The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed a charge Monday with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, accusing the National Education Association of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by fostering a hostile, antisemitic environment that discriminated against Jewish members.

The 297-page complaint, submitted by the center's affiliated Louis D. Brandeis Center Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism, claims the NEA, representing more than 3 million educators, denied Jewish members leadership opportunities through racial quotas that classify many Jews as "white" and exclude them from preferred minority categories. It alleges the union ignored complaints of harassment, allowed antisemitic tropes to spread via its materials and events, and contributed to antisemitism in K-12 schools.

Specific incidents cited include harassment at the NEA's 2025 Representative Assembly. Jewish delegates from the NEA Jewish Affairs Caucus reported being surrounded, shouted down, and physically intimidated by anti-Israel activists during debates, including over a failed resolution to boycott Anti-Defamation League Holocaust education materials. One Jewish delegate mentioned an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor killed in a 2024 antisemitic firebombing in Boulder, Colorado; audience members laughed and clapped in response. During the caucus's 50th anniversary event, opponents positioned themselves threateningly nearby, prompting security intervention, and NEA President Rebecca S. Pringle blocked the caucus chair from speaking despite prior approval.

The complaint also highlights the NEA's 2025 handbook, which initially described International Holocaust Remembrance Day as honoring "more than 12 million victims" from various groups without noting Jews as primary targets; the language was revised after backlash, but without apology or guidance to affiliates. On October 8, 2025, the day after the second anniversary of Hamas's October 7, 2023, attacks, the NEA emailed members a map erasing Israel and labeling the area "Palestine," linking to resources from groups that supported the attacks; it was removed later with a brief statement but no further action.

"The NEA’s conduct is both completely illegal and morally unjustifiable," said Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Brandeis Center and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education. "The hostile, antisemitic environment propagated by the NEA ... touches every school and every classroom in which an NEA member works."

Marci Miller, the center's director of legal investigations, told reporters the union's inaction signals to affiliates that "antisemitism is acceptable" and traced student antisemitism on campuses back to K-12 influences from unions like the NEA.

The NEA faces ongoing congressional scrutiny, including probes by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee into its handling of antisemitism. The EEOC charge seeks an investigation, cessation of discriminatory practices, and corrective measures for equal participation.

The NEA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.