To be or not to be a Jewish student activist?

Adding to that was the special appearance by Frans Timmermans – the first vice president of the European Commission whose comprehensive and holistic views on diversity and the challenges and opportunities it brings to the European project are a rare gem. And finally, the headliner of the discussion was Viorica Dancila, the Romanian prime minister.

Yet, Romania, under the leadership of its current government, has undergone massive negative change. The reversal of decades of post-communist struggles to align with European values, the beheading of judicial independence and waves of corruption scandals have brought the largest crowds seen since the fall of Ceausescu’s dictatorship to the streets. 

Complex realities

I begin with this to highlight a key question regarding the European Union of Jewish Students’ role and modus operandi. It raises the question: how do we deal with complicated realities without falling into the trap of simple solutions? As chair of the EUJS, the voice of over 160,000 young Jews, but at the same time a Romanian citizen dismayed with our current government, the conference mentioned was nothing short of a complicated reality. While all of the above is true, what is also true is that Romanian Jews enjoy some of the most impressive legislation against antisemitism in all of Europe, a political class sympathetic to the community on both sides of the aisle and a (relatively) safe public space for Jews to present themselves as such.

In a political climate throughout Europe, and perhaps especially in Central and Eastern Europe that is tilted towards illiberalism and a rejection of European values such complex realities for Jewish communities exist in abundance. One has to look no further than Hungary, Poland or Austria (to name a few). This is where the crucial task for the EUJS lies. After four decades of existence, the organisation must now take on the challenge to gain wider recognition and take responsibility to challenge the status quo.

The European Union of Jewish Students is an organisation you are likely not to have heard of. It is an umbrella organisation of national Jewish students throughout Europe and the political representation of 160,000 Jewish students and young professionals. At 40, the EUJS itself is older than any of the people involved as we are all younger than 35; most of us are significantly younger.

Generations of dedicated activists have helped make the EUJS a household name in some of the most important fora out there. EUJS activists have addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council, the European Parliament, and even greeted popes. While gaining access to all these platforms is an achievement in and of itself, what is more important, and the source of some of our biggest moments of pride, is the message. This message is that while Jewish students in Poland oppose historical revisionism; as Jewish students in Hungary rally against state-endorsed and state-funded antisemitic attacks and conspiracy theories; as Jewish students in Austria oppose the far-right Freedom Party; as Jewish students in the United Kingdom fight against the outpouring of antisemitism in the UK Labour party emboldened by Jeremy Corbyn’s antisemitic opposition to Israel; as Jewish students in France oppose Holocaust deniers; and as Jewish students on a European level, we advocate for more education, more protection, more data; as we do all these things, we remain faithful to two core principles: that our duty is to ensure a thriving Jewish communal life in Europe, anchored in a strong and positive Jewish identity; and that this positive Jewish identity goes hand in hand and cannot exist without a broader care for society as a whole. That is, respect for the rule of law, respect for democratic processes, empowerment of all minority communities – be they Muslim, Roma, gender and sexual minorities, women, people with disabilities and all those who face the challenging reality of embodying more than one of these identities at once; respect for human rights, and a strong faith in the European project, as the longest lasting peace project the world has ever seen. 

Building communities

I suspect this sounds pretty good to most people. A “shkoyah” and a pat on the back are in the air. And yet, like most Jewish organisations out there dedicated to youth, the EUJS finds itself struggling to generate a sense of relevance for our constituency. This is especially the case in Central Europe. It would appear that while there are fantastic young activists everywhere, with rich, diverse and vibrant Jewish identities, we are not always tapping into a sense of why it is relevant to come together. That is, while we are proud Jews individually, and we may engage in Jewish communal life as it appears around the main holidays, we are not to the fullest of our capacity as a community of values, one that operates based on an understanding that there is an added-value (sic!) to our joint voice.

I first had this thought back in August, when a majority of my Jewish friends took to the streets of Bucharest alongside hundreds of thousands of other people, protesting the Romanian government, being tear-gassed and intimidated by a brutal police force. These friends were there as concerned citizens, as proud Romanians who cared for the direction of their country. I wondered then – is there something to be said about them coming together to protest as Jewish students? As a community of values alongside other communities of values that raise their voices during those horrid and bloody summer nights?

Jewish student activism is a chance for young Jews to build communities that mirror their principles, challenge the way things are and channel their Jewish values towards social issues more broadly. Just three years ago, before ever hearing about the EUJS, I was one of those Jewish students almost out the door with my Jewish life. After over 15 years of being a chanicha, a madricha, a pupil in a Jewish school, a member of the Jewish choir – I was almost out the door. I was ready to begin my professional life, to pursue my path as a political scientist and I subconsciously assumed that it would be up to my future children to reignite that flame, and through them, I would eventually reconnect as well.

Luckily, I discovered there was much more to it. By “luckily” I mean that it was indeed a fluke. There was no tradition of activism in my family or community. I did not have access to best practices in the field and I was oblivious to the whole idea of Jewish student unions. In short, it was an unfamiliar universe to me.

The landscape of student activism, especially Jewish student activism, varies greatly across the continent. British student societies hold an almost mythical status – the stuff of novels and movies and pop culture.  Student-led social change is part of France’s self-definition, and this also translates into the way Jewish student-organised life looks like. The Union of Jewish Students in the UK, a century old institution, is an established part of civil society. The Union des Etudiants Juifs de France is, since 1944, one of the most powerful voices in the public space. While these are the two countries that stand out when we speak of historical resilience, the EUJS network fosters many Jewish youth-led organisations that have stood the test of time. The Unione Giovani Ebrei d’Italia in Italy, the Union des Etudiants Juifs de Belgique in Belgium, to name a few. The question is – how do you create a culture of student activism, where, for one reason or another, it has not historically existed? In most post-communist countries the very idea of civil society remains fragile; and in many places it is undermined by the state.

Tangible change

For a long time now it has been one of EUJS’s core responsibilities to find answers to this question. The EUJS was among the first Jewish organisations to go behind the Iron Curtain, and in 1988 it held “Summer U” – Europe’s largest youth Jewish event – in the former Yugoslavia. EUJS activists smuggled Jewish books into Hungary in the early 1980s and travelled to Siberia to spend Shabbat with local Jewry. Currently, we are running Union Accelerator programmes that help equip member organisations with the tools to institutionalise. We bring “Summer U” to communities all over Europe, giving visibility to youth across the continent. We ensure geographical balance among our volunteers, staff and board and uphold an explicit policy priority to work towards a pan-European identity, bridging whatever divides still remain between different European regions.

And while all these measures have brought us a long way forward, there is perhaps nothing more rewarding than seeing our peers succeed and witnessing with one’s own eyes that it is possible! In the last few years, we have seen the incredible revival of Jewish student activism in Austria and Germany. Within the space of one leadership cycle, organisations in both countries managed to shape themselves as players on the national political scene, as community-builders and conveners and as the present (rather than the future) of those two communities. The key to their growing success, I believe, is ultimately that incredible feeling of doing it with your own two hands: young people convening, debating and producing outcomes through their own strength and according to their own priorities – that is the essence of empowerment.

For Jewish students across Europe, it is these tangible examples of empowerment that constitute the strong reason for them to ask themselves this following: how can we shape our community in our image, and create tangible social change like our peers have? The answers to these questions are numerous. And I hope the EUJS manages to provide a platform for these questions to be asked in the first place.

Alina Bricman is the president of the European Union of Jewish Students.

Jewish life, student association