Chip Rogers, CEO Americans For Fair Treatment
The National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers’ union in the country, has crossed a dangerous and deeply disappointing line. By severing ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the nation’s leading organization combating anti-Semitism, the NEA is sending a clear message to Jewish students and educators: their safety and dignity are expendable in the pursuit of political agendas.
This decision, pushed by the union’s fringe “Educators for Palestine” caucus, is not just a misguided political statement. It is a betrayal. At a time when anti-Semitic incidents in schools and across the country are surging, the NEA has chosen to vilify the very organization that has spent generations educating young people about the Holocaust and leading the fight against hate.
Their justification? The ADL supposedly “weaponizes anti-Semitism” to silence criticism of Israel. This claim is both absurd and dangerous. By conflating anti-Semitism with legitimate political debate, the NEA provides cover for actual hate and harassment. Jewish students and teachers are left more isolated and vulnerable as a result.
This is not an isolated incident. Increasingly, NEA leadership prioritizes extreme political activism over its core mission: supporting teachers and creating safe, welcoming classrooms for all students. Time and again, the union has allowed fringe ideological agendas to dictate policy, sacrificing the needs of educators and students in the process.
The result is clear. Jewish educators feel abandoned. Jewish students feel targeted.
It is time for teachers who care about their students and communities to ask a hard question. Why are we continuing to fund a union that has chosen politics over protection, division over unity, and betrayal over basic decency?
The NEA must reverse this decision immediately. Restoring its partnership with the ADL would be a small but crucial step toward rebuilding the trust it has broken. More broadly, the union must recommit itself to fighting all forms of hate, including anti-Semitism, and remember that its mission is to serve educators and students, not advance fringe causes.
If it refuses to do so, then perhaps teachers should consider whether their dues are supporting a union that no longer represents their values or their students’ needs.