The NEA has made a promise to every educator and every student. NEA JAC holds the institution to that promise, using its own mission, rules and civil rights commitments to demand that antisemitism is recognized, named and addressed. Antisemitism is a civil rights issue. It happens in our schools, our union halls and our movement spaces, and it must be treated with the same seriousness as all other forms of discrimination based on ancestry and ethnic identity.

​

​

Antisemitism in our schools and union halls is a union problem, not just a Jewish problem. When any member is excluded or silenced, solidarity breaks down for everyone. Jewish inclusion belongs in DEI. When Jews are left out of equity frameworks, antisemitism goes unaddressed and the union's commitment to all marginalized communities is weakened. Addressing antisemitism is not a distraction from the union's work. It is the union's work.

​

​

​

The NEA has expanded inclusion before, for Black educators, for women, for LGBTQ+ members. NEA JAC is walking that same path. Jewish safety and equity are not in conflict with anyone else's. Dignity, safety and justice are not zero-sum. We reject the false framing that supporting Jewish communities comes at the expense of other communities. We ask for nothing more and nothing less than what the union has already committed to for every other community.

​

​

NEA JAC is the organized Jewish voice inside the NEA. We are building the network, the alliances and the institutional presence to make change from within, using democratic union processes to hold the institution accountable. Like all marginalized communities, Jews have the right to name our identity, our history and the discrimination we face. That includes the right to define antisemitism as we experience it. Imposing outside definitions or denying our lived experience is itself a form of erasure.