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The NAVI K-12 Extremism Tracker reports that on Wednesday, August 26, Philadelphia’s Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter is hosting a “Socialist Night School” alongside Rethinking Schools managing editor Adam Sanchez, who will teach a workshop focused on how pro-Israel groups have “weaponized” antisemitism to suppress criticism of Israel.
The Philadelphia DSA describes the event, titled “Weaponizing Antisemitism: An Interactive History,” as “a collaboration between Philly DSA and Rethinking Schools.” Rethinking Schools is a longtime collaborator and self-described partner of the National Education Association (NEA), with documented ties to major teachers unions and public-school educators.
According to organizers, the workshop will examine how “pro-Israel watchdogs are weaponizing antisemitism to attack organizers, students, educators, public schools, and the broader infrastructure of the left.” It will also examine what organizers describe as the weakening of the “Zionist consensus” and the use of antisemitism allegations as “a tool of repression.”
NAVI’s reporting places the workshop within a broader network connecting Sanchez and Rethinking Schools to CODEPINK, socialist organizations, anti-Israel education campaigns and activists working inside Philadelphia public schools.
From Rethinking Schools to CODEPINK
The DSA workshop builds directly on Sanchez’s recently published Rethinking Schools article titled “Weaponizing Antisemitism: From the 1968 Teacher Strike to Today’s New McCarthyism.”
Sanchez writes that Jewish identification with Israel is “a more recent phenomenon” that resulted from a “decades long campaign launched by pro-Israel activists.” He describes accusations of antisemitism against anti-Israel activists as part of an effort to silence what he calls a growing “anti-imperialist left.”
The DSA workshop is not Sanchez’s first recent appearance in an explicitly anti-Zionist political campaign.
In June, Sanchez participated in CODEPINK’s four-day “Challenging Zionism in Schools” series, which told participants it was designed to combat what the organization called “Zionist brainwashing in our schools.”
CODEPINK said the program would teach educators, parents and students to challenge organizations such as the ADL, which it accused of using Holocaust education to “justify state violence and silence Palestine.”
Sanchez appeared during the opening workshop, which focused on “deconstructing” ADL educational material and examining claims that historical Jewish trauma is being used to justify what organizers described as present-day Israeli “oppression and genocide.”
The Workshop Heads to Socialism 2026
The same “Weaponizing Antisemitism” workshop is also scheduled to appear at the upcoming Socialism 2026 conference in Chicago.
As Jewish Onliner previously reported, the four-day conference includes workshops focused on organizing K-12 schools around Palestine, targeting U.S. defense suppliers, pressuring university governing boards and developing local activist campaigns.
The conference is presented by Haymarket Books in partnership with a broad collection of organizations that includes the Democratic Socialists of America, Rethinking Schools, National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM).
The inclusion of Sanchez’s workshop effectively takes the same framework from an education publication, to CODEPINK’s school-focused campaign, to a local DSA “Socialist Night School,” and then to the national Socialism Conference.
Connections Inside Philadelphia Public Schools
The Philadelphia event also intersects with a network of educators already active around Palestine inside the School District of Philadelphia.
Sanchez has previously written about the Racial Justice Organizing Committee, a Philadelphia educator network from which Philadelphia Educators for Palestine emerged.
Philadelphia Educators for Palestine includes district teachers Hannah Gann and Keziah Ridgeway, both of whom contributed to Rethinking Schools’ Teaching Palestine: Lessons, Stories, Voices. The group has organized workshops around the book and publicly promotes a political framework declaring that “all resistance is righteous.”
On October 7, 2025, Philadelphia Educators for Palestine also co-hosted a “Rally for Rage and Resistance” promoted with calls to “Honor the Martyrs” and “Uplift Resistance,” according to material documented by the NAVI K-12 Extremism Tracker.
Sanchez himself previously taught a pilot Palestine-Israel lesson at Philadelphia’s Academy at Palumbo High School.
Student feedback highlighted by Sanchez included one student writing that U.S. support for Israel had helped “ruin so many lives” and that “people need to understand this as the buildup to Oct. 7.”
The connections carry additional significance because the House Education and Workforce Committee launched an investigation into allegations of antisemitism in the School District of Philadelphia in November 2025.
The committee specifically cited concerns about district educators using Teaching Palestine materials, alleging that the curriculum “rationalize[s] terrorist violence and advocate[s] for the destruction of Israel.”
Ties to the Nation’s Largest Teachers Unions
Rethinking Schools’ political collaborations extend beyond activist groups.
The organization openly describes a longstanding relationship with the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union.
After participating in the NEA’s 2025 Conference on Racial and Social Justice, Rethinking Schools wrote that it was “grateful for our partnership with the National Education Association.” Rethinking Schools staff conducted workshops at the conference, while editors promoted Teaching Palestine to participating educators.
The relationship has also included state-level union activity. Rethinking Schools has documented its partnership with the New Jersey Education Association, an NEA affiliate, including workshops and distribution of Rethinking Schools publications.
NAVI’s review of Labor Department filings found that the NEA paid Rethinking Schools a combined $109,691 between fiscal years 2011 and 2025.
The organization also operates within networks connected to the American Federation of Teachers. Both the AFT and NEA are national partners of the Public School Strong coalition, while the Zinn Education Project, jointly coordinated by Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change, is a partner on the AFT’s Share My Lesson education platform.
The Philadelphia workshop makes those overlapping networks unusually visible: an education organization with documented relationships with teachers unions and public-school educators collaborating directly with socialist activists to teach a political framework about Israel, Zionism and antisemitism.