US feds open probe into alleged antisemitism at leading teacher union

US federal authorities have opened an investigation into alleged antisemitism in the nation’s largest teachers’ union, a Jewish legal advocacy group said on Monday.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is investigating alleged discrimination against Jews at the National Education Association (NEA), a union with more than 3 million members, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law said.

The Brandeis Center, which often files legal charges opposing antisemitism, filed a 297-page complaint with the EEOC against the union in April.

The complaint alleged violations of the federal Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a measure prohibiting employment discrimination.

The Brandeis Center charged the NEA with allowing a hostile environment for Jewish union members by denying them the ability to fully participate in union activities, denying opportunities to Jews in areas like mentorship and training, and allowing harassment and intimidation of Jewish educators.

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The Brandeis Center told The Times of Israel that the EEOC’s Washington field office is carrying out the investigation.

An EEOC spokesperson, however, told The Times of Israel that, under federal law, charges filed with the agency are confidential, and the agency cannot confirm or deny any investigations.

An NEA spokesperson said the organization was “aware of the complaint and the coverage.”

“NEA does not tolerate antisemitism in any form and is committed to ensuring that all members and students, including Jewish members and students, can work and learn in a safe and welcoming environment,” the spokesperson said. “Out of respect for that process, we won’t have additional comment at this time.”

The Brandeis Center’s complaint in April said the NEA’s handbook had removed Jews as the primary victims of the Holocaust by framing the genocide as an attack on “different faiths, ethnicities, races, political beliefs, genders, and gender identification.” The statement was changed following backlash, but the union did not apologize, the complaint said.

On October 8, 2025, two years and a day after the Hamas attack on Israel, the NEA sent an email to its members with a “Native Land Digital map” that erased Israel, labeling the land as “Palestine.” The map was removed after backlash, the complaint said.

The union also called on its members to enact education on the “history of the Nakba,” the Palestinian term for the “catastrophe” of Israel’s establishment, defining it as the “forced, violent displacement and dispossession of at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland.”

The statement did not mention any violence against Jews during the 1948 war, the complaint said.

At the union’s 2025 Representative Assembly, a meeting for delegates from around the US, members of the union’s Jewish Affairs Caucus were surrounded in what appeared to be coordinated disruptions, causing Jewish attendees to fear for their safety, the complaint said.

The assembly took place weeks after the firebombing of a rally for hostages held in Gaza in Boulder, Colorado, an attack that killed an 82-year-old woman, Karen Diamond.

When a Jewish delegate from Colorado mentioned Diamond’s death, other attendees laughed and clapped, the complaint said.

The Brandeis Center also charged that the union offers benefits and opportunities to minority groups, but that Jews who do not qualify as other minorities are classified as white, denying them opportunities.

US unions have repeatedly taken anti-Israel positions in recent years.

Last week, the United Auto Workers voted to divest from Israel Bonds.

Anti-Israel activism among teachers’ unions and teachers’ colleges is seen as concerning because of the downstream effects on children’s education.