Overview:
The NEA Board of Directors voted not to cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League despite criticism of the organization’s stance on Israel, following a divisive internal debate and calls for the ADL to support free speech and protest rights.
Last night, the nine-member NEA executive committee voted against severing ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) over claims of how it treated organizations critical of Israel.
“Today, following the culmination of a thorough review process as governed by NEA rules, including a vote by NEA’s Executive Committee earlier this week, NEA’s Board of Directors—representing the broad and diverse membership of the NEA, including representatives from every state—voted not to implement this proposal,” read the statement from NEA. “In our review, NEA considered multiple factors, including the rationale and concerns behind the proposal, its relationship to our policies and values, and how this would affect students, our members, our work, and our mission to champion excellence and justice in public education. We consulted with NEA state affiliates and civil rights leaders, including Jewish American and Arab American community leaders, and we also met with ADL leadership.”
This comes after, in early July, at the NEA Representative Assembly, when representatives voted not to partner with the ADL after accusations of anti-Arab rhetoric.
The original proposal, titled New Business Item 39, was preliminarily adopted by union representatives at the 2025 Assembly in Portland, Oregon, on July 5. Since this item is considered a “sanction item”, there is an automatic referral to the NEA Executive Committee.
Speaking on the Assembly floor in early July, delegates repeatedly rejected the ADL’s use of the term “antisemitism”, saying that it was used to punish those critical of Israel and inflated statistics on hate crimes about safety for Jewish people. Some Delegates spoke about the ADL attacking anti-Apartheid and Black Lives Matter movements.
Despite the committee voting not to sever the relationship with the ADL, the NEA called on the organization to evolve in some of its policies.
“Not adopting this proposal is in no way an endorsement of the ADL’s full body of work. We are calling on the ADL to support the free speech and association rights of all students and educators,” said Becky Pringle, NEA President. “We strongly condemn abhorrent and unacceptable attacks on our members who dedicate their lives to helping their students thrive. Our commitment to freedom of speech fully extends to freedom of protest and dissent whether in the public square or on college campuses.”
The nine-member Executive Committee is composed of our three executive officers and six members elected at large by delegates to the Representative Assembly. The committee is responsible for general policy and the interests of the NEA, acting on behalf of the NEA Board of Directors between its four regularly scheduled meetings each year.
