The National Education Association, America’s largest teachers union, is having its annual convention known as the Representative Assembly in Philadelphia this week. Among the convention activities, the more than 6,000 delegates will vote on at least 10 resolutions that are lie-based attacks against the Jewish People and that are intended to eliminate U.S. support for Israel and especially to indoctrinate young Americans to believe patently false misinformation about the Jewish People, Zionism and Israel.
Please see an important Action Alert below that includes action items that those who care about Israel, Jewry and Zionism must take to prevent and mitigate the damage planned by radical anti-Jewish and anti-fact teachers determined to politicize educators and the education system to advance their nefarious agenda.
ZOA is taking immediate on-site action with regard to the NEA convention. Aware of new NEA initiatives to incite Jew-hatred in the classrooms, previous NEA-convention anti-Israel initiatives and ongoing anti-Israel education in America’s schools, our Greater Philadelphia Chapter dispatched its “Information Ambulance” – a mobile electronic billboard – to the site of the NEA convention, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, displaying a series of messages directed primarily to NEA delegates. The “ambulance” is determined to “rescue the truth” from the propagandists and anti-Jewish mis-educators.
Among the messages are: “Teachers must teach facts and not anti-Jewish lies! Contact your local school board” and “Not a single Palestinian in Gaza would have died had Hamas not attacked Israel on Oct. 7” and “Israel: Homeland of the Jews for 3,400 years! There is no ‘occupation.’”
“Education must not be politicized nor corrupted to advance an agenda. None of what the NEA is planning belongs in the classroom – especially not in government schools, where everything carries the imprimatur of the government,” said ZOA National President Morton A. Klein. “The fact that some teachers themselves have come to believe outright lies and seemingly cannot discern outright lies from facts – and that they seem to not even be interested in the truth is a danger to all of America,” Klein added. “NEA leaders must institute reforms and not perpetuate and incite more Jew-hatred.”
The ZOA “Information Ambulance” has been parked outside of the convention center and driving around the perimeter of the complex all week, bringing clarity to convention delegates, tourists and others walking and driving around the heart of Philadelphia.
The NEA will vote on the resolutions listed below, known as “new business items” in NEA jargon, later in the week.
The NEA forbids delegates from revealing the content of the resolutions to the public. However, the news/analysis/commentary website National Review apparently obtained copies of these resolutions or “news business items” which they have published. (Versions were also leaked and published online by the social media entity “Educators for Palestine – NEA”.)
Per nationalreview.com, the most dangerous of these NBIs are:
NBI #6: “NEA will use existing digital communications tools to educate members and the general public about the history of the Palestinian Nakba.
“The Nakba, meaning ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic, refers to the forced, violent displacement and dispossession of at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 during the establishment of the state of Israel. …”
“Rationale: In light of escalating violence in Palestine, educators are increasingly seeking to understand historical context. …”
NBI #7:
“NEA will use existing digital communication tools to educate members about the difference between anti-Zionism and anti-semitism.”
NBI #8:
“NEA will use existing digital media resources to write and distribute an article educating members about the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement, including how it is connected to the broader labor movement, legislative efforts to restrict speech in relation to BDS, and NEA members’ participation in the movement.” and its relationship to the labor movement.”
NBI #9:
“NEA will use existing digital media resources to communicate the Palestinian Trade Union call to action to ‘End all Complicity, Stop Arming Israel’ to NEA members.
“This call is for trade unions in relevant industries:
“To refuse to build weapons destined for Israel.
“To refuse to transport weapons to Israel.
“To pass motions in their trade union to this effect.
“To take action against complicit companies involved in implementing Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, especially if they have contracts with your institution.
“Pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel, and in the case of the US, to stop funding it.”
NBI #10:
“NEA will, in the spirit of civics education of its own members, use existing communication channels to publish the total amount of money that Congress and the President or executive branch of the United States government appropriated in 2023 that:
“Directly and indirectly supported military actions of nations that are known to have bombed innocent people and/or knowingly damaged or destroyed medical facilities and/or those nations that, according to recognized and credible global sources, withheld humanitarian aid for children in that same year. …”
NBI #29:
“The NEA will use our existing media outlets to defend educators’ and students’ academic freedom and free speech in defense of Palestine at K-12 schools, colleges and universities. …”
NBI #42:
“NEA shall host a series of webinars designed to educate members about historical and ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.
