The vote comes after the ADL called out union members for ‘glorifying’ Hamas terrorists.
The National Education Association’s policymaking body voted this week to cut all ties with the Anti-Defamation League over the antisemitism watchdog’s defense of Israel.
The 7,000-member policymaking committee approved New Business Item 39, which says the nation’s largest labor union in the U.S. “will not use, endorse or publicize materials from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), such as its curricular materials or statistics.”
The committee explained its decision by saying, “Despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be.”
The New Business Item must receive final approval from the NEA executive committee. If passed, the measure would end a nearly 40-year relationship between the ADL and U.S. schools that has involved curriculum, programming and teacher training.
“With antisemitism at record high levels, it is profoundly disturbing that a group of NEA activists would brazenly attempt to further isolate their Jewish colleagues and push a radical, antisemitic agenda on students,” an ADL spokesperson told National Review.
“We will not be cowed for supporting Israel, and we will not be deterred from our work reaching millions of students with educational programs every year,” the spokesperson added. “It is our understanding there’s an internal NEA process that deals with issues like this and it is far from a completed process. We will continue to call out this antisemitism and prioritize our Jewish students and educators.”
Union delegates who spoke on the Assembly floor “rejected the ADL’s abuse of the term ‘antisemitism’ to punish critics of Israel, and its use of hyperinflated statistics on hate crimes to gin up fears about Jewish safety and paint calls for Palestinian rights as ‘hate speech,’” according to Mondoweiss.
“These are educators who believe in antiracist and social justice unionism. They’re beginning to understand Palestine in that context. They’re intolerant of the justification of violence,” one NEA member said, according to the report.
A spokesperson for NEA told National Review that “students of every race, place, and religion deserve educators who are committed to their learning and well-being, so NEA members will continue to educate and organize against antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, and hate.”
“The National Education Association empowers educators to ensure schools and communities are safe and welcoming by providing resources and information from a wide variety of sources,” the spokesperson said. “NEA believes in hard and honest conversations that nurture growth and understanding. There is an urgent and critical need for us, as educators, to model the type of respectful dialogue and discourse we want to see in the world, in our classrooms, and on our campuses. We will not shy away from difficult or controversial issues that affect our members, our students, or our schools, nor will we tolerate antisemitism, anti-Muslim bias, or hateful rhetoric or behavior.”
The vote comes after the ADL previously accused Merrie Najimy, former president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and other members of the MTA of giving a presentation on Israel and Palestine that amounted to “glorifying terrorists.” The MTA is an affiliate of the NEA.
“Why would we partner with an organization that does us harm?” Najimy asked ahead of the NEA vote.
The New Business Item was proposed by the NEA Educators for Palestine group, led by Najimy, who was involved with the Drop ADL from Schools campaign.
The NEA has previously relied on the ADL to inform its approach to combatting racism and other forms of bigotry. The group’s Racial Justice in Education resource guide cites an article, co-authored by the ADL and the Department of Education, headlined, “Protecting Our Muslim Youth from Bullying: The Role of the Educator U.S. Dept of Education.”
But the ADL was not alone in its criticism of the union. Massachusetts Educators Against Antisemitism (MEAA) and American Jewish Committee (AJC) New England issued their own letter in February expressing concern about the MTA’s efforts to demonize Israel and spread anti-Zionist propaganda into classrooms. The presentation was also discussed in the state’s Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism in February.
Meanwhile, Jewish teachers who spoke up for the ADL were reportedly met with boos and jeers.
The NEA apparently feels more comfortable defining antisemitism on its own terms; during the union’s previous racial and social justice conference, one session sought to teach educators what constitutes antisemitism and what doesn’t.
The NEA has received backlash from several Jewish groups over the vote, including North American Values Institute, which called the measure antisemitic.
The union, while the largest teachers’ union in the country, is not the first to vote to cut ties with the ADL. In March, United Teachers Los Angeles voted to drop the ADL as a partner in professional development and to reject promoting or adopting their curriculum in L.A. schools.
Meanwhile, the NEA policymaking committee also reportedly approved several other New Business Items related to the issue of antisemitism, including New Business Item 26, which says the NEA shall use the union’s Jewish Affairs Caucus “Screening Out Hate” checklist with existing online communications and a “Combating Anti-Semitism Toolkit” to help Pre-K through higher education staff, students, and families identify and respond to anti-Jewish hate crimes and incidents.
New Business Item 52 will “educate members about the U.S. Department of State’s definition of anti-Semitism, adopted May 26, 2016, in collaboration with the NEA Jewish Affairs Caucus, to be included in the Tools for Justice-Racial Justice in Education on the NEA website.”
The policymaking committee also advanced several other controversial business items, including New Business Item 84, which was adopted in response to Mahmoud v. Taylor, a recent Supreme Court ruling allowing parents to opt their kids out of gender ideology. The new business item would see the union send out a “Know Your Rights” document and hold “Speak Up, Speak Out” LGBTQ+ conferences.
Others involved defending birthright citizenship and defending “against Trump’s embrace of fascism by using the term facism [sic] in NEA materials to correctly characterize Donald Trump’s program and actions.”