During their 2025 Representative Assembly in Portland, Ore., last week, delegates from the National Education Association—the largest U.S. teachers’ union—stunned members of the Jewish community when they voted to sever ties with the Anti‑Defamation League (ADL).
Among those casting the votes were delegates from Pennsylvania’s chapter of the NEA, the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), and its 177,000 members. How did they vote on the resolution to dump the ADL? Do they support the anti-ADL policy?
The PSEA won’t say.
The ADL is the most prominent pro-Jewish organization in the country. For years, it’s provided educational classroom materials to help schools teach about antisemitism and the Holocaust.
“By cutting ties with ADL, NEA is stripping schools of trusted, time-tested resources that help educators teach about the Holocaust, address antisemitism, and combat all forms of hate,” ADL Philadelphia posted on social media.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt put it more directly in a public statement.
“Excluding ADL’s gold-standard educational resources is not just an attack on our organization – it’s a dangerous attack on the entire Jewish community.”
The delegates clearly didn’t agree.
“Allowing the ADL to determine what constitutes antisemitism would be like allowing the fossil-fuel industry to determine what constitutes climate change,” NEA delegate Stephen Siegel reportedly said.
The vote isn’t the final step. The resolution was non-binding and goes to the NEA’s Executive Committee before becoming official policy. On Monday, some 400 Jewish organizations sent a letter to NEA President Rebecca Pringle urging the organization not to take this step, Jewish Insider reports.
But many in the Jewish community remain shocked that a liberal organization like the NEA would turn on a long-time ally. Some see it as the latest sign of rising anti-Israel — and even antisemitic — views on the American political left.
‘“In schools across America, Jewish children are being called ‘baby killers,’ taunted with Hitler jokes, and have had to sit in classrooms defaced with swastikas. When Jewish educators and families speak out, they’re too often met with silence—or worse, hostility,” the national ADL said in a statement.
“Now, the National Education Association (NEA) has voted to cut ties with ADL, sending a chilling message: that the marginalization of Jews is acceptable. By severing this partnership, the largest teachers’ union in the country is stripping schools of trusted, time-tested resources that help educators teach about the Holocaust, address antisemitism, and combat all forms of hate,” ADL said.
Asked by DVJournal if their representatives attending the Portland gathering voted to end ties with the ADL, the PSEA declined to answer. The same when asked of the PSEA supports the new policy.
“It is shocking and disgraceful that the largest teachers’ union in the country is calling for a boycott of the ADL and their decades of education materials and data. This biased and one-sided resolution would keep important lessons about antisemitism, the Holocaust, hate, bigotry, and bias out of K-12 classrooms,” said the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
“In response, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) has signed a joint letter to NEA leadership, along with other Jewish Federations, JCRCs, and Jewish organizations across the country, urging them to condemn antisemitism within their organization, reject NBI 39, and take immediate steps to ensure Jewish educators, students, and families feel safe and supported in school communities across the country.”
Rabbi Shai Cherry of Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, compared the move to the lynching of a falsely-accused Atlanta Jewish man that led to the formation of the ADL. “The delegates’ recommendation is the noose thrown over the tree branch,” he said. “At a moment in America when all agree that antisemitism is surging, the NEA’s recommendation to sever ties with the leading educational institution fighting antisemitism is unconscionable, infuriating, and deeply worrisome.”
NEA President Becky Pringle defended the union’s broader commitment to equity and safety in education.
“As educators, we are committed to ensuring students of every race, religion or national origin have safe and welcoming spaces to learn and grow,” Pringle said in a statement. “The NEA and its members are unequivocally committed to educating, organizing against, and combating all forms of hate and discrimination, including antisemitism and anti-Palestinian bias.”
The NEA’s executive committee is expected to review the recommendation in the coming weeks. Jewish leaders across the country are urging the union to reverse course before the policy becomes official.