ADL says Mass. teachers’ anti-racism workshop is potentially antisemitic

The Massachusetts Teachers Association is at odds with local Jewish groups over a recent workshop on anti-Palestinian racism, with the Anti-Defamation League accusing the program of reinforcing “antisemitic and anti-Israel falsehoods.”

Held Thursday, the virtual webinar — titled “The Struggle Against Anti-Palestinian Racism” — was the product of the MTA’s Anti-Racism Task Force. 

“It is often said that the issue of Palestine is ‘complicated,’” the event description reads. “For this reason, many educators do not feel confident to speak about it in their classrooms or with their colleagues. However, the idea that Palestinian history is more complicated than the history of other struggles against oppression means that anti-Palestinian racism too often goes unnoticed.”

According to the event page, the workshop was intended to focus on several questions, including, “How does Palestine fit into the larger framework of colonialism and imperialism? What are Zionism and anti-Zionism, and what are their histories? Why is anti-Zionism not antisemitism?”

In a statement posted to X Wednesday, ADL New England said it was “deeply concerned” by the program’s framing. 

“By expressly rejecting anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism and invoking frameworks of ‘colonialism and imperialism’ in a discussion regarding Israel/Palestine, this programming reinforces antisemitic and anti-Israel falsehoods,” the organization said. 

Jeremy Burton, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, alleged that some members of the MTA “have, at times, relied upon pernicious and inflammatory rhetoric.”

In an open letter Wednesday, Burton said “Jewish students, teachers, and community members who support nuanced and robust learning experiences and who want to grapple with difficult but necessary questions, are taken aback by some of the messaging from the MTA in recent months, which plays into familiar and dehumanizing antisemitic tropes.”

He pointed specifically to a Dec. 9 incident during which the MTA’s Board of Directors approved a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and labeling Israel’s military action in Gaza “genocidal.” 

Since the outset of the war following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, “some leaders and members of the MTA have contributed to an erosion of trust which is not only harmful to Jewish teachers and students but, also, to the long-term educational objectives of fostering a culture of exchange, meaningful dialogue, and an embrace of different perspectives and worldviews,” Burton said. 

In a response to the backlash, MTA President Max Page explained that the union recognizes its members have “starkly diverging views” on certain issues. 

“We do not run from those disagreements; we seek to engage with them,” Page said in a statement Thursday. “We are confident enough in our values, and dedicated enough to open debate, that we can invite members into a space where they form committees, set agendas and participate in difficult conversations.”

Page said the MTA received several calls and emails suggesting the union call off the anti-Palestinian racism workshop. He also put the webinar in context, noting that the MTA’s various committees have other upcoming events in the pipeline, including programming on “the rising tide of antisemitism.” 

“The particular viewpoints expressed in these individual workshops do not represent the official views of the MTA,” Page added.

He said the recent accusations of antisemitism have been “particularly difficult,” citing his own background as a Jew and “someone whose father was a refugee from Nazi Germany and who lost 18 family members to the ovens of Auschwitz.”

“I may disagree with views expressed at various events, and at times I will even disagree with actions or language in the actions our Board takes,” Page said. “But I will attend these events, listen and learn. I am proud to lead a democratic organization that wrestles with the world as it is, so we may build the world we all deserve.”