Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks

On Friday 27th March, over 200 Jewish students gathered in Kinloss Synagogue for the annual Friday Night Dinner with the Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks.

During the meal the Chief Rabbi spoke to us about the dual threat of apathy and intermarriage on the future of the Jewish community. His words were as prescient and moving as ever. Later on in the evening I had the opportunity to speak, though following the Chief Rabbi is a frightening task.

My blogs so far have focused on the logistical and bureaucratic nature of my job, and not the philosophical. In future, I want to share with you the thoughts that shape how I do my job, starting with my words on Friday night.

"As many of you will know, the Chief Rabbi wrote a book some time ago entitled; Radical Then, Radical Now, which resulted from a meeting with Jewish students. The students had written to a large number of Jewish professionals asking: ‘What does it mean to you to be Jewish?’ Disappointed by the quantity and quality of the answers the Chief Rabbi composed Radical Then, Radical Now, to express to us why being Jewish is so important. Since the writing of the book the Chief Rabbi has remained as committed as ever of Jewish students and his words tonight continue to give us meaning and to inspire us.

"This evening, I want to focus on the Hebrew language which is of particular importance in this week’s parasha. This week, the first word of the parasha, Vayikra, contains a scribal abnormality. The aleph of Vayikra is abnormally small. It is said that this was the result of an argument between G-d and Moses. Moses wished to describe G-d’s revelation to him with humility and asked G-d to omit the aleph from Vayikra. With the aleph removed Vayikra would become Vayikar. As such, rather than being Vayikra, ‘called upon by G-d’ as a result of their special relationship, the revelation would be Vayikar, as if ‘by chance’. To compromise, G-d and Moses agreed that the aleph would not be removed, but become a miniature.

"I can see a parallel between the modesty displayed by Moses here and the modesty of Jewish students on campuses across the UK. Without acknowledgement or reward Jewish students dedicate their time and energy fighting for Israel and strengthening Jewish life on campus. This is so often a thankless task but please know that it does not go unrecognised or unappreciated. Last Sunday, UJS held the first annual Student Awards, aiming to recognise the outstanding contribution of Jewish students on campus. Most of the people here tonight are deserved of an award in their own right and the Jewish community is indebted to you all.

"Let me end by sharing with you a piece of modern Hebrew language. I learnt this week that the root of Kadima, meaning ‘forward’, is kuf, daled, mem or Kodem, meaning ‘at first’. As such, I realised that before we can move on we must at first understand where we have come from and what we have achieved. As my first term as UJS Chair comes to an end I am privileged to look toward a second year, but before I begin to formulate my plans I must reflect on this past year. However, I need your help. Before you return to campus please share with me your thoughts on how UJS and J-Soc have done in order that we can move forward even stronger together.

Shabbat Shalom, "

UJS Student Award Winners & Next Year's Team

This week has been a week of announcements, including the winners of the UJS Student Awards and next year's UJS Team.

UJS Student Awards

On Sunday 22nd March, 130 students from campuses across the UK gathered in Middlesex New Synagogue to celebrate the first UJS annual student awards. The UJS Student Awards recognize the outstanding contributions of Jewish students on campus. From Durham to Sussex, Manchester to Reading, Jewish students came together to show their support for award nominees, nominated through the UJS website. Dressed to impress in suits and dresses, students were treated to canapes and a champagne reception before seating themselves for the gala dinner and ceremony.

Prominent members of the community presented six awards. Congratulations go to Aaron Kienwald (ZF Israel Connect Events Award), Adam Parker (UJIA Education Award) Yoav Farbey (WJR Social Action Award) Brighton and Sussex Jsoc (Developing JSoc of the Year Award,) Adam Langleben (CST Campaigns Award) and Jeremy Foreman (Alan Sennitt Outstanding Contribution Award.)With a high turnout and great atmosphere, this has been one of UJS' most successful events to date and will be repeated annually in coming years.

UJIA Education Award, Adam Parker -- For being a founding member of the Oxford Israeli Cultural Society, and in particular, his key role in planning the Oxford I-fest which attracted over 5000 visitors to sample Israeli culture, society and history.

Developing JSoc of the Year Award, Brighton & Sussex JSoc --A dramatic change has taken place over the past 18 months in Brighton & Sussex. There are now regular social and educational events and the JSoc is also involved within the local Jewish community. Despite the background of political troubles at Brighton & Sussex, the JSoc has continued to provide an exciting and vibrant calendar of events for their students.

