Teachers’ Unions Are Not Neutral and That’s Dangerous.

For decades, many Jewish families have trusted public schools not just to educate their children, but to keep them safe and allow them to thrive as full participants in American civic life. Teacher unions, most prominently the National Education Association (NEA), play a significant role in shaping curriculum, classroom culture, and the broader political tone that permeates K-12 education. The NEA has at times shown balance. In early 2024, it formally called for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas and explicitly supported the release of Israeli hostages abducted on October 7. It offered a rare acknowledgment that Jewish pain, too, was real and worthy of attention.

But one statement is not the same as a consistent approach. Over the past year, the NEA and several of its local affiliates have acted in ways that reveal a pattern of bias against Israel, erase Jewish indigeneity, and leave Jewish students and educators feeling isolated. In the fall of 2025, the NEA sent millions of teachers a link to Native Land Digital, a site whose map labeled the entire land of Israel as “Palestine.” It was a stunning erasure. Only after public backlash did the NEA remove the link, acknowledging it “fell short of standards.” (As of this writing, if you go to the Native Land Digital map and type in Israel, it shows up only as Palestine.)  That misstep followed another one this past summer. Delegates at the NEA’s annual Representative Assembly forwarded a proposal to sever ties with the Anti-Defamation League, one of the country’s leading organizations fighting antisemitism in schools. Though the Board ultimately declined to implement the proposal, the very fact that it was seriously considered soon after the most devastating massacre of Jews since the Holocaust was deeply disturbing. It confirmed what many Jews already suspected: when the story of Israel and the Jewish people is told in today’s schools, it is often misrepresented, distorted, or erased altogether.

This issue is not confined to national leadership. Across the country, local union affiliates have gone further. The United Teachers Los Angeles, the Chicago Teachers Union, and the Oakland Education Association issued statements that had moved well beyond calls for a ceasefire. Some had urged opposition to U.S. arms sales to Israel while others hosted “teach-ins” that glorified “resistance” and ignored or minimized Hamas’s atrocities. These are not marginal unions as they represent some of the nation’s largest school districts. The NEA’s national silence in the face of these actions has only deepened mistrust and unease among Jewish families. In districts where these unions dominate, the message to Jewish students is clear; the people representing their teachers have chosen a side.

Nowhere has this been more visible than in New York City. In August 2025, Jewish teachers and parents gathered outside United Federation of Teachers headquarters to protest what they described as a culture of normalized antisemitism within their union and schools. They spoke of a teacher being called a “Zionist” by colleagues, antisemitic slogans posted in hallways, and Jewish student groups excluded from equity meetings. Dozens of union members have since opted out of membership in protest. Earlier that year, the New York City Department of Education distributed a newsletter to teachers across its schools accusing Israel of “genocide in Gaza.” Only after a fierce backlash did the department retract the language. These were not isolated incidents, they are part of a climate in which neutrality on Israel has vanished. 

This troubling reality has alarming consequences. When unions, the organizations responsible for representing the very educators who shape school climates, adopt narratives that delegitimize Israel or erase Jewish history, they create environments where Jewish students feel singled out and unsafe. Many feel pressure to hide their identity and to keep their heads down. Jewish children are learning that too many schools and the teachers in them are not neutral; they are political activists.

For many, the wider climate in America only compounds this sense of isolation. A recent Washington Post poll found that 42% of American Jews have stopped wearing visible markers of Jewish identity for fear of harassment. Only 18% said they feel “very safe” being publicly Jewish. This fear is real and I think shocking for most of us. It is also reflected in synagogues and Jewish day schools increasing security, on college campuses where Jewish students are vilified, and in public schools where neutrality on Israel has eroded. In a column reflecting on this moment, Bret Stephens wrote that October 7 shattered illusions about how secure Jews are in the diaspora, concluding with a blunt warning: “Jews are on their own.” That sentence, raw and unsparing, certainly resonates with me.

This is why an increasing number of Jewish families are rethinking their educational choices. Jewish day schools have always offered more than just strong academics, they offer belonging.  In Jewish day schools, students are not outsiders in their own story. They learn about Israel, Jewish peoplehood, and historical indigeneity as part of their education, not as something to be debated or erased. They develop Jewish literacy, historical grounding, and moral clarity that prepare them to engage with a complicated world without apologizing for who they are. They are part of communities where Jewish identity is affirmed, not politicized or marginalized.

Jewish day schools also provide something public schools increasingly cannot. They provide safety, both physical and psychological. They offer spaces where Jewish life can flourish openly and where tefillah, Hebrew, and Jewish symbols are not controversial acts but normal expressions of identity. They train students to think critically, to lead, and to navigate the outside world with confidence rather than fear. In an era when antisemitism is rising and institutional neutrality is eroding, that foundation matters more than ever.

We should still hold the NEA and public schools accountable. We should expect them to treat Jewish history and identity with the same respect afforded to others, and to ensure that schools remain places of safety for all children. But we must also be aware. The culture in many public schools has shifted. Bias has crept into spaces once thought neutral, and silence has allowed it to spread. That is why strengthening Jewish day schools is not just a communal must, it is an act of responsibility.

At this moment, when too many institutions are failing Jewish children, Jewish education is not optional. It is essential.