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Tensions flare after Mass. Teachers Association questioned over alleged antisemitic materials
MTA leadership accused the Special Commission on Combatting Antisemitism of "political grandstanding" after a hearing in the State House this week.
The leader of the Massachusetts Teachers Association was grilled for hours in the State House this week over materials the organization made available to teachers about the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Members of the Special Commission on Combatting Antisemitism accused the MTA of distributing antisemitic and offensive materials that they said did not present an Israeli or Jewish perspective on the conflict during a hearing Monday. The union then blasted the commission for choosing to “demonize” MTA teachers and said that the whole affair was an “inquisition that was beneath the dignity of the Legislature.”
The 19-member commission gathered more than two dozen examples of materials distributed by the MTA that they said were problematic. The materials were made available to educators through a members-only section of the MTA website and were not distributed “widely,” MTA President Max Page told the commission. They were not presented as pieces of a particular curriculum, and the MTA’s posting of these documents does not imply agreement with the views expressed in them.
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The MTA expects members to look at any resources, including the ones in question with a critical eye. Attacks on members in the union over these materials show a disrespect for those educators, Page said, adding that they are not “robots who would somehow be brainwashed by a single set of resources.”
State Senator John Velis, the commission’s cochair, called the resources “incredibly one-sided,” and said he was concerned that teachers using all of these materials would develop antisemitic opinions.
State Rep. Simon Cataldo, the commission’s other cochair, went through numerous examples of the materials in question. Examples included: a poster depicting a person holding an automatic weapon with the words “what was taken by force can only be returned by force,” a poster depicting a hand grabbing a snake’s tongue with the words “unity in confronting Zionism,” and a storybook about a young Palestinian girl who says that “a group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land so they stole it by force and hurt many people,” in describing the Nakba.
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Cataldo repeatedly asked Page whether the materials were antisemitic and peppered him with other basic questions about what was being displayed during the hearing. Page grew visibly frustrated.
“Are we in a court situation?” he asked Cataldo at one point. “Representative, you’ve made your point and I realize you don’t actually need me here. You should just keep making your speech,” Page said later.
Some of those gathered at the hearing appeared to take issue with Cataldo’s questioning. One member of the audience interrupted Cataldo’s questioning to refer to him as “Senator McCarthy,” an apparent reference to the Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s attempts to uncover supposed communists within the U.S. government in the 1950s. It elicited loud cheers from the audience.
This is not the first time the MTA and Page have been under fire for positions taken about the war and the larger Israel-Palestine conflict.
In December 2023, the union’s board of directors approved a motion to call for a ceasefire that accused Israel of perpetuating a “genocidal war on the Palestinian people in Gaza.” The Newton Teachers Association called this “antisemitic dog-whistling” and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston also criticized the MTA’s actions. Last March, the Anti-Defamation League accused the MTA of leading a webinar that “reinforced antisemitic and anti-Israel falsehoods.”
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Last December, the American Jewish Committee released a report accusing the MTA of waging “an aggressive campaign that has encouraged K-12 teachers to become pro-Palestinian activists and bring anti-Israel propaganda into their classrooms.” AJC New England Regional Director Robert Leikind is a member of the commission as well.
Page said during the hearing that accusations that the MTA is trying to “indoctrinate” young people are completely false.
“Accucations to that effect have unfortunately led to death threats to me and my staff and to other attacks on our union,” he said.
After the hearing, Page and MTA Vice President Deb McCarthy issued a statement accusing the commission of “political grandstanding” that did nothing to actually fight antisemitism.
“We will not be bullied by special interest groups or by politicians looking to score points,” the joint statement said.
Page, who spoke about being a practicing Jew who lost many family members during the Holocaust, recognized both the “rising tide of antisemitism” and the real fears of Palestinian educators and students.
He also took time to address the larger political environment in America. Powerful people, led by President Donald Trump, want to censor books, purge the government of alternative views, annex territories, and promote eugenics, he said.
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Since taking office, Trump has repeatedly insisted that the U.S. would “take over” Gaza while calling for Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan to take in the displaced Palestinians. That would amount to ethnic cleansing, experts say. More than 350 rabbis recently signed an ad in The New York Times condemning the proposal and insisting that “Jewish people say no to ethnic cleansing!”
Antisemitism is tied to white nationalism and other forms of hate rising around the country today, Page said.
“To combat antisemitism and other similar forms of hatred, we need to be concerned with how antisemitic hate is connected, interwoven with, inextricably bound up with hatred of other people and their religions,” he said. “For this commission to do its work fully and well… it must engage with all hatred, discrimination, and oppression. Combating antisemitism requires that commitment.”
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