Opinion
Ignore Jewdas, UJS elections show among young Jews' support for Zionism is strong
The results consistently show that young UK Jews are predominantly Zionist, writes Daniel Sugarman
December 10, 2018 13:27
1 min read
The results consistently show that young UK Jews are predominantly Zionist, writes Daniel Sugarman
December 10, 2018 13:27There is a theory about the UK's Jewish community, which the far-left in this country appears to subscribe to wholeheartedly.
It goes something like this: "While the majority of the Jewish community are Zionists, there is a growing anti-Zionist feeling among Jewish youth. By attending the far-left Jewdas Seder earlier this year, Jeremy Corbyn was acknowledging that groundswell of anti-Zionist support from the younger generation of Jews. Hasta la revolución, siempre!"
The only problem with this theory is that it simply isn’t true, as consecutive presidential elections for the Union of Jewish Students have shown.
For the last three years, there have been three candidates to be UJS president. Each time, one of the three has been a member of the Jewdas collective. And each time, the Jewdas-backed candidate has come last, by a long way.
These results show there also hasn’t been any significant growth in anti-Zionism among young Jews.
Each year, the Jewdas candidate has received around 8.5 percent of the votes out of the 900 to 1000 which are cast.
There are a wide range of opinions among Zionists within UJS about Israel’s behaviour on certain issues – just as there is a significant mix of attitudes within the Jewish community as a whole on such matters.
But, contrary to the theory the far-left like to promote, as with their older counterparts, support for Zionism among young UK Jews remains strong – and consistent.
There are other encouraging signs from the UJS elections. Esther Offenberg, the winner of the latest vote, will assume the office in summer 2019, succeeding Hannah Rose and continuing the paradigm shift which has occurred over the last few years.
From 1968 until 2013, more than 40 students in turn led the UJS – just four of whom were women. Since then, however, that number has doubled, with four women elected out of the last six.
The results were announced at the end of the UJS’s annual conference on Sunday, a conference which itself was testament to the organisation’s success.
A few years ago, the relationship between Jewish students and the National Union of Students was close to breaking point after the election of a highly controversial anti-Zionist NUS president, Malia Bouattia.
Since then, UJS has worked overtime to try and fix that relationship. This year, NUS President Shakira Martin attended the UJS conference, telling Jewish students: “Whatever happens, you have an ally in me for life”.
When it comes to issues such as increasing representation for women and building bridges with seemingly hostile groups, Britain’s Jewish communal organisations would do well to look at the Union of Jewish Students – and follow its good example.
