News Coverage: JCPA Advances a Collaborative Approach to Countering Antisemitism in Schools

In recent months, JCPA has been working with national teachers’ unions to advance a more collaborative and constructive approach to countering antisemitism and hate in our schools, including launching a formal partnership with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

When delegates at the National Education Association (NEA) annual assembly in early July advanced a resolution to prohibit the union from utilizing any materials and resources from the ADL, JCPA worked both publicly and behind-the-scenes to secure a constructive resolution.

In a letter to NEA President Becky Pringle, JCPA CEO Amy Spitalnick both urged the NEA to reject this divisive resolution — making clear one can disagree with certain positions taken by the ADL without cutting off all engagement — while reaffirming JCPA’s commitment to working with NEA to counter antisemitism and broader hate. The letter also highlighted the successful workshop on antisemitism led by JCPA at the recent NEA convening, as well as the various positive resolutions aimed at protecting the Jewish community that were advanced by NEA delegates. JCPA also joined with other Jewish organizations in a communal letter urging NEA to reject the resolution. 

On Friday, July 18, the NEA Board of Directors rejected the resolution that sought to boycott the ADL. NEA’s board statement reaffirms the union’s commitment to academic freedom, the right of association, and — most importantly — the safety of Jewish and all students and educators.

As the media coverage noted, “Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, offered a nuanced perspective: ‘It’s possible to disagree with ADL without cutting off all engagement — which would undercut our shared goals of countering antisemitism and broader hate and bias.'”

JCPA will continue to work constructively with teachers’ unions and our broader partners to ensure that Jewish, and all, students and educators are safe in our schools.

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“Other organizations, however, have adopted a different approach. JCPA, which signed the initial letter on Monday, followed up with its own missive to Pringle later in the day, which noted that it recently led a workshop on antisemitism at an NEA conference on racial and social justice earlier this month. ‘We are concerned that NBI 39 serves as a dangerous escalation aimed at delegitimizing a major Jewish organization that provides critical research and resources in the fight against antisemitism. One does not need to align with the ADL on every issue; but choosing to cut off all engagement and dialogue runs counter to our shared goals of countering antisemitism and broader hate and bias,’ Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of JCPA, wrote in the letter.

On social media, Spitalnick also decried the emerging fight between the teachers’ union and American Jewish organizations, describing it as counterproductive. ‘The extreme voices (on both ends of the spectrum) pitting Jews against teachers’ unions only make it easier for this admin to gut public education and our broader institutions & democracy,’ she wrote on X. ‘Division is their core tactic — to undermine the very coalitions we need to fight back.’”

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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