a clear condemnation of the abuse that hijacked a benign cultural recognition. Many asked only that antisemitism not be diluted by bundling it with every other societal ill.

Meanwhile, NASW posted about Rob and Michele Reiner the very evening of the Bondi massacre, which to be clear is also tragic. But the contrast is impossible to ignore.

One can only imagine the conversations happening behind closed doors: calculations about optics, backlash, and attention. And yet, it could’ve been so simple, NASW. The silence speaks volumes as it has for over two years.

Now we see a new (or new‑ish) page highlighting antisemitism that has appeared over this last year. But it directs readers to a generalized helpline doesn’t cover the hate movement of our time, antizionism. To be clear, antizionism perpetuates libels, gaslights Jews, and dehumanizes Israelis and Jews on repeat. Aimed at therapists, clients, colleagues. Social Workers in the field, like psychologists, have been taken by this movement as we hear daily.

Offering a generic helpline is profoundly tone-deaf. Does NASW truly believe that distressed Jews, who have been raising the alarm for years, would feel safe turning to unknown clinicians in a field where antizionist hostility has gone largely unchecked?

As this hostility has intensified, Jews have been forced to find support elsewhere: our own therapists, Jewish or not, and trusted colleagues and friends who reject the prevailing hate. Presenting a generalized resource without regard for Jewish emotional safety is negligent. It suggests that Jews were either not consulted at all, or that only those aligned with a hostile ideological framework were included.

Dereliction of Duty

We are no longer surprised by NASW’s neglect of Jewish people, most of whom seek nothing more than safety, recognition, and support. When an institution refuses to speak, that refusal is the statement. NASW describes itself as a steward of justice and care. But those words only carry meaning when they are applied consistently. Failing to do so harms not only Jewish members, but the very foundation of the social work profession itself. To ignore the antizionism that is prevalent within our field is wholly unethical. We will not be silent in the face of it.

For more information on what has unfolded within the field of social work:

Ethics on Pause: NASW, Silence, and the Cost of Our Profession

Only the Bad Jews: How Social Work Spaces are Dehumanizing Us in the Name of Liberation,

Naming Hate: Antizionism in Social Work.

An Open Letter to NASW on its 70th Birthday

Antisemitism: Social work’s silence is deafening

US Social Work’s Antisemitism Blind Spot: When Silence Becomes Complicity

Addressing Anti-Semitism in Social Work Education

Antisemitism and social work: challenges and opportunities for education and practice.

Updated/Adapted from More Silence: NASW has a problem acknowledging Jews in Distress