House Ed Committee opens investigation into antisemitism at nation’s largest teachers’ union

Lawmakers have considered taking legislative action against the NEA, including revoking its federal charter, in response to the union’s anti-Israel activism and far-left political engagement.

By Alana Goodman, The Washington Free Beacon

The House Committee on Education and Workforce has opened an investigation into whether the National Education Association is “contributing to antisemitism among its members and in classrooms across the United States,” according to a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Committee chairman Tim Walberg (R., Mich.) wrote he is “gravely concerned about antisemitic content in the NEA’s 2025 handbook and the NEA Representative Assembly’s vote in July 2025 to ban materials by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL),” in a Thursday letter sent to NEA president Rebecca Pringle.

The investigation comes after a wave of allegations of anti-Semitism against the nation’s largest teachers’ union.

In July, the NEA’s Representative Assembly passed a resolution to boycott the ADL’s Holocaust education materials after union delegates complained the ADL’s definition of anti-Semitism was too strong.

NEA leadership overturned the vote after public outcry, but lawmakers have cited the NEA’s 2025 handbook as further evidence the nation’s largest teachers’ union has embraced an extremist agenda.

The handbook, which outlines the NEA’s annual priorities and strategic goals, included plans to promote a version of Holocaust remembrance that does not specifically mention Jews.

The handbook did, though, give a lengthy description of the NEA’s plans to “educate members and the general public about the history of the Palestinian Nakba,” described as the “forced, violent displacement and dispossession of at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 during the establishment of Israel.”

The NEA said it would also “educate members about the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism” and promote “free speech in defense of Palestine at K-12 schools, colleges, and universities.”

Walberg asked the union to turn over all communications, documents, or meeting minutes from NEA officials that included the words “antisemitism,” “Israel,” “Israeli,” “Palestine,” or “Palestinian,” dating back to Oct. 7, 2023, the day of Hamas’s mass terrorist attacks in Israel.

He also requested documents related to any changes to NEA’s 2025 handbook and the union’s vote to ban ADL materials.

“Unfortunately, the July 8 measure [against the ADL] and the plans set forth in NEA’s handbook raise serious concerns that antisemitism has infected the nation’s largest teachers’ union,” Walberg wrote.

The ADL at the time responded that it was “profoundly disturbing that a group of NEA activists would brazenly attempt to further isolate their Jewish colleagues and push a radical, antisemitic agenda on students.”

Lawmakers have considered taking legislative action against the NEA, including revoking its federal charter, in response to the union’s anti-Israel activism and far-left political engagement.

Walberg said the committee is weighing “legislation to specifically address antisemitic discrimination within labor unions and to combat antisemitism in federally funded schools.”

The NEA is not the only union that has come under fire over its radical anti-Israel agenda. In July, the American Federation of Teachers launched a fundraising campaign for ANERA, a Gaza aid organization accused of working with Hamas-linked groups, the Free Beacon reported at the time.

Mika Hackner, director of research at the North American Values Institute, said the AFT’s fundraising campaign was an “egregious example” of the union “putting dedication to ‘social justice unionism’ ahead of responsibilities to union members and even to students.”