EEOC opens antisemitism probe into NEA, Brandeis Center says

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has opened an investigation into the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, over antisemitism allegations, the Louis D. Brandeis Center — which filed the allegations — announced Monday.

EEOC opened its investigation almost two months after the Brandeis Center’s Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism filed a complaint alleging that NEA created a hostile environment for its former and current Jewish members. 

In an email Monday, EEOC said it could “neither confirm nor deny the existence [of] any charge or charge inquiry.” 

“Under federal law, both charges filed with, and charge inquires made to the EEOC are confidential,” the EEOC spokesperson said. 

The Brandeis Center, however, said the investigation is open in the federal agency’s Washington, D.C., Field Office. Investigators, the center said, have collected documents, witness information and other materials provided by Brandeis in support of the charges. 

The Brandeis complaint alleges: 

NEA’s handbook failed to mention Jews as the primary victims of the Holocaust, and instead pointed to “more than 12 million victims of the Holocaust from different faiths, ethnicities, races, political beliefs, genders, and gender identification, abilities/disabilities, and other targeted characteristics.” 
NEA, in October 2025, sent a mass email to its nearly 3 million members that included a modern-day map of Israel’s boundaries labeled as Palestine, as part of celebrating “indigenous lands” and sharing resources to teach students about “land we occupy.” 
Jewish delegates for NEA’s annual 2025 Representative Assembly — the union’s principal governing body — were physically surrounded and shouted at by anti-Israel protestors.

“Unions exist to advocate for fair wages, protect employee rights, and ensure equal treatment for all members,” said Kenneth Marcus, founder and CEO of the Brandeis Center, in a Monday statement. Marcus was a longtime Education Department employee at the Office for Civil Rights, and also ran the civil rights arm under the Bush and first Trump administrations. “The last thing they should do is to violate the rights of the very people whose rights they exist to protect.” 

NEA did not respond to a request for comment by press time on Monday.

However, in a May 5 statement to K-12 Dive responding to the original complaint, NEA said it “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 in an email.

The organization also released a statement in October 2025 regarding the map in its mass email. “It has come to our attention that an external resource that was linked to on NEA’s website, which has been widely used by many news outlets and organizations for many years, falls well short of our standards,” NEA said. 

“After we became aware of content on this external website — particularly related to Israel and Palestine — we conducted our own deeper review including of links to additional third-party hosted content. Upon that review, we immediately removed this resource from the NEA website,” NEA said.

EEOC’s decision to open the complaint — which the Brandeis Center labeled as “prompt” in its Monday announcement — comes as the Trump administration cracks down on antisemitism allegations, including at K-12 and higher education institutions. 

In April, the U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into the New York City Department of Education over allegations of discrimination against Jewish students from actions by a group of pro-Palestinian teachers who held a “teaching seminar” series on “Palestine, Zionism, and Resistance.” 

In addition, antisemitism remains a concern for school leaders. According to a report released by the Anti-Defamation League in May, incidents at non-Jewish K-12 schools remained relatively level in 2025 compared to 2024, despite a significant decline in antisemitic incidents in the nation overall between those years.