ZF Israel Connect Events Award, Aaron Kienwald -- For putting on some of the most successful events in London JSoc's history, including the first London Booze for Jews.

WJR Social Action Award, Yoav Farbey -- For the many activities that he has put on in Bristol, in particular the Spotlight on Darfur event, planning, publicising and running the event which raised a great deal of money for Darfur related charities.

CST Campaigns Award, Adam Langleben -- For single-handedly running campaigns at Leeds Metropolitan University where he twinned Leeds with Hebrew University and never lost a motion.

Alan Senitt Award, Jeremy Foreman -- For his dedication to all areas of Jewish life, fromJ-Soc chair, to political activist, to UJS West England chair, to NUS steering member.

UJS Team 2009-2010:

At the UJS Student Awards, I introduced next year’s UJS Team. The sabbatical team will be made up of:

Chair – Adam Pike
Campaigns Organiser – Carly Mckenzie
Local Campaigns Officer – Ben Levitt
Local Campaigns Officer – Mark Wolfson
J-Soc Development & Education Director – Richard Verber.
Northern Development Officer – Ellana Wall
Central Development Officer – Josh Colman.
Southern Development Officer – Leanne Miller
Events & Marketing – Emma Rickman.

Congratulations to all of next year’s team on their successful application.

UJS Initiative Fund

Next year, UJS will institute a new Initiative Fund. This is a commitment by UJS to ring-fence a certain amount of money each year for new and exciting grassroots initiatives that meet UJS’ mission and values. From next term I hope that UJS will be supporting many more initiatives like Eilu v’ Eilu. Application forms will be posted online during the holidays.

The first project to be supported by the UJS Initiative Fund is Eilu v’eilu divrei elokim chayim (‘these and these are the words of the living God’), the first student academic journal of its kind in the UK. Eilu v’ Eilu aims to stimulate healthy and respectful debate among British students over a variety of questions of Jewish interest.

Eilu v’ Eilu will embody multiple and conflicting views on a range of subjects. It began as a Cambridge initiative and with the support of the UJS Initiative Fund has become an extraordinary national project. In the words of Jonny Neumann, its editor, may I make an appeal ‘to you, the reader, to peruse, to contemplate, to respond, to get involved, and, above all, to enjoy!’ Copies have been distributed to your Hillel houses.

J-Soc Presidents

Now that students have returned home for the holidays I will be sitting down with each of them to evaluate the past term. We will discuss amongst other issues, UJS year plan 2009-2010, Freshers, and the final academic term of this year.

Next week’s blog:
1. NUS Conference
2. Friday Night Dinner with the Chief Rabbi
3. A brief outline of UJS’ plans for next year.

If you want to suggest any ideas or have any comments on UJS, please write to me at adam.p@ujs.org.uk or call 020 74243299.

UJS Student Awards, J-Post Op-Ed & Free Gilad: 1000 Days in Captivity

The UJS Tel Aviv 100 White Party on Tuesday night kick-started a busy 10 day period for UJS. The inaugural UJS Student Awards will take place this Sunday 22nd March and next Friday (27th March) Jewish students will be hosted by the Chief Rabbi for an intimate Friday night dinner. (Book online at www.tribeuk.com)


Tel Aviv 100 White Party, Birmingham

On Tuesday, the entire UJS Team travelled to Birmingham to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Tel Aviv at the Custard Factory. Although I began the evening with a Tel Aviv Tisch at Hillel the group soon joined our fellow revelers for a night of Ghetto Plotz, Scratch Perverts and Coby’s Crepes to celebrate this landmark in modern Jewish history. Naturally, at the Tisch we discussed the poetic genius of Bialik and the cultural influence of HaBimah Theatre - in amongst a few l'chaim's!


Op-Ed in the Jerusalem Post

This week I had an op-ed piece published in the Jerusalem Post, both online and in print. The piece described how Jewish students have faced the challenges on campus with dignity, pride and strength. Please follow the link or read below:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237392660985&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

This weekend I am travelling to Manchester to join the J-Soc for Shabbat. The question is: Will Anthony Angel of Manchester's chicken soup be as good as Anthony Bunt of Birmingham?! In next week’s blog I will announce the victor as well as next year’s UJS Team.


Free Gilad: 1000 days of Captivity!

