National Education Association Representative Assembly

Open Letter to NEA Leadership: Stop conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Drop ADL & Hillel curriculum. Respect Rank and File.

Dear NEA President Becky Pringle; Executive Board Officers and Board Members:

As members and supporters of the CTA Jewish & Allied Educators 4 Palestine Caucus, we request you immediately remove from the NEA website antisemitic, racist and anti-Palestinian material posted under “Countering Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial” and cease to promote curriculum from Hillel International and the Anti-Defamation League, two organizations partnering with the law firm of Gibson Dunn to recruit a network of pro-bono lawyers to file complaints over alleged antisemitism.

May we remind you that in a highly undemocratic move NEA leadership in 2025 overturned the will of the majority of NEA rank and file, who passed a New Business Item not to use, endorse or publicize materials from the ADL or participate in its professional development.

Instead of honoring the wishes of thousands of NEA delegates, NEA leadership has chosen to directly undermine the will of the body.

What’s wrong with the NEA resource list on antisemitism?

The NEA resource list under “Countering Antisemitism” includes two items–the ADL’s Echoes & Reflections and Berkeley Hillel’s video Antisemitism Education–that explicitly conflate criticism of Israel as a Jewish ethno-supremacist state with antisemitism. Both the ADL and Hillel push adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition and examples that label anyone who questions Israel as a Jewish state as antisemitic and anyone who compares Israel’s practices to those of the Nazis as antisemitic.

Please note that our caucus, which includes people of diverse faiths, does not support Israel as a Jewish ethno-supremacist state built on the erasure of over 500 Palestinian villages, the burning of Palestinian olive groves, the permanent exile of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland, the continued confiscation of Palestinian land or Israel’s bombardment and mass starvation of Gaza. It is deeply disturbing that our union promotes resources from organizations that insist Israel is integral to Jewish identity while vilifying those who protest Israel’s colonization of Palestine. It is antisemitic to stereotype all Jews as supporters of Israel and it is racist to erase the pain and suffering of Palestinians to legitimize an ethno-nationalist state.

We urge NEA leadership to, instead, partner and feature resources from PARCEO, Rethinking Schools and Jewish Voice for Peace when addressing antisemitism because these organizations do not conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

What’s wrong with Echoes & Reflections?

The Glossary

In Unit 11 on Contemporary Antisemitism, it conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism to chill classroom discussion and intimidate teachers into silence during Israel’s live-streamed genocide:

Under key words, the first word is “anti-Israel bias” with the following definition:

Extreme and/or illegitimate criticism of Israel, including false accusations directed against Israel, often with the aim of delegitimizing the country. Anti-Israel bias does not include legitimate criticism of the Israeli government, its policies, or its politicians.

**contemporary antisemitism**

A term used to describe a modern-day form of antisemitism that has developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and manifests itself in anti-Zionism and opposition to the State of Israel.

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On its glossary page, it relegates Palestine to the annals of history to deny the existence of over four million people living in occupied Palestine. This is erasure of an entire people.

**Palestine**

The Roman term for what is now Israel; the name used by the British during World War II to denote the area they held under a League of Nations mandate.

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On its glossary page, it associates anti-Zionism with antisemitism, ignoring the long history of anti-Zionism within the Jewish community:

**Zionism/anti-Zionism**

Zionism is the movement for the self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel. Anti-Zionism is a prejudice against this movement for self-determination and the right of the Jewish people to a homeland in the State of Israel. It may be motivated by or result in antisemitism, or it may create a climate in which antisemitism becomes more acceptable.

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The key words also highlight three terms the ADL is promoting as a framework for evaluating whether someone or someone’s statement is antisemitic. These key words all revolve around Israel in an attempt to police discussion of a state built on ethnic supremacy and colonization.

KEY WORDS

delegitimization

demonization/demonize

double standard

Student Hand-Outs/Echoes & Reflections

“A Brief History of Israel.”[EditSign]()EditSign

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This overview sanitizes the founding of Israel–ignoring what Palestinians called “The Nakba” or catastrophe of Zionist militias ethnically cleansing Palestine to make way for a supremacist state.

The handout blames Palestinians, ignoring the context that could explain their actions. When it discusses the 1947 U.N. partition plan that divided Palestine into Jewish and Arab countries, it fails to mention that Jews were only one-third of the population; even the state earmarked for Jews would have been almost half Palestinian. They paint a picture of Jews as reasonable, and Arabs as aggressors: “The Jewish leadership in Palestine accepted the U.N. plan for the establishment of two states. . . . However, the leadership of the Palestinian Arabs and the surrounding Arab states rejected the plan and almost immediately began to attack the Jewish areas.” (“What’s Missing in Holocaust Education”-Rethinking Schools, Fall 2025)

Its section: OCTOBER 7 AND THE CURRENT WAR ignores Israel’s occupation and starvation of Gaza that preceded the October 7th attack. It adopts an ahistorical approach to October 7th, wrongfully presenting it as an isolated incident and failing to mention Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as determined by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry (9/16/25).

Holocaust Denial, Distortion and Inversion[EditSign]()EditSign

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This hand-out polices criticism of Israel as it describes demonstrations against Israel’s genocide in Gaza:

These demonstrations have consistently included participants who embrace antisemitic views and make declarations advocating for the end of the State of Israel, thus crossing the line from legitimate criticism of Israel to antisemitism,

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In addition to promoting Echoes & Reflections, the NEA resource page on antisemitism also promotes this Berkeley Hillel video, which at 9:01 adopts the IRHA examples of antisemitism without mentioning the IHRA and at 10:09 identifies demands that students disassociate from Hillel as antisemitic.

