The largest teachers union in the United States is facing intense criticism after a draft handbook for 2025 promoted a version of International Holocaust Remembrance Day that does not mention Jews.The National Education Association (NEA), which represents nearly three million public school teachers, says it wants classrooms to mark January 27 by honouring “more than 12 million victims … from different faiths, ethnicities, races, political beliefs, genders, and gender identification, abilities/disabilities and other targeted characteristics.” .Nowhere in the two paragraphs does the handbook point out that Nazi Germany’s central aim was the extermination of Europe’s Jews.Jewish groups, historians, and some teachers call the wording a dangerous rewrite of well-documented history. .The controversy comes only weeks after the union’s Representative Assembly voted to boycott Holocaust education materials produced by the Anti-Defamation League, a move the NEA’s leadership later ruled out of order. Opponents argue the latest handbook language shows the NEA leadership actually supports the push to sideline “established Jewish voices.”The same page that avoids naming Jews gives extended space to the Palestinian “Nakba.”"The Nakba, meaning 'catastrophe' in Arabic, refers to the forced, violent displacement and dispossession of at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 during the establishment of the state of Israel," said the handbook."Educating about the Nakba is essential for understanding the Palestinian diaspora narrative and experience, including the ongoing trauma of our Palestinian American students today. Teaching about the Nakba fosters critical thinking and empathy among students, promoting a deeper understanding of historical injustices and their contemporary ramifications.".The handbook urges teachers to present the Nakba as an essential context for today’s Middle East tensions and for “the ongoing trauma of our Palestinian American students.”Another bullet, written as a mandate, tells staff to teach members “the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism” and to defend educators who speak “in defence of Palestine.”"NEA will use existing digital communication tools to educate members about the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism," said the handbook."NEA will use its existing media outlets to defend educators' and students' academic freedom and free speech in defence of Palestine at K-12 schools, colleges, and universities.".The NEA’s handbook is expected to be finalized at its board meeting this fall. Unless the wording changes, school boards across the US could soon be receiving professional development material that re-casts the Holocaust as a generic human rights tragedy rather than a genocide aimed first at Jews.
