Largest US teachers union cuts ties with Anti-Defamation League: ‘Profoundly disturbing’

The largest teachers union in America has voted to cut all ties with the Anti-Defamation League — which called the move “profoundly disturbing” as antisemitic attacks in the US are at a record high.

The National Education Association, which is also the US’s largest union with more than 3 million members, approved a proposal Sunday to drop the ADL as an education partner, accusing the New York-based Jewish civil-rights group of using the term antisemitism to punish any and all criticisms of Israel.

“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 claimed at the group’s meeting over the weekend, according to the Mondoweiss outlet.

The NEA’s 7,000-member assembly had congregated in Portland to set the roadmap for the teacher and support-staff union’s upcoming school year, which included the vote to end its partnership with the ADL.

“NEA will not use, endorse, or publicize materials from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), such as its curricular materials or statistics,” the approved measure read.

“Educators embrace the urgency to respond to the questions of racism, injustice, and all forms of bigotry. Despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be,” it concluded.

An ADL rep fired back to The Post, “It is profoundly disturbing that a group of NEA activists would brazenly attempt to further isolate their Jewish colleagues and push a radical, antisemitic agenda on students.

“We will not be cowed for supporting Israel, and we will not be deterred from our work reaching millions of students with educational programs every year,” the group said. “It is our understanding there’s an internal NEA process that deals with issues like this and it is far from a completed process.

“We will continue to call out this antisemitism and prioritize our Jewish students and educators.”

In a dismal record-breaking statistic, Jews in America faced more than 25 antisemitic incidents per day last year — or more than one per hour — with the attacks largely tied to the Israel Gaza war, according to an ADL report released in April.

The ADL has worked with US schools for nearly 40 years to help develop curriculums and train teachers to combat antisemitism in K-12 schools.

But the group has found its relationship waning with the NEA since the start of the war in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, when Jewish state was attacked by Palestinian Hamas terrorists and retaliated in a conflict that is still ongoing.

Tensions between the NEA and ADL came to a head earlier this year when the Jewish group slammed the former president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) over a presentation on Islamophobia and attacks against Palestinians.

Merrie Najimy, the former president of the union, was one of four speakers at the controversial presentation, which made headlines and was even discussed in the state’s Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism in February.

The Massachusetts Educators Against Antisemitism and American Jewish Committee (AJC) New England ultimately accused the MTA leadership of demonizing Israel and spreading “anti-Zionist propaganda” in the classrooms.

The fallout resulted in death threats against members of the MTA, with Najimy recounting the incident in the lead up to the NEA vote, according to Mondoweiss.

“Why would we partner with an organization that does us harm?” Najimy asked.

The NEA’s measure to end the partnership with the ADL was listed as a “boycott” by the union’s legal team, which means it will need to go through additional steps before it’s officially implemented.

The NEA did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.