The World Jewish Congress – American Section co-signed a letter alongside over 375 Jewish organizations to the National Education Association (NEA), expressing concern over the NEA Representative Assembly’s decision to endorse a boycott of the Anti-Defamation League. The full text of the letter is below:
Dear President Pringle,
We are writing to express our deep concerns about the growing level of antisemitic activity within teachers’ unions, particularly since the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023. Passage of New Business Item (NBI) 39 at the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly this past weekend, which shockingly calls for the boycott of the Anti-Defamation League, is just the latest example of open hostility toward Jewish educators, students and families coming from national and local teachers’ unions and their members.
Among the undersigned organizations are those that represent the depth and diversity of Jewish life across the United States. We have heard directly from NEA members who have shared their experiences ranging from explicit and implicit antisemitism within the union to a broader pattern of insensitivity toward legitimate concerns of Jewish members – including at the recently concluded Representative Assembly. We are also deeply troubled by a broader pattern of union activity over the past 20 months that has targeted or alienated Jewish members and the wider Jewish community. A few illustrative examples are included in the attached addendum and underscore the urgent need for NEA leadership to speak out and take meaningful action.
We understand that NBI 39 passed at the NEA Representative Assembly and has been referred to the NEA Executive Committee for further consideration. As you know, NBI 39 would bar NEA and its members from using or promoting any educational material or data published by ADL, a respected national organization founded in 1913 with a decades-long history of fighting bigotry, bias, and discrimination.
While we recognize that NEA has its own internal procedures, we call on you to do everything in your power, as president of the union, to ensure that NBI 39 is rejected. ADL has been a national leader in anti-hate education in K-12 schools for decades and is widely recognized as one of the country’s foremost experts on antisemitism. Although NBI 39 does not explicitly say so, we understand that much of the underlying concern prompting this resolution is directed at ADL’s Holocaust education materials. That reality makes this proposal especially disturbing. This is precisely the kind of education that is vital not only to combat antisemitism, but also to fighting hatred and intolerance of all kinds. The effort to exclude ADL’s voice from educational spaces at a time of skyrocketing antisemitism — including in K-12 classrooms — speaks volumes about the climate within NEA that allowed this measure to pass, and the lack of understanding, if not outright hostility, behind it.
We are particularly alarmed by reports that Jewish teachers who spoke out against the resolution at the Representative Assembly were harassed and shouted down during the proceedings. It is our belief that the goal of those who introduced NBI 39 is to marginalize mainstream Jewish voices within this country’s public school systems and to limit the ability of educators to address the growing threat of antisemitism with their students. In both content and context, NBI 39 represents a direct attack on Jewish educators, Jewish students, the broader Jewish community, and all who stand against antisemitism.
We urge you to take immediate action, including:
- Reject NBI 39.
- Issue a strong condemnation of the antisemitism within the NEA.
- Outline a plan of action to address antisemitism within your national and affiliate state and local NEA chapters.
- Reject any effort to use an educator’s support for the existence of Israel as a means to attack their identity.
The Jewish community is facing a historic crisis of antisemitism not seen in generations. ADL’s recently published 2024 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents tracked 9,354 incidents across the United States. Since the events of October 7, there has been a dramatic spike in incidents across nearly every sector of American life. An increase in antisemitic incidents in our K-12 schools has been especially concerning, with 1,162 and 860 incidents reported in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Reports of Jewish children being called “baby killers,” taunted with Hitler and Holocaust jokes, and exposed to swastika vandalism at school have become frighteningly normal.
Given this highly concerning landscape, we are especially disturbed by the volume of reports by Jewish K-12 teachers regarding antisemitic activity happening within their unions. Hateful resolutions and rhetoric have left Jewish educators feeling hurt, isolated, and abandoned by their unions. Those educators who have spoken out against such actions have often faced hostility and ostracization and suddenly feel excluded and unwelcome.
We are available to assist in this work, but the NEA leadership must demonstrate a sincere commitment to addressing the issue, make clear that there will be no tolerance for antisemitism in its ranks, and recognize the harm that its inaction to date has caused to member teachers and the students and families your members serve.
