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A large nonprofit that defends Jewish and Israeli teachers in America recently filed a complaint alleging the National Education Association discriminates against them because of their ethnicity, identity, and heritage.
“NEA’s discrimination against Jewish members and its toleration and promotion of a hostile environment for Jewish members” is the central allegation in the complaint, filed in early May.
It was filed with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission by the Louis D. Brandeis Center Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism.
It alleges the NEA, the largest teachers’ labor union in the country, is violating federal discrimination laws by effectively prohibiting Jewish people from higher level positions, said Marci Miller, the Brandeis Center’s Director of Legal Investigations, in an interview with The College Fix.
NEA’s media relations office did not respond to The College Fix’s requests for comment.
In a statement to Higher Ed Dive, a NEA spokesperson said the organization “does not tolerate antisemitism in any form and remains committed to ensuring that all members and students, including Jewish members and students, can work and learn in a safe and welcoming environment.”
“We always ensure our meeting rules and programs serve and support all members, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, background, sexual orientation, or gender identity,” said the spokesperson.
The NEA, with over three million members, actively represents educators and other educational professionals and seeks to advocate for quality public education and professional development programs, according to its website.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act because the act prohibits discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, and religion.
Miller told The Fix that the NEA has effectively prohibited Jewish people from higher level positions and has fostered hostile environments against them, including the rewriting of history to exclude Jewish identity and heritage.”
“The NEA’s written policies require the use of unlawful racial and ethnic classifications and preferences to exclude members, and as many Jewish members do not fit into one of the NEA’s preferred minority categories – the NEA classifies them as ‘white’ – they are excluded from governance positions and deprived of other NEA benefits,” a news release from the Brandeis Center states.
The complaint also alleges Jewish NEA members have been “harassed and intimidated by other members in the presence of NEA leadership without intervention,” the release states.
Even within the NEA’s list of policies, it states in Article II of the Constitution that the group will “take steps to achieve ethnicminority representation on elective and appointive bodies at least proportionate to the ethnic-minority membership of the affiliate.” Despite this, Jewish members were consistently denied higher-level leadership positions and mentorship opportunities at NEA, according to the complaint.
Miller said it is “hypocritical” that the NEA is not upholding its own policies in regard to fostering accurate “ethnicminority representation” on the board and in various leadership positions. Because the NEA illegally and inaccurately classifies Jews as “white,” it effectively strips them of their rightful ancestry and ethnicity, she said.
The Brandeis Center also documented multiple instances of anti-Semetic discrimination, harassment, and intimidation following the NEA’s 2025 Representative Assembly in July.
Not only were the Jewish delegates physically surrounded and shouted at by anti-Israel protestors, but there were multiple instances where Jewish members explicitly stated their concern for harassment and physical safety, according to the 297-page complaint.
The NEA also removed both metal detectors and reduced security presence at the event even though their Jewish members faced threats before, after, and during the event, according to the complaint.
“The exclusion [and] intimidation of Jewish members and erasure of Jewish identity has caused Jewish educators to leave their unions and places of employment,” the report stated.
The center asks EEOC to investigate the NEA’s practices and called on them to require the NEA to cease and desist from unlawful conduct, as well as “implement immediate corrective measures which allow all members of the NEA to fully participate without being subjected to harassment or discrimination.”
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