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!