February 19, 2025 — Boston, MA
American Jewish Committee (AJC) New England welcomes today’s statement from Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy that they will remove from the MTA’s website “any materials that do not further the cause of promoting understanding.” This statement refers to the publication of very troubling, one-sided, anti-Jewish, and anti-Israel content posted on the MTA’s members-only website.
Following the publication of these “curriculum resources,” several Jewish groups and nearly 2,000 Massachusetts residents – led by AJC New England and Massachusetts Educators Against Antisemitism (MEAA), expressed concern to MTA leadership about these materials. These concerns were amplified by the February 10 State House hearing during which Page refused to acknowledge or condemn the troubling nature of the materials posted on the MTA’s website.
“We welcome the MTA’s long-awaited acknowledgement that some of the resources provided to its members might not meet the union’s ethical standards,” said AJC New England Regional Director Rob Leikind. “We are cautiously hopeful that the MTA will remove these resources and step back from its recent pattern of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish activity that risks polarizing and politicizing classrooms, and harming students across Massachusetts.”
AJC New England published a detailed report in December 2024 documenting how “the MTA has embraced a series of measures that have supported anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activism and encouraged teachers to do the same.”
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