March 13, 2025 — Boston
American Jewish Committee (AJC) New England today released a new report unpacking the Massachusetts Teachers Association's (MTA) failure to take meaningful actions to address deeply troubling “curriculum resources” that it curated for its members—including teachers who work in K-12 schools.
The development of these resources was the latest initiative in the union’s nearly year-and-a-half long campaign against Israel and its supporters. According to the new report by AJC New England, the MTA’s failure to remove and correct nearly all of its anti-Jewish, anti-Israel resources reflects the deeply embedded ideological commitments of many of its leaders.
This report, which follows and expands on AJC New England’s December 2024 report on the MTA’s efforts to politicize K-12 classrooms, comes weeks after MTA leadership said it would remove from the MTA’s website “any materials that do not further the cause of promoting understanding.”
The MTA’s statement came after the Feb. 10 hearing of the Massachusetts Special Commission for Combatting Antisemitism, which brought to light the shocking content, including some of the disturbing, violent, and antisemitic ideas and images that the MTA elected to publish as resources for its membership.
Among the published content displayed at the hearing was an image of a Star of David made of dollar bills and a poster portraying Zionists as snakes—both of which MTA President Max Page failed to condemn.
“Page’s devastating performance at the State House hearing was not a one-off mistake,” said AJC New England Director Rob Leikind. “On the contrary, it was a revealing public display of the MTA’s ideological commitments, consistent with the MTA’s orientation since – and even before – the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023.”
The AJC New England report details growing evidence that Page and other MTA leaders have aligned with “proponents of radical educational reform, who propose to ‘liberate’ students and educational processes from what they conceive to be pervasive, white supremacist oppression.” Solidarity with pro-Palestinian activism and opposition to Israel and its supporters, the report explains, has become an essential pillar of this ideology.
According to the AJC New England report, the MTA leadership’s deeply held political and philosophical views appear to have “made it impossible for the MTA to acknowledge that Hamas, a recognized terrorist group, massacred more than 1,200 civilians in Israel,” and prevented Page from admitting that a “Jewish Star made out of dollar bills is an antisemitic trope similar to those that have been used to inspire hatred of Jews for centuries.”
AJC New England has been working with Massachusetts Educators Against Antisemitism and other Jewish organizations for more than a year to expose the MTA’s troubling trajectory.
“The MTA has now heard concerns from its own members, from residents across Massachusetts, and from citizens nationwide,” Leikind said. “The question is whether its leaders will finally listen and engage in a sincere effort to protect classrooms as places for education, not indoctrination.”
AJC New England connects our community with American Jewish Committee’s global advocacy work to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel. Our access to diplomats, elected officials, and interfaith leaders at the local level advances AJC’s broader priorities: combating antisemitism, promoting Israel’s place in the world, and countering the spread of radicalism and extremism.
