The National Education Association has voted to break with the Anti-Defamation League, seeking to end a decades-long partnership on fighting antisemitism while offering more evidence that defenders of Israel may no longer have a home on the progressive left.
Delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly approved Sunday a proposal to prohibit the nation’s largest teachers’ union from using, endorsing or publicizing educational materials from the ADL, as well as its data, programs and professional offerings.
“Educators embrace the urgency to respond to the questions of racism, injustice, and all forms of bigotry,” said the resolution called New Business Item 39. “Despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice partner it claims to be.”
In its Campus Crisis Alert, the ADL called the measure “profoundly disturbing” and “an attack on educational resources on antisemitism, the Holocaust and anti-bias learning.”
The stunning move to shun the prominent civil-rights group was driven by Educators for Palestine, an NEA caucus that gained formal recognition last year. The group cheered the outcome as a vote to “support Palestine.”
The caucus is aligned with the broader “Drop the ADL” coalition, a collective of more than 200 progressive and Muslim groups that has called for exiling the league from the broader left-liberal community over its support for Israel.
The ADL may be pro-Israel, but it’s hardly conservative.
Under CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, an Obama White House official who took the helm in 2015, the organization long has been accused of favoring Democrats and cozying up to the left by emphasizing concepts such as race and privilege.
“The NEA cutting all ties with the ADL reflects how extremist the NEA has become,” said Cornell Law School professor William Jacobson, who publishes the Legal Insurrection blog.
“I’ve been a harsh critic of the ADL having moved too far to the left, but apparently the ADL hasn’t moved far enough to the left for the NEA,” the veteran conservative blogger wrote.
The measure approved at the meeting of 7,000 delegates, held July 2-6 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, isn’t official union policy yet.
The item was designated a “boycott,” meaning that it must first clear the executive committee, then win another vote at next year’s representative assembly.
DEVELOPING: The National Educators Association (NEA) voted to cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
Why would the far left NEA cut ties with a far left mouthpiece like the ADL?
Because the ADL still occasionally supports Jews & the NEA is showing how antisemitic they… pic.twitter.com/v9HLmpZSd6
— Ari Hoffman 🎗 (@thehoffather) July 8, 2025
The NEA Jewish Affairs Caucus said afterward that the vote “sends a troubling message of exclusion” at a time when antisemitic incidents are on the rise on U.S. campuses, including K-12 schools.
“We are deeply disappointed that a majority of delegates at the NEA Representative Assembly chose to adopt an NBI singling out the ADL, a respected civil rights organization that has long stood at the forefront of combating hate, protecting students’ rights, and fostering safer, more inclusive schools,” the caucus said in a Monday statement.
“This decision serves as a symbolic rejection of those very efforts,” it said.
The caucus urged the executive committee to “carefully consider the impact of this measure on marginalized communities and ultimately reject it.”
Those praising the assembly vote included American Muslims for Palestine, which accused the ADL of acting as a “gatekeeper of state violence and colonial interests,” and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which said the league has a “long history of spreading anti-Palestinian rhetoric.”
“This principled move is a significant step toward fostering respect for the rights and dignity of all students in public schools, who must receive an education without facing biased, politically driven agendas,” CAIR said in a Tuesday statement.
Mr. Jacobson characterized the vote as another reason to be wary of the NEA.
“From promoting critical race theory to trying to destroy parents’ rights, NEA is a danger to our education system and our nation,” he said in a Tuesday email. “The NEA’s move against the ADL is just more proof. If the Trump administration wants to effectuate long-term educational change, a good first step would be to get teachers unions out of the business of pushing their political agendas in schools.”
With nearly 3 million members, the NEA is the nation’s largest education union, representing primarily K-12 educators.
