Largest US teachers union sends 3M members map that completely ‘erases’ Israel: ‘Inexcusable lapse’

 From the New York Post, reporter Anna Young. Full article here.

Note all our MCPS teachers are members of the MCEA, which is part of the National Education (NEA).

The nation’s largest teachers union reportedly sent its roughly 3 million members a sickening email containing a map that erased Israel “completely” and labeled it as Palestine.

The National Education Association sent the email Friday providing its members with resources for “teaching about indigenous peoples” that included the disturbing map, the North American Values Institute told the Jewish News Syndicate.

Antisemitism at the National Education Association (NEA) Conference

This disturbing post is from an educator who attended the National Education Association (NEA) annual conference, the Representative Assembly (RA), held this year in Portland, Oregon, July 3rd - July 6th. Our Montgomery County MCEA union belongs to the NEA. Jewish educators are grappling with this new reality as they begin to confront the antisemitism in the NEA.

🚨What I Witnessed at the NEA RA in Portland Shook Me to My Core🚨

Just returned from the NEA Representative Assembly. While our Long Beach delegation (with one glaring exception) was full of passionate, dedicated educators 💪🍎—what I saw from the broader body was one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever experienced.

Let me be clear:

➡️ 7,000+ educators unanimously voted to honor AAPI Month and National Day of the Black Educator (as they should).

➡️ Then immediately debated—yes, debated—whether Jewish American Heritage Month was even worth recognizing.

Nearly HALF the room gleefully and loudly voted against it. Against including Jews in their “inclusive” vision. Against recognizing a community that’s faced thousands of years of persecution and is currently under attack globally.

😔 I saw people line up, prepared, wearing keffiyehs, clad in Palestine flags, wearing shirts accusing Jews of genocide—eager to speak against anything Jewish. They weren’t improvising. These were coordinated, rehearsed lies. Hardly an Amerian flag to be seen. A sea of Palestine.

🙏 While I felt safe in my small corner of the convention—surrounded by respectful and inclusive delegates from Long Beach and suburban L.A. County—many of my Jewish friends did not.

Educators from Oregon, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Maryland, New Jersey, and Illinois did not feel safe in their assigned sections and had to find other places to sit—near friends and allies. 🤝

There were tears. Panic attacks. Silent breakdowns.

But also hugs. Strength. Unshakable solidarity. 💔❤️

Thank God for the NEA Jewish Affairs Caucus and our allies who worked relentlessly behind the scenes—using convention rules—to keep them from getting microphones. But on Day 3… we couldn’t stop them.

They were READY. And the room voted to:

❌ Ban the ADL

📉 Discredit antisemitism statistics in schools

🚫 Silence Jewish voices under the false label of “racism”

Delegates CHEERED. They CLAPPED. They DANCED.

Some even CELEBRATED the murder of a Jewish American in Colorado.

I was stunned. Heartbroken. Horrified.

This is what too many educators—those we trust to teach our children—are modeling. Hatred dressed as activism. Exclusion masquerading as justice. 👎

I now understand what Jews in Berlin, Munich, or Düsseldorf must have felt in 1936. You think, “It can’t happen here.” But it is happening here. 🇺🇸

If America falls, there’s nowhere left. Much of the Western world is already unsafe for Jews.

We must speak out. We must fight back against this normalized hate. We must demand better from our institutions—especially those shaping the next generation.

Silence is complicity.

#StopAntisemitism #NEA #CTA #JewishVoicesMatter #EducationNotHate #NeverAgain ✡️ #Neajac  #ctajac

Lockout! Update on NEA/NEASO Union Dispute: NEA Locks out NEA staff union

Story by Brooke Schultze, in Education Week. Full story here. Our MCPS teachers belong to the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) union. Our local county union is part of NEA. The NEASO president accused the NEA of 'union-busting.'

Staff who disrupted NEA's Assembly Will be Locked out of Work

Staff members for the nation’s largest teachers’ union will be locked out of work until a contract is reached, after their work stoppage ended the union’s largest event of the year in Philadelphia.

The National Education Association informed its staff union of the decision on July 7, a spokesperson said. Nearly 300 staff members working at the union’s headquarters in Washington will be affected by the lockout. They will not be paid, and won’t work, until they reach agreement on a contract. The staff organization’s contract ended May 31.

The decision comes after the National Education Association Staff Organization’s three day strike ended the NEA’s annual representative assembly one day after it got under way. The representative assembly, held for four days over the Fourth of July weekend, brings together thousands of educators from across the country to vote on the union’s priorities, budget, and strategic plan for the year ahead.

And:

“The NEA management’s punitive lockout of its own employees is a dangerous, reckless, and reactionary move that undermines the rights of every union worker in this country,” said NEASO President Robin McLean in a statement. “These are clear union-busting techniques that will not be tolerated. I cannot imagine it lands well that the nation’s largest union is locking out its staff union.”

NEA’s Staff Union Is on Strike—Halting NEA’s Biggest Annual Gathering

Note our MCPS Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) teachers' union - you know, the apple ballot folks - here in Montgomery County, is a member of the National Education Association (NEA). Story in Education Week by Brooke Schultz. Full story NEA's Staff Union Is on Strike—Halting NEA's Biggest Annual Gathering (edweek.org).

