The National Education Association, the largest teacher union in the country, has approved a proposal to break the ties with the Anti-Defamation League, a civil rights group aimed at combating anti-Semitism, according to a NEA spokesperson.
The proposal, entitled New Business Item 39, was for the time being hired by Union Delegates at the representative assembly 2025, which took place in Portland, Oregon on July 5.
“In a limited mood of more than 6,000 NEA members on the NEA representative assembly 2025, delegates voted to send to the NEA-exporting committee that the National Education Association did not use materials, endorses or publishes of the Anti-Department League or participation).
The proposal was not officially adopted and was referred to the NEA executive committee for consideration. The committee will then send its recommendation to the Union's board of directors, according to a NEA spokesperson.
No board meeting about the proposal has yet been planned, the spokesperson told CNN.
For years the ADL has provided educational means about anti -Semitism and the Holocaust in American schools.
In an official reaction, the Anti-Defamation League called the NEA approval 'deeply disturbing'.
“We will not be grown for supporting Israel, and we will not be put off from our work to reach millions of students with educational programs every year,” an ADL spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday. “It is our understanding that there is an internal NEA process that deals with problems like this and it is far from a completed process.”
The NEA represents around three million educators in the United States and has organizations affiliated in every state and in more than 14,000 national communities.
“As educators, we are dedicated to ensure that students of each race, religion or national descent have safe and hospitable spaces to learn and grow,” said a Nea spokesperson in a statement on Wednesday.
“The National Education Association and its members are unambiguously dedicated to the cause of training, organizing and combating all forms of hatred and discrimination, including anti-Semitism and anti-Palestinian intolerance,” the explanation added. “This is a fundamental principle that we will never run away from.”
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