Background on Hillel

Hillel organizes and sponsors 10-day Birthright Israel trips to indoctrinate young people into Zionism. The title of the trip “Birthright Israel’ suggests that Jews across the world have an automatic right to citizenship in Israel, when refugee Palestinians and their descendants are denied the right to return and to exist in their homeland.

Participants from IfNotNow were kicked off their Birthright Israel trip in 2018 and 2019 after criticizing the program’s failure to educate young Jews about Israel’s occupation of Palestine. “The only thing we heard about Palestinians was they’re crazy, they’re violent,” said the youth who suggested the free trip is a bribe to keep young Jews quiet about Israel’s violation of Palestinian human rights.

During these perilous times, when the Trump administration terrorizes communities, we find it unconscionable that our umbrella union of 3-million teachers serves extremists who seek to silence voices for Palestinian rights, vilify critics of Israel’s foundational principles of ethnic cleansing and colonization and bankrupt school districts with lawsuits.

To conclude, we not only urge you to remove the above material from the NEA website, but to cease partnering with organizations that indoctrinate rather than educate and divide our union when we need solidarity more than ever.

Sincerely,

Officers, CTA Jewish & Allied Educators 4 Palestine Caucus

Marcy Winograd Chair, CTA Jewish & Allied Educators 4 Palestine Caucus (UTLA Retired/LAUSD) winogradteach@gmail.com

Fadi Saba (CTA State Council) Vice-Chair, CTA Jewish & Allied Educators 4 Palestine Caucus President, Luther Burbank Education Association (CTA/NEA)

Magret Nunes (CTA State Council) Secretary, CTA Jewish & Allied Educators 4 Palestine Caucus John Swett Education Association

Kathleen Hernandez (alternate UTLA-R NEA Rep) Treasurer, CTA Jewish & Allied Educators 4 Palestine Caucus UTLA-Retired/LAUSD (CTA/NEA Retired)

Adrienne Anila (CTA State Council) Natomas Teachers Assn.

Angelina Romano UESF (CTA/NEA)

Brenden F. UESF (CTA/NEA)

Carla Schick (CTA Caucus Steering Committee) CTA/NEA-Retired

Carley Stavis (Pres. of FEA) FEA (Fremont Education Association) (CTA/NEA)

Catherine Salvin UESF (CTA/NEA)

Clemen Avalos (UTLA House of Reps) UTLA (CTA/NEA)

Cory Jong, Oakland Education Association (OEA) CTA State Council, NEA

David Feldman UTLA (CTA/NEA) (UTLA House of Reps)

David Navar (CTA State Council) Montebello Teachers Association (CTA/NEA)

Deni Asnis UESF (CTA/NEA)

Diana C. (CTA Caucus Steering Committee) (CTA/NEA Retired)

Dulce Hayward Education Association (CTA/NEA)

Ericca Chavez UESF (CTA/NEA)

Gillian Claycomb UTLA (CTA/NEA)

Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona (CTA State Council) UTLA (CTA/NEA)

Giulio Sorro (CTA State Council) UESF (CTA/NEA)

Greg McGarry UESF (CTA/NEA)

Ian Moore Sacramento City Teachers Association (CTA/NEA)

Iris Mendoza UTLA (CTA/NEA)

Jessica J. OEA (CTA/NEA)

Jessica Rodarte (CTA State Council) (UTLA House of Reps) UTLA (CTA/NEA)

Joanna Siegfried UESF (CTA/NEA)

Jody Sokolower (Retired CA educator) Bay Area

John Martin Shasta College Faculty Association (CTA)

Jonah Olson Adelanto District Teacher Association (CTA/NEA)

Jose Arredondo (CTA/NEA) Oakland Education Association

Joy Diaz-Noriega United Teachers of Richmond (NEA/CTA)

Judy Greenspan Oakland Education Association (Retired)

Julie Grair UTLA (CTA/NEA)

Kaitlin Amords UTLA (CTA/NEA)

Katherine Peik VUEA (CTA/NEA)

Kelly Flores UTLA (CTA/NEA)

Kristia Castrillo UESF (CTA/NEA)

Dr. Laura Einhorn San Leandro SLTA (CTA/NEA)

Laura Pinho UTLA (CTA/NEA)

Laurie Wager UESF/CTA-retired

Lisa Gutierrez Guzman UESF — Retired Division, Chair (CTA/NEA)

Luis Mora (CTA Caucus Steering Committee, UTLA House of Reps) UTLA (CTA/NEA)

M GOLDSTEIN SFUSD (CTA/NEA)

Marc Wutschke (UTLA-R NEA Rep, UTLA House of Reps) UTLA-R (CTA/NEA)

Margie Bradley (CTA Caucus Steering Committee) San Gabriel Teachers Association (CTA/NEA)

Mark Norberg (CTA State Council) Burbank Teachers Association CTA/NEA)

Marla Kamiya (CTA/NEA Retired)

Maya Steinhart Sacramento City Teachers Association (CTA/NEA)

NT (CTA State Council) Bayshore Teachers Assoc. (CTA/NEA)

Rachelle Urzua UESF (CTA/NEA)

Russell Lu UTLA (CTA/NEA)

Ruth Reyes UTLA House of Reps (CTA/NEA)

Sabeena Shah UESF (CTA/NEA)

Sarah B. UESF (CTA/NEA)

Sara Kosoff UESF (CTA/NEA)

Shannon Paaske UTLA (CTA/NEA)

Shellie Wharton UTR (CTA/NEA)

Stacy Willett Sacramento City Teachers Association (CTA/NEA)

Tara Peters (UTLA/CTA)

Tawnya R Dudash (CTA/NEA) UESF (CTA/NEA)

Terrance Amsler SFUSD (CTA/NEA)

Verian Wilson SMMUSD (CTA/NEA)