The proposal, which passed at the NEA's 2025 Representative Assembly in Portland, Oregon, would prohibit the nation's largest teachers' union from using ADL materials on antisemitism and Holocaust education or promoting ADL statistics and programs.
Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers are pushing to strip the nation’s largest teachers’ union of its federal charter. As the controversy unfolds, Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, has emerged as a vocal defender of the NEA amid what she characterizes as broader attacks on the union.
"The NEA, as the nation's largest labor union committed to public education and seeing children succeed in classrooms, is one of the most powerful voices for public education," Wiley said. "Some in Congress want to destroy them because they don't like what the NEA says and does."
Under the member-backed measure, the NEA would no longer:
The proposal has drawn sharp criticism from Jewish organizations, who argue it would effectively boycott what they call "ADL's widely respected anti-bias and Holocaust education curricula" used in thousands of schools nationwide.
"Calling for a National Education Association boycott of the ADL is an egregious example of the rising antisemitism in schools and society throughout North America," said Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of Jewish Federations of North America.
