A new report by the American Jewish Committee’s New England branch found that the Massachusetts Teachers Association has been actively encouraging members to introduce “overtly political” anti-Israel materials into K-12 classrooms after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, reducing “a complex struggle between two people” to an “extreme, one-sided narrative.”

The report, released on Thursday, cites multiple instances in which the MTA, the largest teachers’ union in the state, has embraced activist stances on the ongoing conflict that have drawn allegations of antisemitism from some teachers and parents. 

Since last year’s attacks, the MTA has promoted several resolutions that have demonized Israel and accused the Jewish state of genocide, while “failing to mention” the Hamas massacre and “ignoring the plight of hundreds of Israeli hostages” held in Gaza, the AJC report notes. 

In addition, the union has hosted a controversial webinar identifying support for Zionism as racism and making “false, disparaging assertions about Jews, their values and their beliefs,” according to the report. 

The MTA also sponsored a three-hour workshop urging teachers to develop lesson plans promoting an allegedly distorted view of the Middle East, among other efforts demonstrating the group’s “intention to provide biased, false and inflammatory curriculum resources,” the AJC claims.

As the union has indicated that it plans to create new resources to buttress its existing materials, the report otherwise warns that the process is being led by Ricardo Rosa, the MTA’s director of training and professional learning, “who made social media posts celebrating the Oct. 7 massacre.”

The MTA is among several labor unions that have faced scrutiny for embracing a hostile approach to Israel after Hamas’ attacks and amid the ensuing war in Gaza. In December 2023, MTA’s board of directors approved a motion to “urge the president of the NEA to pressure President Biden to stop funding and sending weapons in support of the Netanyahu government’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

But growing concern over the MTA’s campaign to shape classroom curricula “has been amplified by the fact that its audience is composed of educators, including tens of thousands of K-12 teachers, who may unwittingly bring MTA sponsored propaganda back to their classrooms,” Rob Leikind, the regional director of AJC New England, stressed in an email to Jewish Insider on Thursday.

“In a time when antisemitism is spreading across the country and around the world,” he continued, “MTA activity is generating widespread concern in the Jewish community and among teachers and families in Massachusetts.”

According to Leikind, MTA members and others have urged the union’s leadership “to dial back its aggressive campaign and focus on representing the interests of all its members,” but such appeals have been “largely ignored,” he told JI.

In a joint statement to JI on Thursday, Max Page, the MTA’s president, and Deb McCarthy, its vice president, defended the union’s approach to Israel, saying that “education and social justice are at the core of” what they described as a “member-driven mission.”

“We fight for high-quality, equitable learning conditions in every public school and college, and we defend the rights and the dignity of all people,” they added. “Our long record speaks for itself.”

The MTA leaders also said that board members had “voted to create a set of resources to help educators understand the history and context of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas,” which “are not to be confused with required classroom curriculum materials.”

“Rather, the MTA is making available to its members a variety of materials that introduce multiple perspectives and voices,” Page and McCarthy wrote. “The MTA is aware that any recommended resources on this topic will be controversial. The union moved deliberately and with much reflection to assemble materials that members could consider to enrich their own understanding. As a democratic union, we embrace healthy debate and learning, and this issue is no different.”

Still, Leikind echoed the AJC’s report in insisting that the union’s efforts have “exposed a troubling pattern of activity” as “MTA leadership and radical activists have undertaken a series of initiatives that have abandoned even a pretense of objectivity” and “attacked closely held Jewish beliefs and values.”

To counter the MTA’s anti-Israel activism, Leikind suggested, among other things, that parents and others concerned by its recent direction “should seek opportunities to engage with administrators and teachers in their local schools, before a problem arises.”

“This will ensure that educational leaders are aware of parental concerns, alert to the MTA’s partisan activism, and can take measures to reassure families and students,” he told JI.