“The webinars should include:
“Definitions of the terms
“Brief examinations of different historical and ongoing events – including US involvement and the responses of organized labor
“legislative attempts to restrict teaching truth about these atrocities”
NBI #50:
“The NEA will use existing media channels to publicize our opposition to spending billions of dollars in Federal funds to send weapons to the Israeli military that are used in genocide in Gaza.”
NBI #70:
“NEA shall publish via electronic media the names of congresspeople who have:
“Accepted donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and/or the Democratic Majority for ISRAEL (DMFI);
“Have been endorsed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and/or the Democratic Majority for ISRAEL (DMFI); …”
ZOA reiterates that we are basing our concerns based on these published versions of the “new business items” and activity at recent NEA conventions and especially since the dramatic increase in open Jew-hatred after the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas.
Action Alert: Stop Vile Anti-Jewish and Anti-Fact Initiatives from Being Introduced in Your Local Schools; Stop the Politicization of Education and Educators!
The National Education Association, the largest teachers union in America and one of the country’s largest and most powerful labor unions, is having its national convention this week. The more than 6,000 delegates will be voting on at least 10 initiatives that are inherently both anti-Jewish and anti-factual. Some of these measures the union members want introduced in America’s schools will further incite hatred against the Jewish People, Zionism and Israel and miseducate children, while others are intended to use the NEA’s power and influence to malevolently alter American public opinion and policy.
Whether each or all of the resolutions listed above -– are approved by the NEA delegates/teachers or not, clearly there are educators in pre-K through 12th grade who want to use their positions in front of young, captive audiences and their combined influence to advance a political agenda that would harm the well-being of the American Jewish community and all who understand and value the importance of the mutually-beneficial U.S.-Israel relationship. We have already seen pogroms on the streets of America that are largely the result of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish propaganda.
Remember: Once young people are indoctrinated to believe lies – in this case lies about Jews and Judaism; lies about Israel and Zionism; lies about an important American ally; and lies about history and contemporary affairs – these are hard and perhaps impossible to undo. Therefore: They must be stopped from happening in the first place. Please see vitally important advocacy steps below.
Key points: America’s schools must prioritize quality, integrity-based factual education. America’s schools do not work for the teachers. On the contrary: The teachers work for the school districts where they teach. America’s schools must be free from politicized agendas. Teachers’ roles are to educate and not to indoctrinate. Teachers who cannot discern lies from facts, or who are not interested in facts that contradict propaganda may be unfit to be in a classroom. These are keys to highlight when engaging in advocacy on this matter.
Action Items:
Please reach out to your local school district officials. Search for your local school district’s website on the search engine of your choice. Each school district website lists the superintendent, school board members (who are either elected or appointed – it varies from district to district) and email or phone contacts for either the superintendent and board members, or to an administrator or secretary.
Make a phone call or send an email to ask for a meeting with the superintendent and/or individual school board members. Include all or some of the NEA “new business items” listed above, and indicate that you are concerned that as a parent or a grandparent or as a concerned citizen and taxpayer in the district that these initiatives and misinformation will be introduced in the classroom, or that teachers will try to indoctrinate students to embrace an anti-Jewish agenda and miseducate students; and that teachers who engage in these NEA misinformation campaigns cannot be trusted to be objective in the classroom. Ask the superintendent and/or school board members to commit to guaranteeing that education, textbooks and other materials that are not factual be prohibited from being used, and that there is a written policy to this effect; ask that school district leadership insist that teachers not attempt to propagandize nor incite Jew-hatred, anti-Zionism or anti-Israel attitudes – and that the policy include enforcement and repercussions for teachers who violate the policy.
It is vitally important for advocates to pro-actively reach out to your local school superintendent and your local school board members BEFORE the action items that the NEA mandates be taught creeps into your local schools.
Remember: Miseducated young Americans are not only a danger to the Jewish community – they are a danger to all of American society! Thank you in advance for your advocacy. Please contact us if you need help or guidance.