Founded | 1919 |
---|---|
Type | Student Union |
Location | |
Area served
|
The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland |
Members
|
c. 64 Jewish Societies, > 8,500 members |
Key people
|
Josh Seitler (President) |
Employees
|
c. 15 |
Volunteers
|
400 |
Website | www |
Formerly called
|
The Inter University Jewish Federation |
The Union of Jewish Students of the United Kingdom and Ireland (UJS) was established in 1919 as the Inter-University Jewish Federation (IUJF). The organisation was renamed UJS in 1973 and represents a constituency of approximately 8,500 Jewish students, with somewhere between four and five thousand being members of its affiliated Jewish Societies (J-Socs) on individual campuses. It is an executive member of the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) and the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS). The current President for the 2016/17 academic year is Josh Seitler, a graduate of the London School of Economics. The President-elect is Josh Holt, a final year student at Nottingham University; he will begin his one year term in June 2017.
UJS is a confederation of Jewish Societies (J-Socs) but also provides further opportunities for student engagement through our national programming. The body's full-time staff are recent graduates led by an elected President.
The core values of UJS are:
UJS's work is divided into 5 areas:
The IUJF (Inter University Jewish Federation) was the creation of the Manchester Jewish Association. They saw a growing pride in the Jewish Community and believed it was appropriate for Jewish students to have a national organisation to co-ordinate the activities of the Jewish student Societies and to represent Jewish students at a national level.
The first step was to hold a conference in Manchester on 17 July 1919 at which four Jewish societies were represented: Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Oxford. Although not represented on the outset, the London University Jewish Society subsequently took an active and eventually a leading part in the federation’s affairs.
In 1946 the following Universities had societies affiliated to the Federation in addition to those already mentioned: Belfast, Birmingham, Cambridge, University College, Cardiff, Dublin, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Reading and Sheffield.