(RNS) — The executive committee and board of the largest teachers’ union in the country announced late last week that it would not cut its ties to the Anti-Defamation League, despite a resolution by its members to do so.
The National Education Association assembly in Portland, Oregon, earlier this month passed a measure to bar its members from using, endorsing or publicizing any materials from the Anti-Defamation League, the antisemitism watchdog that offers K-12 schools a self-directed, student-led program on countering different forms of hate.
The boycott vote from among more than 6,000 members of the teachers’ union came amid growing criticism of the ADL for its staunch pro-Israel advocacy at a time when the country is engaged in a prolonged and brutal war in the Gaza Strip that some groups are likening to a genocide of Palestinians.
But the executive committee and board, which must approve boycott proposals, said Friday (July 18), that the NEA does not have any formal partnership with the ADL — schools decide on their own whether to use its curricula — so a boycott would have “constituted a forward-looking declaration.” It also made clear its decision was not a statement of support for the ADL.
“Not adopting this proposal is in no way an endorsement of the ADL’s full body of work,” said NEA President Becky Pringle in a statement. “We are calling on the ADL to support the free speech and association rights of all students and educators.”
RELATED: National teachers’ union votes to sever ties with the Anti-Defamation League
The union vote faced backlash from Jewish establishment institutions. Some 400 Jewish organizations across the country, including the leadership of the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements, condemned the boycott resolution. They quickly issued a statement welcoming the executive committee decision.
“We welcome the NEA Executive Committee and Board of Directors’ decision to reject this misguided resolution that is rooted in exclusion and othering, and promoted for political reasons,” a joint statement from Jewish organizations said.
The ADL has been accused of inflating its antisemitic incident statistics by counting anti-Israel speech in its reports and calling defenses of Palestinian rights “hate speech.” Some Jewish groups have also taken issue with the ADL’s position. J Street, the liberal American Jewish organization that seeks a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, opposed the teachers’ union vote to boycott the ADL while saying that “charges of antisemitism must not be wielded to quash legitimate criticism of Israeli policy.”
And earlier this month, a group of Boston-based Jewish educators recommended that the Massachusetts Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism reject draft findings for K-12 education in Massachusetts, in part because the draft relied on the ADL’s “unreliable data about antisemitism,” the group said.
The ADL partners with K-12 schools primarily through No Place for Hate, its self-directed, student-led program that allows students to survey their school’s climate, sign a petition and implement other activities to challenge bias and bullying. The ADL’s website says the program has reached more than 2,000 schools and 1.8 million students.
Over the past two years, the ADL eliminated its signature anti-bias education program, A World of Difference.
RELATED: The ADL quietly eliminated its anti-bias educational program