Federal Complaint Accuses NEA of Bias, Allowing Threats Against Jewish Members

A federal civil rights complaint charges that the National Education Association, which represents 3 million educators across the country, created hostile work environments and discriminated against its Jewish members. The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a national organization that fights antisemitism through research and legal advocacy, filed the complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on April 29. The complaint says Jewish members were harassed and intimidated at the union’s Representative Assembly meeting last July, when delegates voted to cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League. The organization has provided resources on the Holocaust and antisemitism to public schools for decades. Palestinian rights, support for Israel and antisemitism have long been flashpoints within teachers unions. But those clashes have escalated since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war Israel unleashed on Gaza. The complaint says Jewish delegates at the meeting were surrounded and shouted at by members “aligned with anti-Israel advocacy,” and that when a member referenced the murder of an elderly Holocaust survivor, others in the room laughed and applauded. Following widespread backlash, the NEA’s executive committee ultimately rejected the proposed ban. Still, “Despite repeated notice, the NEA has failed to take action to address the harassment and discrimination against its Jewish members,” the center said in a press release. In a statement emailed Tuesday to The 74, the NEA — the nation’s largest teachers union — said it doesn’t tolerate antisemitism in any form. Following the July vote, union President Becky Pringle said members at the assembly meeting “spoke about a variety of painful, frustrating and dehumanizing experiences related to antisemitism and anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bigotry.” “NEA opposes efforts to shut down debate, to silence voices of disagreement and intimidation,” Pringle wrote in the July 19 statement. The complaint also charged that union materials erased Jewish educators’ identities. In its 2025 handbook, the union said it will mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day by recognizing the “more than 12 million victims of the Holocaust from different faiths, ethnicities, races, political beliefs, genders … and other targeted characteristics.” “The NEA published official handbook language that removed Jews as the primary and uniquely targeted victims of the Holocaust, reframing the genocide as a generalized tragedy,” the complaint said. “Although the language was later revised following public backlash, the NEA did not issue an apology.” The complaint also said that on Oct. 8, the union sent a mass email to members celebrating Native land and included a link to a map that labeled Israel solely as Palestine. The material was later removed, and the NEA said the reason was that it didn’t meet union standards, according to the complaint. The center also charged that the union’s delegate assembly and various committees have racial and ethnic quotas for inclusion, which discriminates against Jewish members. “The NEA’s exclusion of Jewish educators classified as ‘white’ because they do not fall into one of the U.S. Census minority categories have enabled antisemitic ideology to take root and grow in teachers unions nationwide,” the complaint said. Marci Miller, the Brandeis Center’s director of legal investigations, told The 74 that the quotas hurt not only Jewish educators, but all NEA members who don’t fall into a specific minority category and so are excluded from opportunities for union leadership. “The teachers unions are there to protect educators from discrimination across the work environment, and that should apply to all teachers, including the Jewish teachers,” she said. “Otherwise, the NEA has failed its most basic responsibility. All educators are entitled to equal treatment under the law.” Miller said she doesn’t know how long the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation will take. As remedies, the complaint calls for NEA to end its racial and ethnic quota rules; stop discrimination against Jewish and Israeli members; and adopt a nondiscrimination policy “that meaningfully protects Jewish members and Israeli members against unlawful discrimination.”