Newsweek Op-Ed: To Fight Antisemitism and Preserve Democracy, Educators and the Jewish Community Must Partner Closely

Originally published by Newsweek.

By Randi Weingarten, President of the AFT, and Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs

There is no question: Antisemitism is on the rise. From acts of mass violence, to efforts to marginalize or target Jews in schools, on campuses and in other key spaces, this threat is real. It comes alongside a broader rise in hate and extremism—and it threatens all of our communities and the core of our democracy.

The loudest and most extreme voices are exploiting this moment to further pit our communities against one another, fueling division and polarization rather than constructive solutions.

There are rightfully strong feelings—and important debate and criticism—about events in the world, including the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But we have also seen deliberate efforts on both extremes to explicitly pit Jewish Americans against teachers’ unions, academic institutions, and public education itself. These efforts aim to divide communities and institutions that have historically worked together.

That’s why our organizations, the AFT and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), recently launched a new partnership designed to model constructive engagement. It began in 2024, when JCPA spoke about antisemitism to an overflowing room at an AFT Higher Education meeting. It was immediately clear that educators were hungry for real information and dialogue to understand and combat hate.

This year, we’ve grown our partnership. Our engagement has become all the more crucial as the Trump administration, seeking to exploit the Jewish community’s legitimate concerns, has advanced an extreme agenda that guts federal funding for universities, arrests and seeks to deport students without due process, and fundamentally attacks core democratic principles including academic freedom.

At the same time, the administration is also destroying the very institutions and tools we need to protect Jewish and all vulnerable students. This month, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can move forward with laying off over one-third of the Department of Education’s staff. While the administration claims to prioritize the fight against antisemitism, it has decimated the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which investigates discrimination in schools and on campus.

The administration’s harmful actions don’t take away from the fact that Jewish educators and students are experiencing real hate and bias—from harassment or ostracization over real or perceived connections to Israel, to efforts to discount the urgency of increasing antisemitism, to explicit violence.

Real concerns over antisemitism—and how best to fight it—were spotlighted just recently, with a vote at a National Education Association (NEA) convening on a resolution that sought to boycott Anti-Defamation League (ADL) resources. We applaud the NEA for ultimately rejecting this divisive resolution. What got lost in the controversy was the constructive resolutions the NEA passed aimed at protecting Jewish, and all, students and educators. Neither of our organizations are in lockstep with the ADL, but the solution to antisemitism and broader hate isn’t to cut off engagement. On the contrary, we need to build the strongest possible coalitions, even across lines of disagreement.

The ways in which antisemitism and anti-democratic extremism reinforce one another threaten not only the Jewish community but all of us. These threats require us to foster an approach that brings people together, recognizing our safety is inextricably linked.

Our joint work is premised on three pillars: to create safe and welcoming environments; to challenge and counter all acts of hate, including antisemitism; and to protect people’s rights to both their own expression and safe classrooms and campuses. We need to fight hate speech, but we must also change hearts and minds.

Through programs and workshops, we are empowering educators and union leaders to recognize and combat antisemitism, as well as broader hate and extremism, and to constructively navigate nuanced issues related to Israel and Palestine. We are also bringing together local unions and Jewish communities to advance shared priorities.

We are not naïve; we know that this work is difficult and that the challenges are real. Too many Jewish students and educators in K-12 schools, and on our university and college campuses, feel marginalized and unsafe. That is completely unacceptable, and it needs to change.

As we tackle these problems, we fundamentally reject the idea that robust public education and academic institutions, thriving teachers’ unions, and strong democratic values are somehow at odds with Jewish safety. On the contrary: Educators, working together with Jewish community leaders, have a critical role to play in fighting antisemitism and all hate. The safety of the Jewish community is intimately connected with a strong public education system, a thriving labor movement, and an inclusive democracy that protects the rights and freedoms of all.

The extreme voices who say that we should not or cannot work together are wrong. For the sake of our collective future, we can’t let them be victorious.

Randi Weingarten is president of the AFT.

Amy Spitalnick is CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.