Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, sent a letter on Thursday to the National Education Association accusing the largest teachers’ union in the country of a “deeply troubling” pattern of antisemitism within its ranks.

“The Jewish people have suffered assaults on their identity, religion, culture, and lives for millennia. Disturbingly, we are witnessing a rise in antisemitic sentiment across the Western world, including in the United States,” Cassidy wrote. “Let me put it plainly: antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent and has no place within our society, especially at our K-12 schools, higher institutions of learning, workplaces, and within unions.”

Cassidy said that the NEA has “lost sight” of its congressionally chartered purpose, adopting a “misplaced” focus on “political activism, foreign policy, and environmental and social justice causes” and becoming “hostile” to Jewish NEA members.

The letter lists out a litany of incidents including a map sent in a mass email to three million NEA members describing the entire land of Israel as “indigenous” Palestinian territory and linking to resources from Hamas-supporting organizations, an attempted boycott of the Anti-Defamation League and reported harassment of Jewish delegates at the NEA’s national conference.

It also raises concerns about a series of provisions included in the 2025 NEA handbook, including language about Holocaust Remembrance Day that “significantly glossed over and failed to mention the attempted annihilation of the Jewish people under the Nazi regime”; one-sided language on the “Palestinian Nakba” that fails to acknowledge Arab attacks on Jews or the United Nations’ role in Israel’s founding; and language that aims to separate anti-Zionism from antisemitism.

Cassidy said that Jewish NEA members have informed the committee that they “are feeling increasingly threatened and ostracized” by the NEA’s “seeming indifference” to them, have been blocked from leaving the national NEA and have had no recourse to address these issues.

NEA representatives at schools have been “increasingly hostile” to Jewish teachers as well, Cassidy said, targeting them for supporting Israel, denying the Oct. 7 attacks and downplaying and denying antisemitism.

Cassidy said the NEA has repeatedly failed to properly and fulsomely apologize for these incidents. In one case, he said, “the NEA’s retroactive statement appears to be a sloppy, insincere, and reactionary attempt [to] move on from its unacceptable behavior.”

Cassidy put forward dozens of questions to the organization, including the process that allowed for the anti-Israel map to be sent out and whether those involved had been held accountable, the NEA’s response to Jewish members who were harassed and the approval process for the handbook language, and how and why it has responded — or not responded — to antisemitism, among various others.