The Zionist Organization of America filed a complaint against the Massachusetts Teachers Association, alleging that the union has fostered a hostile and discriminatory environment against its Jewish members since Oct. 7.
The 26-page complaint, obtained by JNS, was filed with Andrea Joy Campbell, the attorney general of Massachusetts, on Aug. 13. It alleges that the union’s actions violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and state law.
Campbell’s office confirmed to JNS that it has received the complaint. JNS sought comment from the union.
The complaint states that various Jewish teachers have resigned from the 117,000-member union “because they could no longer tolerate being associated with an organization that is directing and fueling such hostility toward them.”
“It was shocking to us to see this incessant focus by the MTA on attacking and demonizing Israel and even Jews after the Hamas massacre,” Susan Tuchman, director of the ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice, told JNS.
She said the union has been doing this through resolutions, webinars and curriculum resources.
The teachers’ union has passed multiple anti-Israel resolutions. In December 2023, the union’s board of directors passed a resolution calling for the National Education Association to lobby the Biden administration to call for an end to Israel’s “genocidal war” in Gaza. The resolution did not mention the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 of that year that led to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, per the complaint.
“The union was asked to acknowledge and condemn the Hamas massacre, but never did, and never has,” Tuchman said.
Another resolution passed by the union board that same December instructed its training and professional learning division to develop educational resources for union members to learn about “the history and current events in Israel and Occupied Palestine,” according to the complaint.
The union staff member directed to develop these resources has a history of anti-Israel rhetoric, as shortly after Oct. 7, he “posted on Instagram an image of women bearing slingshots and others waving Palestinian Arab flags under the banner ‘Free Palestine,’” per the complaint. He also accused Israel of genocide and has “glorified Palestinian Arab terrorist and plane hijacker Leila Khaled,” the complaint stated.
Jewish members expressing concern about this staff member were accused by the MTA board of “questioning the work of a man of color,” according to the complaint.
‘Never acknowledged any wrongdoing’
The complaint proceeds to highlight the union’s “anti-Israel, antisemitic webinars,” with one example being a March 2024 webinar featuring a slide stating that “Zionism is oppressive and is a multimillion-dollar, Israeli state-funded propaganda machine” and a speaker who claimed that allegations of antisemitism are “cover for Israeli crimes.”
It then documents the union’s “blatantly antisemitic” curriculum resources, which included “images of the Star of David made out of folded dollar bills” and “a poster showing a hand grabbing a snake’s tongue with the words ‘unity in confronting Zionism.’”
These resources were being made available to Massachusetts teachers, “which they would bring this information into the classroom to indoctrinate their students,” Tuchman told JNS.
After the Massachusetts Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism denounced the resources in a February hearing, the union vowed to remove the material (many of the resource links were quietly removed from its website), though “the MTA continued to promote resources that were antisemitic,” the complaint alleges.
Tuchman told JNS that “after some of those materials were taken down, the union leadership never even bothered to acknowledge that the materials were antisemitic. They didn’t issue a statement, didn’t express any sort of apology or any acknowledgement about how these materials would have affected the Jewish members of the union and never acknowledged any wrongdoing.”
The complaint further accuses the union of discriminating against its Jewish members, claiming that the union didn’t provide any reasonable accommodation for the religious observance of its Jewish members.
“The union is holding meetings and events, including important ones where votes are taken and decisions are being made, on Shabbat and Jewish religious holidays,” Tuchman told JNS, “which means that for Jewish members who are observant, they can’t participate or express their views.”
As examples, the complaint points to the union holding a training session for virtual delegates on the eve of Passover in April 2024 without offering any accommodations for its observant Jewish members and holding meetings during Shabbat.
The union did not initially offer any accommodations for meetings during Shabbat, but after Jewish members started sending requests in early 2024, it eventually allowed Shabbat-observant members to send in recorded videos of them expressing their views.
However, the union prescreened these videos and would not allow them to be shown at meetings, which the complaint argues is discriminatory for not vetting members’ in-person comments beforehand.
‘Felt unsafe at union events’
At a February meeting, the union allowed a board member to read aloud a statement by an anti-Israel member not present. After Jewish members pointed out a double standard, the union allowed all members to ask their board representatives to read statements on their behalf if they could not attend.
But one then-board member refused to read a statement from a Jewish member, saying that it aligned “with the current attacks on our union, the Palestine solidarity movement and free speech for all people in Massachusetts,” per the complaint.
The complaint further alleges that Jewish union members have been subjected to intimidation, with one example being delegates jeering at Jewish educators who were speaking out against a new business item that was anti-Israel at the union’s annual meeting in 2024.
Tuchman told JNS that “Jewish educators in this union made numerous, numerous efforts to address these problems on their own,” going as far as telling “union leaders that they actually felt unsafe at union events.” The union leadership never acknowledged these concerns, she said.
The ZOA seeks equitable or injunctive relief in which the union would issue a statement apologizing for the hostile environment fomented against its Jewish members; remove all Israel-related materials from its website; provide accommodations for its observant Jewish members; and reimburse all Jewish members who don’t believe the union is properly representing them, Tuchman told JNS.