Corrected: This story has been corrected to reflect that the strike began July 5, and that NEA President Becky Pringle asked delegates to suspend the rules on July 4.

Philadelphia

Tensions between the nation’s largest teachers’ union and its staff reached a boiling point July 5, as staff members went on strike—halting the four-day representative assembly where thousands of delegates from across the country vote on the union’s budget and priorities.

Union delegates were sent back to their hotels. NEA said it would not cross its staffers’ own picket line.

and:

Staff members allege their access to work cell phones and accounts were cut, and that their return travel and hotel rooms were also canceled.

The staff organization’s contract expired at the end of May, which has upped tensions among union management and staff. NEA union staff walked off the job for the first time in 50 years in June over what they said were unfair labor practices.

NEA: antisemitic resolutions being discussed at the NEA Annual Meeting now

The NEA pulls a fast one and endorses antisemitism in two resolutions on the floor. The Montgomery County Education Association, our teachers' union, is a unit of the NEA. Yet our MCPS teachers can't find out who their delegates to the NEA Annual Meeting are. The American Jewish Congress, a well-respected organization, and one of the oldest Jewish organizations, has put out the following Press release.

FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION:
From June 29th – July 3rd, the National Education Association (NEA) will hold its annual conference, during which its approximately 8000 delegate members will vote on future NEA policy. NEA represents public school teachers, faculty, and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college students preparing to become teachers. Two of the New Business Items listed on the agenda are one-sided and divisive and should be strongly opposed. 

AJC joins the NEA Jewish Affairs Caucus (JAC) in urging that all voting delegates vote NO on Resolution 29 and Resolution 51. 

• Item 29 (NBI 29), which would call on NEA to publicize its support of the Palestinian struggle for justice and accuses Israel of “ethnic cleansing.”
• Item 51 (NBI 51) would advocate for the NEA to “advocate for the end of detention, occupation and abuse of Palestinian children,” as well as partner with “No Way to Treat a Child,” an anti-Israel campaign made up of several organizations that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
  
  

TALKING POINTS:

• These Business Items are directly at odds with NEA’s principles of inclusivity, diversity, and fostering diverse viewpoints. 
• Taking up one-sided, divisive political items causes division within the NEA at a time when educators are facing numerous challenges and public education is under attack.
• As our country emerges from COVID-19, all those who care about public education should be united and focused on ensuring our educational institutions are prepared for the challenges ahead.
• We are asking that delegates vote NO on these divisive resolutions.

If you are an NEA member, and more importantly, VOTING DELEGATE to their convention, please contact the NEA Jewish Affairs Caucus (JAC), which is spearheading the opposition to these resolutions. For more information, please contact Arieh Lebowitz (Arieh@jewishlabor.org) and include your name, email, city and state.

Update:

This is the New Business Item No. 29 text, found here: 

The NEA will publicize its support for the Palestinian struggle for justice and call on the United States government to stop arming and supporting Israel and Saudi Arabia. The NEA will further publicize its support for refugee status for the millions of people across the region who are forced to move and seek refuge for themselves and their families because of the ongoing conflict and repression.

Rationale/Background

The Arab population of Palestine has again risen up in a heroic struggle against military repression and “ethnic cleansing” by the Israeli state and extreme nationalist forces in Israeli society. The NEA’s support of this struggle will weaken reaction internationally.

National Education Association, sent a letter to Congress protesting that it is unfair to tell an admitted, convicted child rapist who has completed his prison sentence that he may not be alone in a classroom with small children. Convicted felons, the letter stated, "should not be subjected to additional punishment because of these convictions."

No one doubted that the fifth-grade science teacher at Prospect Park Elementary School was a pedophile. Child after child, boys 10 to 12 years old came forward and told the Delaware County school stories of the teacher groping boys' crotches, stripping boys naked, and performing multiple sexual acts on young children - raping at least one.
The school, amazingly, decided to take the teacher's side. The principal wrote the teacher a letter of recommendation and helped him land a new job in Fayetteville, W.Va.
One brave Pennsylvania boy tried to have the teacher prosecuted. But he crumbled while telling his story, and the case was over.

For two decades, that teacher continued to brutalize children in West Virginia. The school district ignored complaints from parents. Twelve-year-old Jeremy Bell paid the price. The educator raped and murdered him one night.
As a father of three young children, I wish Jeremy Bell's story was just a freak occurrence. Sadly, it is not...

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20150707_Senate_must_act_on_child-protection_legislation.html#V27Qyve5amMM9eyg.99

...A similar measure unanimously passed the House last year with the support of teachers unions, which have since reversed course, saying educators who were convicted of crimes and served their sentences should not be subjected to additional punishment.
Mr. Toomey called that argument shocking. “The logic is that an admitted and convicted child molester who served 10 years in prison should be able to walk out of that prison and walk down the street to the local grade school and get a job as a teacher in that grade school. I think that’s ridiculous,” the Republican senator said...

 http://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2015/03/18/Toomey-bill-would-compel-wider-background-checks-for-school-employees/stories/201503180062