In a gut punch to the base, National Education Association leaders lickety-split dismissed a motion passed by a majority of the NEA’s 7,000 delegates not to partner with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for curriculum or professional development.

In a possible violation of the union’s Standing Rules, evidence suggests the leadership failed to solicit written rebuttals and oral presentations from dissenting state and local affiliate presidents. Instead, the Board of Directors seemingly rubber-stamped the NEA Executive Committee recommendation to not implement New Business Motion (NBI) (39), passed by the Representative Assembly (RA) on July 5th in Portland, Oregon.

All it took were a few hundred emails from the Israel lobby and an announcement from ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt—the guy who compared a keffiyeh to a Swastika—that he personally spoke to union President Becky Pringle to urge abandonment of the motion.

On a Friday night, July 18, less than two weeks after the NEA Representative Assembly (RA) voted “not to use, endorse or publicize any materials from the Anti-Defamation League,” Pringle, president of the 3-million-member union, issued a statement.

“After consideration, it was determined that this proposal would not further NEA’s commitment to academic freedom, our membership, or our goals,” wrote Pringle, a former middle school science teacher who heads the largest teachers union–and the largest union– in the United States. “There is no doubt that antisemitism is on the rise. Without equivocation, NEA stands strongly against antisemitism.”

Ironically, it was a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, delegate Judy Greenspan of California, who introduced the ADL motion that emerged from the NEA Educators for Palestine Caucus.

In response to the NEA Board of Directors’ decision to nullify the RA vote, Greenspan said, “We are disappointed that the NEA not only violated a significant tenet of trade unionism by denying our democratically elected vote but also lost an opportunity to speak out against a harmful resource in our schools.”

Critics of the ADL point to its pro-Israel curriculum that links to handouts attacking Jewish Voice for Peace and the movement to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel for its occupation of Palestine.

“The ADL is not a neutral body. It is a bully pulpit that is used to disrupt, dox, and target supporters of Palestine, and opponents of racism, transphobia, and oppression,” said Greenspan. “ We will continue to speak out and rise up in NEA until justice is served.”

Quick to celebrate subversion of union democracy, the ADL, together with the Jewish Federations of North America, welcomed the NEA Executive Committee and Board of Directors' decision “to reject this misguided resolution that is rooted in exclusion and othering, and promoted for political reasons.”

Nora Lester Murad, a member of the founding team of the Drop the ADL from Schools campaign, said the NEA board made a mistake by caving to a bully. “If the NEA thinks that capitulating to the political demands of the ADL will protect its members from Israel lobby attacks, they are wrong. Educators and union members need the NEA, the largest union in the........

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