On Monday October 9 2023, Edward Isaacs stood in the Union of Jewish Students office in front of a blank whiteboard. Two days after the worst terror attack in Israel’s history, he had walked to work through Golders Green, past graffiti attacking the Jewish state, feeling as if he had been thrust into an “existential crisis”.
The plans he had made for his year leading the UK’s Jewish student community now in tatters, Isaacs was forced instead to respond to antisemitism spiking on campuses across the UK.
After leaving office as UJS president earlier this month, he spoke to the JC to discuss a tumultuous year on campus – and how the Jewish student body had responded.
“I found out about the Hamas attack like many others in the community waking up on Saturday morning,” he says.
“I didn’t go to shul that Shabbat morning. I was glued to the news from that moment and ever since. I knew the repercussions of what happened to Israel would be bad for students, but I did not think to this extent.”
Edward Isaacs (Photo: Edward Isaacs)
The University of Bristol graduate had originally planned to spend his year in office working on making the Jewish student community more inclusive, while overcoming polarisation around Israel’s proposed judicial reforms.
“I saw that as one of my main challenges,” he says. “I was invited to speak at the democracy rally in Trafalgar Square [against the reforms].
“I wanted to be a voice to bring people together. Jewish students, regardless of their opinions, should be able to sit around a table and have a conversation.”
Instead, just three months in, Isaacs was confronted by the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
“Jewish students faced dealing with the reality of their own peers celebrating Hamas attacks while they were attending Zoom funerals and shivas,” he says.
“I learnt of a student whose family had been taken hostage. It’s an unconscionable reality that Jewish students have faced. They have an inherent connection to events in Israel on a religious, familial and cultural level, and they saw people not only not standing in solidarity with them or Israel, but also glorifying the attacks.”
In response, UJS immediately launched a welfare hotline through which they would eventually provide support to over 1,000 Jewish students on everything from mental health support to the need to hear a friendly voice.
Some of the stories Isaacs heard, he says, still haunt him.
In one case, a student came home to their accomodation to discover their flatmates had been leading chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at a march. The student decided to leave the house immediately, he says. Others, meanwhile, simply insisted campus was “no longer for them”.
“We couldn’t fail,” Isaacs insists. “To fail would mean a generation of Jewish students who felt they couldn’t outwardly lead Jewish lives. That poses an existenstial risk to the Jewish community in Britain.”
So instead, UJS boosted funding for JSocs to host events on and off campuses. Its sabbatical officers travelled the length of the UK, meeting with victims of antisemitism, and Isaacs appeared on television and radio to raise awareness of Jewish students’ concerns.
In May of this year, Isaacs addressed vice-chancellors and the Prime Minister at an unprecedented Number 10 summit designed to tackle rising antisemitism, and in an attempt to change the culture among their peers, UJS is expanding their antisemitism training to teach others on campus what ought to be “taboo and unacceptable”.
Former UJS President Edward Isaacs (centre) with former Education Secretary Gilllian Keegan and (right) Former Minister of State for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education Robert Halfon (Photo: Edward Isaacs)
“The reality as it stands is that there are a minority of students on campus who are perpetrators of many incidents,” Isaacs says.
“What’s different is that despite perpetrators being in the minority, there are not wholesale outward calls of condemnation from the majority. It paints a picture of antisemitism on campus as not being treated the same as discrimination of other minority groups. I hope to see the tide turn as pro-Palestine protests impact the lives of non-Jewish students.”
Amid rising bigotry, however, Jewish students have refused to be cowed, Isaacs insists.
“Leeds JSoc had their Hillel House attacked. The following Monday night they had planned a big party in the house.
“I don’t think anyone would have batted an eyelid if they’d said they were cancelling the party, but they had the biggest party ever with over 250 Jewish students. Jewish students are still living meaningful Jewish lives.”
His term leading UJS now over, Isaacs is ready to move on, with a training contract already lined up with a Magic Circle law firm.
Edward Isaacs (centre) in conversation with Rachel Riley (left) (Photo: Edward Isaacs)
Despite that, he says, he is “not going anywhere” when it comes to standing up for the community.
“I will no longer be professionally involved, but UJS was a huge part of my life, and it means a huge amount to me,” he says. “This year has given me more energy to be involved in Jewish life than ever before.”
