Jewish educators sue California teachers’ union they say supported antisemitism

Four Jewish teachers are suing their California teachers’ union for alleged antisemitism and its refusal to let them leave the group.

The lawsuit, announced on Oct. 7, was filed against the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) by the Freedom Foundation.

“In the aftermath of the deadly Hamas attacks, UTLA used membership dues to subsidize anti-Semitic school board candidates, curriculum and rhetoric,” said Shella Alcabes, Freedom Foundation’s California litigator. “When educators objected, UTLA retaliated by intimidating Jewish teachers and barring dissenters from union activities.” 

The lawsuit claims the union purposefully excluded Jewish educators from Zoom meetings and Facebook communication, sported “overtly anti-Israel background screens,” and equated supporting Israel to “white supremacy.” 

Additionally, UTLA supported Kahllid Al-Alim for school board in the fall of 2023, donating $728,000 to his campaign. 

Al-Alim has “an extensive number of public antisemitic posts on both Twitter/X and Instagram, including blood libel, conspiracy theories and anti-Zionist rhetoric.”  

Jewish educators also took issue with the union’s support of antisemitic ethnic studies curriculum. 

Last year, a Jewish civil rights group sued the Santa Ana school district for its “deeply disturbing” ethnic studies curriculum. 

Ethnic studies will soon be required to graduate high school in California.  

But UTLA’s hostility towards Jewish people isn’t new, according to critics. 

In 2021, a 6th grade teacher named Lindsay Kohn blew the whistle on the union’s anti-Israel rhetoric and activities during a Palestinian conflict.  

“As an educated person, I cannot understand how the union can stand by a terrorist organization and a country that bombs Israel, hurts their children and wants to kill every Jew,” Kohn wrote. “The Palestinians use children and civilians as human shields and then blame Israel for their death. This political battle has NOTHING to do with the education of my students. 

“I feel unsafe as a Jew in this UTLA.”  

Despite the sharp philosophical divide, the current plaintiffs were not allowed to leave UTLA or stop paying dues. California law stipulates a single union must represent all employees. 

“UTLA hates Israel,” Alcabes concluded. “It supports causes, organizations and speech that is anti-Israel, and is really anti-Jewish, but Jewish teachers are forced to be a part of it. This law is unconstitutional because it forces these teachers to be represented by an organization that hates them.”