{"id":183396,"date":"2025-08-29T00:07:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T00:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/183396\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T00:07:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T00:07:13","slug":"jewish-activists-accuse-nyc-teachers-union-of-condoning-antisemitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/183396\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish activists accuse NYC teachers’ union of condoning antisemitism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jewish educators and activists slammed the United Federation of Teachers leadership for failing to fight antisemitism in the New York City public school system \u2014 and for stabbing them in the back by endorsing Israel-bashing, boycott supporter Zohran Mamdani for mayor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One angry educator even urged teachers to stop paying union dues in protest \u2014 as others demanded the union retract its support for the socialist Democratic Party nominee. <\/p>\n

Moshe Spern, the head of United Jewish Teachers faction in the union, blasted the union\u2019s responses to antisemitic incidents at locations such as Hillcrest HS <\/a>\u2014 where a Jewish teacher was forced to hide in a locked office during an anti-Israel riot last year\u2013 as inadequate.<\/p>\n

Jewish officials criticized the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) for failing to actively fight antisemitism across New York City public schools. Lizzy Savetsky \/ X<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere was the UFT? \u2026 It took them almost two weeks to issue a statement, and that statement didn\u2019t even mention antisemitism or the Jewish community,\u201d Spern said Thursday during an \u201cEnd Jew Hatred\u201d rally attended by 40 educators and Jewish civil rights activists in front of the union\u2019s downtown headquarters.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we feel safe? When our teachers get attacked, our union says little and does nothing. When our protected rights are infringed upon, our union says little and does nothing. When they need us, they pretend we matter, and when they don\u2019t, they ignore our concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spern, a high school teacher, went on to say he was personally disappointed with UFT president Michael Mulgrew. <\/p>\n

His group of Jewish teachers backed Mulgrew during his tough re-election fight earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Their reward that added insult to injury? The Mulgrew-led union endorsed Mamdani \u2014 who supports the <\/a>boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against the Jewish state \u2014 for mayor following Mamdani\u2019s Democratic primary victory over Andrew Cuomo and other rivals. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis explanation was that the candidate was the best for the union, but not for its Jewish union members who voted for Mulgrew,\u201d Spern said.<\/p>\n

The UFT has also been slammed for endorsing Zohran Mamdani for mayor in the upcoming general election. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a history teacher, and this country was founded on the principle of \u2018no taxation without representation.\u2019 Guess what? I say the same thing today, on August 28, 2025: let\u2019s make it very clear: No union representation, no union dues!,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There are 150 teachers who are sending their letters to the union to cancel their dues, Spern said. He vowed to personally deliver the letters to the union.<\/p>\n

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Other protesters said enough is enough.<\/p>\n

The UFT has \u201cfailed the Jewish community,\u201d said Michelle Ahdoot, director of programming and strategy with the Jewish civil rights group End Jew Hatred NY, which helped organize the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems that the UFT will support you \u2014 unless you are a Jew,\u201d Ahdot claimed.<\/p>\n

Educators across the Big Apple have encouraged teachers to stop paying union dues to protest against the UFT. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UFT chose to endorse the candidate for mayor who has refused to denounce anti Semitic rhetoric. This choice is just the latest example of the pattern of neglect and indifference to the equality and inclusion of the Jewish community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jewish activists demanded that the UFT adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, ban hate materials, provide mandatory training on bias against Jews, and retract endorsements of candidates who normalize slogans such as \u201cglobalize the intifada.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are asking that they retract their endorsement of Zohran Mamdani,\u201d said attendee Lizzie Savetsky.<\/p>\n

She complained the socialist Democratic nominee has not condemned the phrase \u201cglobalize the intifada,\u201d<\/a> which many believe is a rally cry to terrorize and kill Jews.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UFT has a long history of working with, listening to, and protecting the diverse Jewish community in our schools and our city, and we will continue to do so,\u201d\u00a0 a UFT spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jewish educators and activists slammed the United Federation of Teachers leadership for failing to fight antisemitism in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":183397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,12648,5248,43433,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5341,80,40852,38597,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-183396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-antisemitism","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-michael-mulgrew","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-nyc-mayoral-election-2025","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-public-schools","21":"tag-united-federation-of-teachers","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-us-news","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115109143841062699","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}