The National Education Association, the nation’s largest labor union, is being accused of politicizing an online International Holocaust Remembrance Day event.

The Jan. 27 “understanding antisemitism” event was a conversation between Becky Pringle, president of the union, and Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

“At JCPA, we believe that engagement and solidarity, not retrenchment and insularity, is the way to strengthen our democracy and end the rise of antisemitism, bigotry and hate in our country,” JCPA stated. “Together with our allies at the National Education Association, JCPA is working to provide educators, administrators and school boards with the resources needed to provide Jewish students and educators with safe, inclusive spaces.”

During the discussion, Pringle linked Holocaust remembrance to contemporary activism, citing events in Minnesota and saying that the safety of the Jewish people is “connected to the safety of all” and “is so critical right now, as this administration focuses on stoking fear and division between within and among groups.”

“Genocide continues to confound us, where even as we mourn the horror and the inhumanity, we are at this moment repeating history,” she said.

Spitalnick raised concerns during the webinar about Jewish educators being targeted in professional spaces.

“As we’ve seen, particularly since this past spring, increasing violence seeking to hold Jews accountable for the actions of the Israeli government, targeting Jewish people, leaders, institutions here under the guise of protesting Israel,” she said.

She added that Jewish NEA members had shared “the pain and the fear that they felt at various convenings where they were specifically targeted or otherwise ostracized by members simply for being Jewish.” 

Pringle did not respond to Spitalnik’s comment.

After the webinar, the union shared resources on antisemitism, including the Nexus Project, which divides Zionism from Judaism, and Bend the Arc, which says that antisemitism is a “key characteristic” of right-wing political movements.

Mika Hackner, director of research at the North American Values Institute, told JNS that the NEA president derailed the purpose of the event.

“Becky Pringle ignored the concerns of Jewish NEA members and used a webinar meant to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day to instead make links to events in Minnesota and call for activism,” Hackner said. 

“It is so telling of the organization that the NEA has become under Pringle’s leadership,” she said.

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