Union of Jewish Students (UJS) recognises you don’t have to be a Zionist to be Jewish!
JVL Introduction
Something is stirring in the Jewish world, particularly among younger Jews. And it is good news.
It is not long since a monolithic Zionist perspective dominated the Jewish student world.
The attempt to organise a Jewish Society genuinely independent of an Israel Society at Soas caused consternation, as Emma Clyne, chair of the SOAS Jewish Society, recorded back in 2008.
Things came to a head when a meeting with speakers from the newly launched Independent Jewish Voices was organised.
Clyne was taken to task by the Union of Jewish Students, informed that the Israeli embassy was “shocked”, and was accused of “disloyalty to [her] Jewish community”.
As she pointed out at the time, “it assumes the Jewish community to be a uniform entity, containing only one kind of Jew holding only one kind of opinion.”
Such views are still widespread – as we know to our cost!
In those days SOAS was an outlier. But the orientation fought for then, has finally prevailed as this report on last week’s UJS conference indicates.
A motion passed including a call for a Code of Conduct clause “to implicitly recognise exclusion based on Zionism or lack of” as a serious offence in line with any other breach.
The voting was close. And we have no doubt that those supporting the previously dominant communal position will try to reverse this vote.
In the meantime, hats off to those who organised to make this breakthrough possible.
This article was originally published by Jewish News on Mon 13 Dec 2021. Read the original here.
Union of Jewish Students passes motion claiming 40% of UK Jews are not Zionists
EXCLUSIVE: Motion passed by a narrow margin following a vote among the one thousand delegates at organisation’s annual conference.
Loading article text…
“Whether a student identifies as a Zionist or not, UJS is committed to ensuring that every Jewish student can engage with Israel in a way that will be appropriate for them said the UJS spokesperson.” That’s not what the successful vote requires. The vote says that it’s up to individual Jewish students to decide how they wish to express their Jewishness – and whether they want any kind of a relationship with any country (including Israel) is purely a matter for them (and not UJS).
“Whether a student identifies as a Zionist or not, UJS is committed to ensuring that every Jewish student can engage with Israel in a way that will be appropriate for them”
Does that mean they’ll support BDS engagement? I’m joking.
The quotations from Emma Clyne in the JVL Introduction can be found here:
Emma Clyne, ‘A Student’s Story’, in eds Anne Karpf, Brian Klug, Jacqueline Rose, Barbara Rosenblem, A Time to Speak Out, London: Verso 2008, pp.75-83
You can also read about Emma Clyne’s experiences at SOAS in my article for the Guardian’s Comment is Free, ‘Vetting in Practice’ here
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/31/vettinginpractice
where UJS actively tore down posters for the IJV meeting
Mitch Simmons, the then Chair of UJS said re Clyne that ‘”It is the view of the UJS that certain views are not acceptable under free speech.”