Saturday is Gilad Shalit’s 1000 day of captivity. Richard Daniels, President of Kings College J-Soc, has ensured that an EDM is tabled in Parliament.

EDM 1115:

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=38226&SESSION=899Please take the letter from http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/note.php?note_id=56452824550 below and edit it for you local MP. Spread this as far as you can - there is genuine hope that we can get him back now; lets provide some more impetus to try and make it happen!To email your MP: find their name here http://www.parliament.uk/directories/hciolists/alms.cfm. Make sure that you put your address with it, as very often MPs will only respond to their constituents. If you are at uni, write to both your home and uni MPs - this is a privilege that only students enjoy! You can write to:

MP: House of CommonsLondonSW1A 0AAGo to Habanim.org for more information.

Jerusalem Post Article
“UK Jewish Students on the front-foot”

As the tensions around the Gaza conflict begin to subside and another round of the intellectually bankrupt "Israeli Apartheid Weeks" passes by, Jewish students have a chance to step back and take stock. These last few months have certainly been a challenge for the entire community and, as is so often the case, Jewish students were on the front line. In difficult times you learn more about people and this academic term has been the proof of that. No one can deny that the challenges facing Jewish students are great but once again the Union of Jewish Students' (UJS) long-term strategy to tackle them has proved successful.

The steadfast support of the National Union of Students (NUS) and political groups like Labor Students has shown that long-term relationship building, built on a foundation of shared progressive values, works. During the height of the conflict the national chairperson of Labor Students wrote to UJS and stated that "Labor Students has never flinched from speaking out and standing with Jewish students to denounce anti-Semitism and racism of any kind, and I want you to know that that has not and will not change." At a time when condemning Israel and ignoring anti-Semitism seemed to be the easy way out, our real friends didn't let us down.

THE RESPONSE from universities was not always so positive and those institutions who failed to stand up against hatred and support their students against some of the intimidation and harassment we witnessed will be held to account. The new government-led group to tackle campus anti-Semitism, launched by Minister for Higher Education David Lammy, will give UJS the opportunity to challenge the authorities head on and work with them to find solutions and models of best practice. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith also received a letter from Jewish students urging her to ensure that Hizbullah's communications head Ibrahim Moussawi was not given a visa to add to the already rising levels of hate speech we witness on UK campuses, and he was in fact barred from entering.

We also learned about the expediency of anti-Semitism to so many on the supposedly anti-racist far left. Minorities engaged in the usual vitriolic demonization of Israel showed disregard for anti-Semitism and the usual lack of rational thinking around the Middle East. Token gestures toward racism are not good enough when dealing with any other form of discrimination and we won't accept them for anti-Semitism either.

More than anything though, UJS learned about our members; they stood up and stood proud. As full-time students with degrees, extracurricular commitments and a social life, many of them put it all to one side and dedicated everything to the fight for Jewish students' rights. They continued their deep involvement in student political life, and in this past month students at Leeds University elected three Jewish sabbatical officers to lead their student union.

Throughout the recent conflict UJS expressed a clear commitment to continuing our action plan and delivering on the activities we promised our membership. Despite great challenges, Jewish student life on campus has never been more thriving and enriched. UJS has ensured that positive Jewish experiences have continued with Israel Awareness Weeks, Tu Bishvat seders, Purim parties, Shabbat UK and the inaugural Jewish student lobby of Parliament.

Those who want to see us silenced and intimidated learned about UJS and about Jewish students - we will never let our adversaries define our Jewish identity and nothing will stop us proudly expressing that identity on every campus in the UK and Ireland.

The writer is chair of the Union of Jewish Students in the United Kingdom.


Next week's Blog:
1. New UJS Team 2009-2010.
2. UJS Student Award Winners.
3. UJS Apprentice & Initiative Fund Launched!

9 months on and the plan ahead

It is now 9 months since I began my first term as UJS Chair. As term draws to a close it is important for me and the entire UJS team to evaluate how we have developed and taken UJS forward. Our mission was: To inspire every Jewish student to engage in meaningful Jewish campus experiences and to make an enduring commitment to their Jewish identity, Israel and the community. At the beginning of the year the UJS team laid-out four key objectives:

1. To build a lasting and genuine partnership between UJS & J-Soc.
2. To develop programmes that are well organised, relevant and supportive of J-Soc.
3. To inspire activism and leadership on campus.
4. To strengthen the union and democracy of UJS.

