I left my teachers’ union because of its antisemitism. I hope more teachers join me.

‘N ever again.”

I heard these words countless times from my maternal grandparents. They were Romanian Jews who survived the Holocaust. The rest of their family — my family — died in the concentration camps. When they said “never again,” as millions of Jews and people of goodwill say to this day, they were thinking of who could be murdered in the next Holocaust. Their grandchildren, like me. Their great-grandchildren, like my two kids.

I’ve said those same words many times. But in the past few weeks, I’ve found myself saying something else: Not enough.

It’s not enough for the Massachusetts Teachers Association to simply remove a tiny number of the antisemitic cartoons plastered on its website, which the teachers’ union did last week after being publicly shamed in a hearing at the state legislature. It’s not enough for the union leaders to issue a statement saying they don’t “promote materials that direct hate at any group.” And no, it’s not enough for those same leaders to say that the union “unequivocally condemns antisemitism,” because that’s simply not true.

I saw firsthand as a teachers’ union member that the MTA’s words don’t match its actions. The MTA is a hotbed of antisemitism at the leadership level. I hope more teachers do what I did and leave it, depriving it of the money and power that enables it to spew the hatred that endangers Jewish lives.

I first encountered the MTA in 2021 after taking an occupational therapist job at a public school in Revere. My contract made me a member of the local teachers’ union, which is an affiliate of MTA and takes direction from the statewide union. For my first two years, I had no issues with the union. Then came the evil of October 7, 2023.

When I woke up that morning, my phone was filled with heartbreaking images that reminded me of what my grandparents told me they saw in the Holocaust. At first, I felt grief. Then I felt anger. And in the days that followed, while my anger continued to burn bright, I was heartened to see so many of my co-workers express solidarity with me, my family, and Jews in Israel.

As for the MTA, it said nothing about the murder of so many Jews. While some criticized the union for its silence, I felt it was fine. As far as I could tell, the MTA didn’t wade into geopolitics, and it was also silent about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A teachers’ union should focus on its members, not global affairs, no matter how much members like me care about particular world events.

But the MTA’s silence didn’t last long. In December 2023, the executive board issued a statement condemning Israel’s “genocidal assault” on the Palestinian people. It made no mention of the 1,200-plus Jews who’d been murdered and kidnapped by Hamas. Nor did it condemn Hamas for seeking the destruction of Israel and the entire Jewish people.

The MTA simultaneously charged a radical educator, Ricardo Rosa, with putting together a curriculum on the conflict. Rosa is on record glorifying Palestinian terrorists, accusing Israel of apartheid, and criticizing those who stand with Israel of having “chosen the side of evil, of settler colonialism, of imperialist, patriarchal, racist violence.” That’s who’s in charge of putting together a curriculum on the Israeli-Hamas war? The first curriculum, I might add, that I ever saw the MTA develop?

The antisemitism from the MTA was suddenly coming from every angle. Last March, it hosted a webinar on “anti-Palestinian racism,” which I joined. I heard every antisemitic trope under the sun. The same thing happened in June, when the MTA held another webinar on how anti-Zionism isn’t antisemitism. If anything, anti-Zionism is worse — a rejection of the Jews’ natural right to defend ourselves from a second Holocaust by creating our own nation in our ancestral homeland.

I resigned my membership from the teachers’ union last August. I could no longer stomach the idea that even a cent of my paycheck would fund or otherwise support the MTA’s antisemitism. Now the MTA is trying to backtrack, following its public shaming in the state legislature. But its leaders have shown their true colors, and no amount of public statements can change the fact that they’re promoting the hatred of Jews.

The 117,000 teachers the MTA represents should ask themselves: Does this organization really represent me? In conversations with teachers at my school, I’ve found that most don’t know they can leave the union at any time, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in 2018. I hope they do, and if it helps, I’ve found the “My Pay My Say” website to be extremely helpful for leaving the union. I truly believe that the Massachusetts Teachers Association will never do enough. If “never again” means anything, it means avoiding an organization that defends and apologizes for those who kill Jews.