The National Education Association Crossed the Antisemitic Rubicon
The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is over — at least for now — but you wouldn’t know that if you asked America’s largest and most influential teachers’ union.
The National Education Association (NEA) sent a mass email to the union’s three million members that included a map labeling all of Israel as “Palestine” to recognize “indigenous land,” a link to an article defending Hitler as someone pushed into “the genocide option” by stubborn Jews who “enabled” him, and materials from the Zinn Education Project, which has proudly, among other left-wing activism, published articles demonstrating how students can roleplay as anti-Zionists in the classroom.
The union quickly pulled the map and the Hitler link off their site, but the damage was already done. Indeed, this isn’t the only recent eyebrow-raising incident between the NEA and America’s Jewish community. Back in July, the NEA broke off all relations with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), citing the ADL’s insufficient commitments to social justice and Palestinian liberation. This upended decades of cooperation between the two organizations and put effective Holocaust education for millions of kids in jeopardy.
But this latest episode is neither a political dispute gone wrong nor a mere shift in the union’s political goals. When a teacher’s union erases a nation and defends genocide, they effectively declare Jews their enemy. The time for sounding the alarm or tinkering around the union’s edges is over. This time, the NEA must face real consequences.
Some may argue that this was an example of ignorance rather than malice, and that some staffer simply didn’t do their due diligence before posting the resources online. But that defense collapses under its own weight; both are equally damning. Either the NEA is extraordinarily incompetent, and we have entrusted an organization that can’t figure out how not to quote Hitler with developing and guiding America’s teachers, or the NEA’s antisemitism is genuine and ideological. Whether this was ignorance or malice is irrelevant.
But there is very good reason to believe that the NEA’s antisemitism is ideological. For all their soaring rhetoric about supporting Jewish students and educators, they were wishy-washy about protecting Jews from threats and harassment in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks. They marinate themselves in post-colonial theory, which often castigates Jews as oppressive, elitist white supremacists, thereby allowing many activists to justify Hamas’ atrocities as a form of legitimate resistance.
The consequences of not defusing this ticking time bomb would be horrific. While the NEA doesn’t have formal authority, its lobbying efforts, professional development offerings, and lucrative budget mean that its doctrines carry a lot of weight. If the NEA normalizes antisemitism in educational discourse, this could very easily turn to pedagogy. What is a Jewish student, much less an Israeli student, meant to do when they are told that they are oppressors and that all of their successes are the result of privilege? How is that going to change how they're perceived by their classmates?
Making the NEA face the consequences of its actions would undoubtedly rock the boat, but it cannot go unchallenged. The response must be clear, quick, and unequivocal.
The first and most obvious is to revoke the NEA's federal charter. While the charter doesn't grant the NEA any authority, it is a signal of prestige that helps the union attract new members. It also protects the organization's Washington, D.C. properties from federal taxation. No more. No federally chartered organization should engage in religious animus, much less outright hostility. Fortunately, a proposal that would do just that is already on the table.
Second, no school, district, or state should use the NEA's professional development training, educator resources, or model curriculum. Banning them outright may raise constitutional issues, but districts unquestionably have a right to choose programs and contractors as they see fit. It is long past time that schools look beyond the unions to help educators and kids alike in the classroom.
Finally, more states should bar public sector unions (like the NEA) from engaging in collective bargaining. Several already do. Teachers’ unions draw their power and influence from being able to directly negotiate with the government and affect politics as part of their demands. Take away that ability, and the NEA is just an advocacy group like any other, making it weaker and less influential.
Regardless, the era of working with the NEA has passed. The union has clearly crossed the antisemitic Rubicon, and regardless of whether it was due to bigotry or incompetence, it is no longer worth working with them. Only through real consequences can we demonstrate that erasing countries and defending Hitler are unacceptable.
