Photo: Massachusetts Legislature/State House News Service
BOSTON (State House News Service) — The state's largest teacher's union came under fire Monday from a legislative commission on antisemitism, which accused it of providing "antisemitic" and one-sided educational materials on the Israel-Hamas war to its member teachers.
Massachusetts Teachers Association President Max Page defended the resource -- which he stressed is not curricula, but optional educational materials -- as not an endorsement of the messages behind political images and articles included in the document, but as a tool to teach diverse perspectives on Israel and Palestine.
Rep. Simon Cataldo, House co-chair of the Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism, called the document "virulently antisemitic."
Among the pieces of it he took issue with: "Dollar bills folded up into a star of David. Bestiality imagery tapping into Nazi-era stereotypes. Telling Kindergarteners that Zionists are 'bullies.' Glorification of a U.S. designated terrorist organization. Inciting violence against Jews," he said in a statement.
"It’s pretty simple: we need to keep classically antisemitic so-called teaching material out of our kids’ schools. It’s incredible that the special commission even had to have a hearing about that," Cataldo added.
Page, who identified himself as Jewish at the beginning of the hearing, said that he may personally disagree with or find offensive some of the material within the document, but that it is still educationally useful.
"There are images I've seen posted on the [Department of Elementary and Secondary Education] website, some of which would be traumatizing, because they repeat slanderous things about Jews during the Nazi era. But they're there to be used as documents ... about how you use difficult, complicated documents in classrooms," Page said.
Cataldo and Page had an intense exchange, in which Cataldo walked through dozens of pages of the MTA resource and asked Page to identify what was on the page. They included a political poster of former President Joe Biden with the words "Serial Killer" written across his forehead, and a political poster of George Habash, the leader of the Marxist–Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
The union president refused to respond to a number of Cataldo's questions.
When Cataldo pressed Page on pro-Palestinian posts that professional staff at the MTA made on their personal social media accounts, a member of the audience shouted, "Senator McCarthy, how is this any different from naming names?"
Cataldo later remarked on being "accused of being ... McCarthyist simply because you want to make sure that our children are protected and we don't have antisemitic teaching material in our classroom without any context."
"These are resources provided for our members to think about and learn about as educators and as citizens, and they were done thoughtfully and professionally. That does not mean one agrees with each one," Page said.
He added that the document in question was not distributed directly in the classroom, but on a private section of the union's website only for members.
"These resources, developed over the course of many months, were published in the 'Member Only' area of our website, were not distributed widely, and despite what some claim, were certainly not presented as curriculum to our members," he said.
Page brought with him Jessica Antoline, a history teacher at Lexington High School who said she was not speaking on behalf of the union nor had a part in making the MTA materials. She told the commission that teachers are trained to use a variety of different resources, examine the biases of the source, and present those multiple perspectives to students while challenging them to examine their own biases and reach their own conclusions.
"We are misled if we think teachers pull material from a single curriculum guide or depend upon a single organization to support our teaching. That would go against everything we know about the challenges of constructing historical narratives, especially at the K through 12 level," Antoline said.
Antoline has a background in history, religion, archeology and museum studies, and teaches a course on modern genocide. She said she has used materials included in the MTA's Israel-Palestine resource guide in her classroom, as well as materials from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and media about the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israeli citizens.
She said that organizations with "widely distributed and well-funded curriculum ... have agendas, moral stances and goals. They aren't neutral." Antoline said that was their prerogative -- and students needed to be exposed to different perspectives.
"The Shoah Foundation has an agenda. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has one. The Anti-Defamation League has one. Facing History has one. I could go on and on," she said. "They are educational and cultural organizations with passionate missions, and they have the right to exist and to struggle to achieve their goals. They fight for what they think is correct. Such battles exist in all subjects."
Sen. John Velis, Senate co-chair of the commission, took a different approach from Cataldo. He didn't object to specific documents within the resource guide, but rather, that it was "incredibly one-sided."
"We are talking about arguably the most complex, nuanced geopolitical situation in the world. So I'm being very clear here -- no one is saying don't talk about the plight of Palestinians. You're not hearing that at all. But what I'm saying is, with absolute certainty beyond a shadow of doubt, is I'm seeing nothing here that presents the Jewish perspective or Israeli perspective," Velis said.
Velis addressed Antoline, saying he respects her subject matter expertise, but that not every teacher who teaches this subject is so knowledgeable about the region's political, religious and historical complexity.
"This is, I think the quote was, the largest teachers' union in New England," Velis said. "I know there are any number of resources on October 7. That's why I know this material is so one-sided. And ma'am, respectfully speaking, what I would say to you is that for a teacher who has no background in this subject matter to look at this, they could be forgiven for not thinking to themselves, 'This is the entirety of the story.'"
Antoline responded, "I'm not entirely sure they would be forgiven. That's not the way we approach things."
Page said that the resource document is not set in stone, and that he's heard feedback from members and the union's board intends to make changes to it.
Before he left the hearing after about two hours of questioning, Velis asked Page to consider consulting members of the commission as the union updates the document.
Written by Sam Drysdale/SHNS
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