Dysfunctional union governance is leaving some Jewish faculty and graduate students marginalized and unrepresented by the labor organizations meant to advocate for them, a report released Wednesday by the Academic Engagement Network and the Anti-Defamation League documents. 

The report, “A Crisis of Representation: Antisemitism and Inclusion in Higher Education Unions,” highlights how activist factions have used low-turnout union elections to push anti-Israel positions without broad member buy-in — often at the expense of Jewish members who say they have faced targeted attacks. 

One union member interviewed for the report said, “I no longer feel that the national organization can represent me equally … Union leadership has not addressed antisemitism with any seriousness or clarity.”

Another said they resigned after “the climate in my union local was quickly becoming toxic for Jewish members. … I, myself, was labelled a ‘Zionist’ and ousted from a leadership position.”  

The report comes following efforts by several major academic groups to change their bylaws to back academic boycotts of Israel in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and ensuing Gaza war. The American Association of University Professors led this shift in 2024; Since then, the organization hosted a webinar on “scholasticide in Palestine,” while requests from Jewish organizations to include differing perspectives in its programming allegedly went unanswered.

Several graduate student unions have similarly adopted positions hostile to Israel. The report highlights Cornell Graduate Students United, which adopted a statement in 2025 endorsing a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions and affirming Palestinians’ “unequivocal human right to resist oppression by any means necessary,” a statement that many Jewish people see as a call to violence.

The report warns that this trend pulls unions away from their historical orienting goals such as wages and member trust. It recommends steps for union members, leadership and university administrators to improve governance, transparency and member diversity. 

“Unions are strongest when all of their members believe they are represented fairly and can participate meaningfully,” said Miriam Elman, executive director of AEN, a network of faculty and staff countering antisemitism on campus. “When Jewish faculty and graduate students feel they must remain silent, disengage, or conceal aspects of their identity in order to participate, unions risk undermining the solidarity and equal representation at the heart of their mission.”