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Teachers Union NEA Hit with Civil Rights Complaint After Portland Conference
The complaint says the 3 million-member union promoted materials and practices that erased Jewish identity and fueled harassment of Jewish delegates.
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed a civil rights complaint Monday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the National Education Association, alleging the country's largest teachers union fosters a hostile, antisemitic environment for its over 3 million members.
According to the complaint, the NEA's 2025 Representative Assembly saw Jewish delegates harassed by anti-Israel advocates, while the union's 2025 handbook drew backlash for attempting to decentralize Holocaust education and remove Jews as primary victims.
During the 2025 Representative Assembly, Jewish delegates reported being "physically intimidated" by activists who shouted down participants and disrupted the Jewish Affairs Caucus; leadership allegedly failed to conduct meaningful investigations into numerous complaints.
Federal pressure mounts on the NEA following the complaint, with ongoing investigations by the House Committee on Education and Workforce and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, though the union has not responded to requests for comment.
Brandeis Center officials argue this systemic antisemitism flows from union ranks into K-12 classrooms, fueling a broader trend of "new antisemitism" that masks anti-Jewish hatred with appeals to human rights and liberal values.