World Union Of Jewish Students

The World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS ) (Hebrew: ההתאחדות העולמית של הסטודנטים היהודים; French: L’Union Mondiale des Etudiants Juifs; Spanish: Unión Mundial de Estudiantes Judíos; Russian: Всемирный союз еврейских студентов) is the international, pluralistic, non-partisan umbrella organisation of independent Jewish student groups in 38 countries.

Its headquarters are located in Jerusalem, Israel and its elected President is Yana Naftalieva

History

Founded in 1924 by Hersch Lauterpacht with Albert Einstein as its first President, other previous Chairpersons have included Maurice Perlzweig, Yosef Abramowitz and David Makovsky.

While Albert Einstein served as President of WUJS, his Vice-Presidents included Chaim Weizman, Chaim Nachman Bialik and Sigmund Freud. Einstein was succeeded by Ernst Bergmann, who was himself succeeded by David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel. On January 1, 2020, WUJS elected his new president, Jonathan Braun.

Purpose

The vision of WUJS is that all Jewish students in the world should be connected, represented, and empowered to create strong and dynamic national and regional unions. Its aim is to "foster the unity of Jewish students worldwide and to strive to ensure their participation in the fulfillment of the aspirations of the Jewish people, its continuity, and the development of its religious, spiritual, cultural and social heritage."

Governance and Finance

The WUJS is administered by its executive board, composed of the Presidents/Chair-people of WUJS' largest unions, 2 independent board members elected on a biannual basis and 2 positions given on a biannually rotating basis to presidents/chair-people of two smaller unions who are elected at WUJS general assembly every other year.

President: Jonathan Braun

*Treasurer: Matanya Harow

Board Members
* Benjamin Hess
* Esther Offenberg
* Caterina Cognini
* Shelly Portman
* Shimshon Fisher
* Lara Gilkarov
* Dany Levin Prist
* Gabriella Davis
* Yana Naftalieva
* Ruben Thiar
* Yam Atir

Permanent Members
* Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS): Australasia
* European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS): Europe
* National Union of Israeli Students (NUIS): Israel
* Union des étudiants juifs de France (UEJF): France
* Union of Jewish Students of the UK & Ireland (UJS): United Kingdom & Ireland
* South African Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS): South Africa

Rotating Members (As of January 2018)
* Federación Mexicana de Jóvenes Judìos (FeMeJJ): Mexico
* Jüdische österreichische HochschülerInnen (JöH): Austria

As of 2017, the majority of funding came from the Jewish National Fund, World Zionist Organization and World Jewish Congress, in addition to private donations and alumni.

Members

Full Members

Partial Members

Observer Members

Past Leadership

The WUJS Chairperson is elected by the representatives of independent Jewish student unions all over the world to represent the voices of Jewish students within the community, universities, colleges and wider society.

The WUJS Student Awards

The annual WUJS Student Awards were established at WUJS Congress 2014, by Andi Gergely and Yos Tarshish, to recognise the hard work and dedication of Jewish students who have made an exceptional contribution to Jewish life on campus. These students devote countless hours of their time on top of university work, extracurriculars and spending time with their friends to ensure that Jewish student life on campus is thriving, vibrant, safe, and fun. The winners of the awards are listed below. Awards are given in three categories: Union Awards, Individual Awards and Congress Awards. The Individual and Congress Awards were instituted for the third annual WUJS Awards held in January 2017.

Union Awards

Individual Awards

* The Hersch Lauterpacht Award is given each year to a student who has given an outstanding contribution to Jewish student life. The award is given in memory of Hersch Lauterpacht, the Founder and Inaugural Chairperson of WUJS.

Congress Awards

History

1924–1929

The World Union of Jewish Students was founded in 1924 by Hersch Lauterpacht, better known by his Hebrew name Zvi, an Austrian Jew who was aggrieved by the injustices regarding the admittance of Jews to European universities, which at the time had maximum quotas for Jewish students. As this quota system spread throughout Europe, Lauterpacht saw the need to spread his campaigning efforts. From this the concept of an organized international union began to materialize. The union, however, only began to truly develop when Albert Einstein threw his weight behind the union. Then a lecturer in Berlin, Einstein was equally concerned with growing anti-semitism across Europe, himself having been verbally attacked when lecturing. In 1925 Einstein accepted Lauterpacht's invitation to be the union's first President.

