Overview
- On July 6, the NEA’s 7,000-member Representative Assembly approved New Business Item 39 to stop using, endorsing or publicizing any Anti-Defamation League curricular materials, statistics or programs.
- Designated a “sanction item,” the measure was automatically referred to the NEA’s nine-member Executive Committee, which must ratify it before it takes effect.
- Delegates accused the ADL of weaponizing antisemitism to punish Israel critics, inflating hate-crime figures and labeling pro-Palestinian organizing as hate speech.
- The ADL condemned the vote as “profoundly disturbing” and accused the NEA of advancing an antisemitic agenda, while the Council on American-Islamic Relations praised the decision.
- The split reflects a broader clash in progressive and labor circles over curriculum control, hate-speech definitions and the influence of emerging pro-Palestinian union caucuses.