Woke ideas, by definition, are fundamentally flawed. These include policies that can either be written off as unworkable — think high taxes, free health care, and open borders — or ridiculous impulses like gender confusion, environmental extremism, defunding the police, and critical race theory.

Over the past two years, the woke left has increasingly taken up a particularly alarming cause — antisemitism. Disturbingly, one of the most vocal proponents of this toxic ideology is perhaps the one best positioned to disseminate it where it does the most damage — in our children’s ears.

With astonishing regularity, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association (NEA), finds itself embroiled in controversy around its attitude towards Jews and the conflict in Israel.

In late July, the leaders of the 3-million-member union were forced to walk back a decision made earlier in the month when its 7,000-member Representative Assembly voted to cut all ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization that has fought antisemitism and other forms of intolerance for over a century.

The body approved a measure stating that the NEA “will not use, endorse, or publicize materials from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), such as its curricular materials or statistics.”

It reasoned: “Despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be.”

The hypocrisy is palpable.

A week after its July 6th gathering in Portland, Oregon, members of the union’s Jewish Affairs Caucus penned a letter to NEA President Becky Pringle, noting that individual Jewish delegates to the event were “vocally mocked, harassed, and threatened in ways that dishonor our union.”

The letter continued, “Most unfortunate of all was how the NEA’s official statement framed the situation, as if U.S. classrooms were an extension of the battleground in Gaza … Presenting human dignity as a zero-sum game is perilous for all minorities. History teaches us that when one minority is deprived of its humanity without comment, others will be, too.”

“Allowing the ADL to determine what constitutes antisemitism would be like allowing the fossil fuel industry to determine what constitutes climate change,” countered NEA delegate Stephen Siegel from the assembly floor.

Publicly, Pringle acknowledged the Representative Assembly’s action went too far, stating, “After consideration, it was determined that this proposal would not further NEA’s commitment to academic freedom, our membership, or our goals.”

Within days, however, the union’s true feelings came to light again when it announced plans to promote a version of Holocaust remembrance that does not even mention Jews, instead referencing, “…victims of the Holocaust from different faiths” and teaching that Israel was founded through “forced, violent displacement and dispossession.”

This wording comes directly from the priorities outlined in NEA’s 2025 handbook, which the union publishes each year as a guide on the group’s priorities and strategic goals for its national and state leaders, staff, and members. It includes the NEA’s bylaws and is updated with any new resolutions and policy positions the union has endorsed.

These aren’t isolated incidents. As ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

Local teachers’ unions in California have provided teachers with an anti-Israel script; in Minneapolis, they’ve labeled Israel as “apartheid.” In Chicago, the teachers’ union voted on anti-Israel resolutions and posted on social media that, “Zionists are not welcome.” In New York, the union representing City University of New York professors voted to divest from Israel. Others have gone so far as to prevent teachers from participating in mandatory antisemitism training. When the San Francisco Unified School District scheduled four such trainings for high school teachers, their union said they would support any educator who decided to skip the sessions.

Against this backdrop, Los Angeles District Court Judge Stephen Wilson, on July 21st, dismissed a lawsuit filed by seven Jewish teachers represented by United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) — an affiliate of NEA — alleging the union had engaged in a pattern of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist activity for years.

The Freedom Foundation, which is representing the teachers, plans to appeal Wilson’s ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and, if necessary, the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sadly, it isn’t likely to be the last time the teachers’ union’s politics of hatred are on display for a public that’s already had a bellyful of it.

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Aaron Withe is the CEO of the Freedom Foundation.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.