On April 30, 1924, the opening Congress was held in the Maccabi Sports Hall in Antwerp, Belgium. The Congress opening was attended by over 2,000 people including the Chief Rabbi of Belgium and the Military Governor of Antwerp. Following this 76 delegates from 17 countries met for 4 days to hear reports on the realities of Jewish students in various countries, and to discuss the problems affecting them. Amongst the sentiments expressed were that "The best method for the work before us appears to be a strong, organized union of all Jewish Students throughout the world." The first Congress resulted in the establishment of the WUJS Executive that would sit in London and the election of Lauterpacht as the first Chairman. For the next few years the role of WUJS was to greatly increase, with new programs developed to redirect students from Hungary, Poland and Russia to Western Europe where there were greater opportunities for Jewish students to be admitted.

1929–1933

Although similar efforts were made to assist Jewish students coming to France, they were less successful, where Jewish students who had made it to France were running into many financial difficulties. In January 1929, Lauterpacht told a convened group of students in Paris, France, that the conditions for Jewish students in Eastern Europe were still bleak, and that in fact anti-Semitism was still on the rise, especially in Germany with the rise of Hitlerist youth. At the thirst WUJS Congress, to which Albert Einstein sent a message highlighting the plight of German Jewry, the opening session was presided over by the renowned British philosopher Samuel Alexander who finished his opening statement with the line "I have become a Zionist", which was met with wild applause. It was decided at the congress that Einstein would remain President alongside a group of Vice-Presidents that would include Chaim Bialik, Sigmund Freud and Chaim Weizmann.

1933–1939

Maurice Perlzweig, a young, British Liberal rabbi, was elected chairperson at the 1933 Congress. By 1936, Perlzweig was also a leader of both the Zionist Organization and the World Jewish Congress, which he had helped to create. The World Jewish Congress was to become one of WUJS' main support mechanisms after the war, and continued to be so up until the present day. In 1939 the offices of WUJS moved to Switzerland for the duration of the Second World War. While little is known of WUJS activities during the period of the war, it is known that WUJS members were particularly active in the French resistance. Following the war, the WUJS offices were moved to Paris. A congress was held shortly after the war, and another in 1948. The third congress after the war was convened in August 1950. Shortly thereafter, the new chairperson, Brian Sandelson, and Secretary General Louis Bartfield launched a new global newsletter, but their intention to make this a monthly publication was never realized as WUJS was sorely lacking in funds. The two main programs of WUJS during this time period were International Study Programs – held in both the US and Israel – and representation on a number of international bodies including UNESCO, the World University Service and the International Union of Students.

1962–1969

A new period of WUJS activity began with the appointment of Dan Bitan as General Secretary in 1962. Bitan re-established connections to member unions in Europe and Latin-America and began preparations for the 13th WUJS Congress to take place in Jerusalem. The Congress saw 50 delegates represent 20 countries, with much of the content focusing on post-war related issues. The Congress condemned Jews living in Germany and refused to recognize the German Jewish student union. The following Congress saw a more liberal approach to the issue and Jewish students were again recognized from Germany, although motions were passed insisting they should move from Germany and Austria.

But the more open policy toward German Jewish students accepted by Congress was perhaps inevitable considering the new Chairperson elected at this event was Michael Hunter, a former Chairperson of the British union, which had long favored the inclusion of German Jewish students within WUJS. In general, the coming years were to be influenced greatly by Hunter's vision. Under his leadership, the World Union began its formal commitment to Zionism and affiliation with the World Zionist Organization. At the same time, perhaps ironically, it began to espouse left-wing political positions in order to continue to be meaningful to a student activist community that was increasingly liberal.

During the summer prior to Hunter's election, WUJS had already begun to move towards a more campaigning union by organizing a seminar in Brussels on "The Situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union." This led to the "European Action on Behalf of Soviet Jewry," a traveling exhibition transported to cities throughout Europe. The ultimate goal of the exhibition, the gathering of signatures for a petition, was achieved quite successfully with 15,000 signatures from the United Kingdom and another 15,000 from across Europe. The campaign received a tremendous amount of publicity, from local newspapers to the broadcast media, including the BBC
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