Jewish students don’t come to University looking to fight antisemitism but unfortunately, as highlighted in this article, it is often what they end up doing.
The President of Jewish Society (JSoc), Sacha Brozel, stated that “the culture of apathy and inaction towards antisemitism has a serious impact on the confidence of Jewish students.”
Ellie Defries, a member of JSoc, has delved into the rise of antisemitism on campus.
Whilst many antisemitic incidents occur across the country, York has had its own occurrences which JSoc felt were not appropriately dealt with.
In 2022, Nouse released an article detailing an antisemitic incident at a “drunk debate” hosted by the Debate Society in November 2021. JSoc was not informed of this incident until March 14th, despite the print issue hitting campus on the 15th of March.
JSoc stated that the aforementioned article was “available online already and had been found by one of our members. It is our responsibility to report any and all antisemitic incidents to the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) and the Community Security Trust (CST) so they may appropriately deal with the incidents.
“We had a meeting with YUSU and UJS regarding the way they handled this situation and asked to be informed of incidents. But we were told that YUSU was ‘unable to share the details of the complaint outcome given privacy considerations.’”
In 2021, Professor David Miller, of Bristol University, was fired after making violently antisemitic comments, stating all Jewish students’ societies and UJS are engaged in a “campaign of censorship … directed by the state of Israel”, “render[ing] Arab and Muslim students, as well as anti-Zionist Jewish students, particularly unsafe”. In response, letters written in support of Miller were signed by a University of York archaeology professor and masters student.
After discovering this, JSoc contacted these members, elaborating on why Miller’s comments made Jewish students feel unsafe, and asking if they agreed with Miller’s depiction of University Jewish societies, if they agreed with Miller’s assessment that the accusations of antisemitism in the Labour Party were “mostly false”, and if they had had any discussions with Jewish students prior to signing the letter. Once again, JSoc received no response to their inquiry.
A University spokesperson said:
“Our Dignity at Work and Study policy empowers students and staff to report and address incidents of harassment, bullying and hate incidents appropriately. We have adopted the IHRA definition of Antisemitism in our definitions of Hate Incidents and Antisemitism.
“Students can access further support from the Open Door team, our network of Dignity Contacts, College and academic supervisors, as well as the Online Report and Support tool. All students and staff have a duty to respect others and to ensure the campus remains welcoming to people of all faiths and beliefs, and for those who do not adhere to a religious faith.”
Similarly, last year, JSoc made a request to all colleges to provide “Kosher for Passover” options for catered students during Passover, as it fell on the first week of term.
While not having any Kosher options for the rest of the year is also an issue, a vegetarian diet will fulfil Kosher requirements under normal circumstances. However, during Passover, it is forbidden to eat chametz, including leavened or fermented foods, as well as wheat, barley and other grains.
JSoc were told “food requirements for catered students usually falls outside of the responsibility of College Student Associations.”
After being directed to the Catering Department to make their request, no further communication was received.
Not long after, the colleges provided alternate catering options for Muslim students during Ramadan. JSoc said on the overlooking of Jewish students:
“We are really appreciative of the fact that they did this and believe this was important for Muslim students at York as we also wish for them to feel welcomed and safe in their university experience, but it hurt us that we were not extended the same courtesy.”
Furthermore, JSoc has a private space on campus to observe holidays and Shabbat, which is meant to only be used by Jewish students in order to ensure it remains Kosher.
However, at the start of this academic year, during Rosh Hashanah – the holiest day of the year – JSoc entered the space to complete the Mitzvot and prayers for that day and discovered that inflatables had been plugged in for Fresher’s Week through the window. This meant that not only had people entered without the society knowing about it, but the space was no longer Kosher for prayer.
In response, JSoc held a meeting with the University regarding this violation as they are aware that this space is not to be used by anyone except JSoc, and made sure our expectations were heard and followed after this incident.
A University spokesperson said:
“The University is committed to ensuring a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment for everyone and provides a number of dedicated spaces for prayer and reflection on campus. In recognition of there being no dedicated space for Jewish students, we provided the [disclosed for security purposes] room for use by the Jewish Society.
“We are sorry this dedicated space was used in this way. We believe the intrusion and disruption was unintended rather than motivated by malice or ill-will, and a senior member of [redacted] College has also apologised. We can confirm that all new staff have been briefed on the status of the room, and moving forward, we are reviewing signage and information for staff to ensure the space continues to be respected.”
JSoc told Vision:
“The silence we consistently receive from the university in response to antisemitism is sickening. All of these incidents occurred while current members of York JSoc were at university.
“While these were all ‘official’ incidents (i.e. ones that were reported to YUSU or other university administrative bodies) there is a constant stream of off-hand antisemitic comments made to or around our members by peers.”
Previous JSoc President Helen Murphy said:
“[T]here have been many times on campus where I have had to leave a conversation or society event after blatantly antisemitic comments have been made and ignored by everyone else in the group. Follow-ups to these have been brushed over and left me feeling uncomfortable around my coursemates, who I have to interact with on a daily basis”.
In May 2021, there was a 365% increase in antisemitic incidents in the UK due to an outbreak of violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict. As a response to this, the NUS remained silent.
JSoc told Vision:
“It is unacceptable that our members have been made to feel isolated and that we have to deal with antisemitism ourselves, despite YUSU receiving antisemitism training from UJS. It should be a given that students feel safe on campus, but the responses to the antisemitism that we have to face means that we do not feel protected at all. We are not being listened to when we inform people what they can do better.
“As York remains affiliated with the NUS due to a low referendum turnout, we feel a statement should be made condemning the antisemitism that was revealed, particularly from a student union who so often have ignored our complaints. Multiple times, Jewish students have reported NUS events as being hostile and unsafe but had their complaints dismissed. We as York Jewish Society urge you to read the full report and to understand the extent of the antisemitism in the NUS.”
YUSU’s Union President Pierrick Roger told Vision:
“YUSU takes all complaints seriously and we welcomed the opportunity to meet with JSoc reps to talk about our approach to complaint handling, and why the organisation has to consider privacy within this.
“In light of the NUS report on antisemitism being made public, we have been proactive in our response to the NUS. We wanted our response to not be tokenistic though, which is why it has not been published yet as we wanted the opportunity to catch up with both UJS nationally and York’s JSoc to get their thoughts and comments on the action plan set out by the NUS.
“YUSU is clear that there is no place within our community at York for hate and prejudice and we are committed to creating a community that is welcoming and inclusive for every member. Over the past year we have been working to develop a new strategy on equality, diversity and inclusion that will help fulfil our commitments as a Students’ Union and employer, ensuring differences are valued, and all are supported to thrive.”