For many of us with children in public schools, we often find our children being placed in an impossible position, stripped of their right to just be students.
The membership of America’s largest teacher’s union, the National Education Association (NEA), recently voted to sever ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), for calling campus protests “antisemitic,” and cited how it tallied antisemitism in its annual hate crimes reports. Founded in 1913 in the wake of the lynching of Atlanta Jewish businessman Leo Frank, the ADL has been at the forefront in combating all forms of hatred for decades as a pioneer provider of educational materials and programs. More than 400 Jewish groups from around the country urged the NEA president and executive committee to reject the rank-and-file educator-approved plan to no longer use ADL materials on antisemitism or Holocaust education.
While the proposal was unanimously rejected by the president and executive committee, the heavy support for its passage among the rank-and-file is beyond troubling to any Jewish parent with a student in American public schools.
A Jewish middle or high school student in a public school in America today is expected to implicitly or explicitly serve as a spokesperson for Judaism, for Israel, and for the entirety of a complex, often painful history whenever conversations turn to global politics. The pressure doesn’t come with consent and is often thrust upon them. Peers and sometimes even educators themselves, look to Jewish students for answers and clarity, and unfairly ask for moral judgment on issues far beyond the scope of any one individual, let alone a student navigating their own identity. The ADL, the target of the teachers’ ire, has filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights about systematic refusal by public school administrations to confront persistent antisemitic harassment.
Jewish students’ education should not be burdened by a political weight their peers do not carry, and their sense of belonging should not be less important than that of any other group. As the war in Gaza continues, and disinformation spreads like wildfire, we must loudly reject the alienation of our children that is often masquerading as inclusiveness. The ADL/NEA issue is but one example of an acceptable degree of antisemitic ideology in the public space, particularly in public education.
