During the three weeks allotted to campaigning and live hustings, Danker focused on putting “Jewish pride” back on the agenda, celebrating “Jewish diversity in all its forms”, as well as an initiative to create a Jewish culture and history week on campuses around the country.
He said he “spent years at university advocating for Jewish students, from speaking to politicians at the Scottish and Australian parliaments, to helping JSoc presidents around the country fight back against antisemitism since October 7. In Edinburgh, I amplified Jewish student voices, and successfully campaigned for the university to disengage from extreme groups.”
In April 2023, Edinburgh JSoc, led by Danker, was one of the UK’s fastest-growing Jewish societies and won JSoc of the Year at the UJS awards.
The society, which has grown to become a 250-strong community with weekly bagel lunches and Friday night dinners, has, among other initiatives, invited Shoah survivors to come and speak, collaborated to host Islamophobia and antisemitism awareness events, organised an interfaith charity fair and run mental health awareness sessions with Jami.
Danker, who beat fellow nominees Naomi Bernstein (Cambridge University) and Daniel Grossman (Bristol University), will take up the mantle in the summer of 2025, succeeding UJS current president Sami Berkoff.
Berkoff said afterwards: "All three candidates ran such Incredible campaigns. I want to thank our returning officer and former head of campaigns Amanda Sefton, who oversaw the largest election turnout In UJS history, and to congratulate all of the election teams behind these three fantastic candidates.
"Mostly of course I want to congratulate Louis for an exceptional election victory. I am so excited to not only continue my year, but to see where Louis takes it in the future."
Following the announcement of his victory, Louis said: "It’s the biggest honour to be elected the next UJS President and to have the chance to lead an organisation I owe so much to. For the next six months I’m excited to support Sami and her wonderful team in their work, recapturing Jewish pride on campus and building a better future for Jewish students across the UK & Ireland."
In becoming president of UJS, Danker follows in the footsteps of his father, Tony Danker, chair of UJS from 1993 to 1994.