It is mainly by these criteria that we will be judging ourselves. However, over the next few months UJS will be asking many of you how UJS can better support J-Soc and Jewish students. Your ideas, input and ingenuity will be crucial to strengthening UJS next year.

In the past week some key decisions have been taken. First, UJS has finalised the details of a new database system that will give J-Soc the ability to target text-messages and e-mails to their membership. In addition, each J-Soc will have their own event-management system to sell tickets for free online. Second, UJS is now re-designing the www.ujs.org.uk website to include various new features, such as podcasts, videos, and will be integrated with new media, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. It will be launched by the start of the next academic year. Finally, UJS is in the process of finalising the budget for 2009-2010. The allocation of funds to J-Soc will be a priority. Next year, a UJS Initiative Fund will be set aside to support the ideas and projects of Jewish students on campus. More details to follow...

The remainder of last week was spent preparing for the Tel Aviv 100 White Party in Birmingham on Tuesday night, as well as the UJS Student Awards on Sunday 22nd March. At the awards the 'UJS Apprentice', 'UJS Initiative Fund' and 'Eilu v'Eilu' will be launched. The winners of each of the awards, besides winning trips across the world, will now sit on the top table at the Friday night with the Chief Rabbi on Friday 27th March. To reserve your place visit www.tribeuk.com

At the end of this week I visited Birmingham and joined the J-Soc for Friday night. In four years of tasting J-Soc chicken soup on campus, it was one of the best. Congratulations to Antony Bunt and his J-Soc team!

May the battle of best J-Soc chicken soup commence! Perhaps next year we will have a UJS Student Award to recognise such culinary achievement.

CST Dinner, Jacqui Smith and Promoting Jewish Rights on Campus

Last Friday was the first instalment of my new UJS Chair blog. It details the exciting developments within UJS, as well as my recent meetings and actions as UJS Chair.
On Monday evening I was privileged to address the guests of the CST Gala Dinner in central London. I emphasised to the audience that:

‘Jewish students are on the front-line of political confrontation more than any other part of our community. It is not uncommon for Jewish students to share lecture halls with radical Islamists, anti-Zionists or the BNP student wing. On all occasions Jewish students have stood firm in the face of these challenges.’

I spoke with a genuine sense of pride at the actions of Jewish students throughout the past two months. All the Jewish students who attended the UJS Parliamentary Lobby in January were invited by the CST for the dinner. During the evening I met with Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, as well as Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary. I emphasised the challenges that Jewish students face and reiterated that Jewish students speak the language of tolerance, reconciliation and peace. Those who have ‘occupied’ university buildings must not be rewarded for their actions.

For excellent blogs on the ongoing ‘occupations’ visit www.antioccupations.blogspot.com or http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/03/05/why-i-have-nothing-to-be-ashamed-of/.

On Tuesday, the Chief Rabbi came to speak at UCL about the place of religion in secular society. During his talk, the Chief Rabbi asked ‘If you share your power with nine people, how much power do you have?’ The answer was shouted-out ‘a tenth’. If you share your money with nine people how much wealth do you have?’ ‘A tenth’ was again the reply. But ‘if you share your love with nine people, how much love do you have?’ I’ll leave you to supply your own answer. Well done to Miriam Berger and Leo Arkush for organizing such a great event!

On Tuesday evening I headed to Nottingham to meet with Carly Minsky, President of Nottingham J-Soc and the committee. Over the next couple of months I aim to meet with every J-Soc committee to facilitate a review of their term so far and to listen how UJS can better support J-Soc and Jewish students.

Today, Friday 6th March, is the deadline for nominations for UJS Student Awards. We have already had over 50 nominations. The event will recognise the outstanding contribution of Jewish students on campus.

Tickets are now on sale for the Tel Aviv 100 White Party, 17th March, in Birmingham, headlined by the Scratch Perverts. Coby’s will be providing the food! Tickets are £15, but currently on sale for £10. Coaches available for a limited time only at £5 return. Go to www.ujs.org.uk/events to buy your tickets.

Finally, it is not only the winners of the UJS Student Awards who will be joining the Chief Rabbi for Friday Night Dinner on 27th March. You can also book online at www.tribeuk.com

Once again, please be in touch with the UJS office on 020 7424 3299 or visit the website at www.ujs.org.uk