Some pro-Israel members of the United Teachers Los Angeles House of Representatives are condemning the union for bypassing its own policies to expel a Jewish teacher and Zionist activist. 

During a June 3 meeting held on Zoom, the union’s House of Representatives — the highest voting body in the union — voted to expel Amy Leserman, who retired as a Los Angeles public school teacher last year and now works at a local Jewish day school. 

Leserman chairs JewTLA, a group that seeks to help Los Angeles students, teachers and families combat classroom antisemitism through legal filings and complaints. However, she remains a polarizing figure even among some pro-Israel members of the community, who say she has personally and publicly targeted individuals she considers antisemitic and pushed union members to resign.

Still, some of those same members argue her removal violated the constitution, alleging it stemmed solely from Leserman’s personal beliefs.

“Amy has done many things in her private time against those she perceives as antisemitic and anti-Israel. She’s done many things that I don’t agree with. She’s gone after people personally, holding them accountable for their antisemitic beliefs. However, in the House of Representatives, she was simply an observer. She was allowed to be there. She never opened up her mouth, she did nothing,” Scott Mandel, a Los Angeles Unified School District teacher for 41 years who has been on UTLA’s board of directors for almost two decades, told Jewish Insider. 

“When the antisemites saw she was there, they demanded she be kicked out because of actions she took,” continued Mandel. “However, she broke no rules according to our constitution.”

Mandel, who attended the meeting, said he spoke up at the time, asserting that “if you want to start judging people because of actions in their personal life, you need to make new rules. Put that in the constitution.”

“If someone is taken out of a meeting because of what they’ve done on their own, you have to make new rules — but this is wrong. Amy is seen as very pro-Israel, so the antisemite coalition — which is big — said out with the rules and demanded her gone. For the first time in my 18 years, I saw somebody expelled for their personal beliefs.” 

UTLA, the labor union of more than 35,000 public school educators in LA, did not respond to a request for comment from JI. 

Leserman, who was a UTLA member for more than 20 years, also asserts the meeting suddenly became “an anti-Israel tirade” with participants “saying they felt threatened by my presence, they couldn’t have me there and that I was a danger to them by being in the meeting.”

She said “the president of the union let this go on for 30 to 40 minutes. [Then] they voted to expel me.” 

“There are people in the union that really resent [my involvement with JewTLA]. I don’t mind them resenting that,” said Leserman, who told JI that the rise of antisemitism in district public schools following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and ensuing war in Gaza did not factor into her decision to retire. She did not elaborate on what led to that decision.  

The incident received condemnation from other Jewish union members — who also see Leserman as a controversial figure — as well as the regional chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, which called reports of the expulsion “deeply troubling.” 

A pro-Israel source familiar with the union told JI the expulsion followed months of internal tension. 

“The problem with Amy, and why she became toxic within UTLA is that when she retired she was explaining to people how to quit the union,” said the source. “She wound up getting entangled with Right to Work people, whether intentional or not. To the union as a whole, both pro-Israel and anti-Israel unionists, she became kind of toxic because of her association with Right to Work people. To what extent that played a role in what happened with the House of Representatives, it’s not clear. But it’s not black and white or that this came out of the blue.”

The source added: “She’s managed to get herself portrayed as the victim here. Everything the House of Representatives did is wrong, but the history [is important]. It’s not like she walked in as a longtime supporter of Israel and got smacked down. The anonymosity was there because of months and months of trying to get people to quit the union.” 

“I think if people quit the union it just increases the strength of the Israel and Jew haters,” the source added. 

Gregg Solkovits, a former UTLA officer and a retired teacher who has been a member of the union for 38 years, asserted that “without a doubt, it was wrong for the union to expel her.”

“What we have is intolerance from a radical minority of the union who espouses anti-Zionist rhetoric,” Solkovits, who was not on the call, told JI. “The union just elected an officer who is blatantly anti-Israel, and I say antisemitic. It’s wrong on a moral level and I think on a legal level [to expel her]. I don’t think UTLA followed its own procedures on this. It’s unfortunate that union leadership, from the president on down, chose not to say a word when it’s wrong.” 

Mandel and Leserman both pointed to a pervasive anti-Israel obsession within the union.

“This is a group that for the last two years has voted every anti-resolution possible,” said Mandel. “They’ve gotten to the point where they voted that if any politician has ever voted for arms for Israel, UTLA cannot support them. Even if you have a politician who has been the most pro-education, pro-labor person, but one time in their career voted for arms for Israel, UTLA will no longer endorse them. That’s how ridiculous they’ve gotten. They put their personal feelings ahead of what’s good for the union.”  

Leserman said, “The union does not currently have a teachers contract, the district hasn’t signed the one that they agreed on. That should have been the focus of the meeting. Instead, six out of 10 of the items on the schedule had to do with Israel and how bad Israel is. They need to deal with the problems on their doorstep — they’re about to have 6,000 teachers laid off. None of that was discussed.” 

Los Angeles Unified School District, which serves more than 560,000 students across Los Angeles County, has been accused of failing to address antisemitism — including within teachers’ unions. The district was named in a February lawsuit that highlighted several complaints from Jewish parents and children in districts across California.