July 16, 2025
Portland, Oregon, July 5, 2025 — On the last day of the National Education Association Representative Assembly (RA) of 7,000 educators, held in Portland, Oregon, July 3-6, delegates by a majority vote passed a resolution to “Drop the ADL.” The Anti-Defamation League is an organization that equates criticism of the Israeli genocide with antisemitism. The assembly also passed a strong amendment resolution to support Arab American students, families and educators.
The resolution, which was moved by Judy Greenspan, a Jewish educator from the Oakland Education Association, was brief and to the point. It read: “NEA will not use, endorse, or publicize any materials from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), such as its curricular materials or its statistics. NEA will not participate in ADL programs or publicize ADL professional development offerings.” (RA Today, July 4)
The stated rationale for New Business Item 39, as resolutions are labeled in NEA, is: “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.”
This resolution was the result of more than 10 years of difficult organizing, first by individual educators from all over the country and now by the newly formed NEA caucus, Educators for Palestine.
In the past, due to the strength of pro-Zionist delegates in the NEA and to the false equation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism, it was impossible to talk about the U.S./Israeli genocidal war against Palestine on the NEA floor.
According to Greenspan, a member of the Educators for Palestine caucus, this year there was a progressive shift in consciousness among the NEA delegates. “Delegates were finally able to separate criticism of a genocidal war with false claims of antisemitism,” she stated.
The day before the vote on NBI 39, the Arab American Education RA Report was passed by a two–thirds majority. This report, for the first time, called for Arab American students, families and educators to have direct involvement in the development of Arab American educational programs.
The ADL has been consistently discredited over the past several decades for forcing school districts to adopt language and lessons equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. The Fall 2024 issue of Rethinking Schools contains an article by Nora Lester Murad, “Educators Beware: The Anti-Defamation League Is Not the Social Justice Organization It Claims to Be.”
In addition to opposing DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) and criticizing the Black Lives Matter Movement, the ADL has tried to label Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Council on American-Islamic Relations as antisemitic. More recently, the ADL has actively participated in local and federal investigatory witch hunts targeting students and educators who dare to oppose the U.S./Israeli war on Palestine.
Since the vote to drop the ADL, members of Educators for Palestine have been doxxed and harassed by pro-Israeli groups. The NEA has referred the resolution to the Executive Committee to decide the next steps.
