New UJS president promises pride and protection for Jewish students
Louis Danker takes the helm during a turbulent time, pledging zero tolerance on antisemitism and a bold revival of Jewish life across UK campuses
At the beginning of July, one of the Jewish community’s key leadership roles changed hands. Louis Danker is now president of the Union of Jewish Students, representing 9,000 members across 85 Jewish societies in the UK and Ireland. His tenure has begun during one of the most challenging periods for British Jews – particularly those attending higher educational facilities – in recent memory.
Yet Jewish history is filled with examples of determination in the face of adversity and resilience in response to hostility – and a new generation is continuing in that tradition. The 22-year old north-Londoner Danker sums this up perfectly:
“We’ve got the biggest Friday night dinners we’ve ever seen with the most security we’ve ever needed. Everyone is talking about the second part, but no one’s talking about the first part.”
Danker has been preparing for this challenge since well before the presidential phone and office keys were symbolically handed over to him earlier this month.
The former Edinburgh University geography student – who led the local Jsoc during his time in the Scottish capital – centred his election campaign around putting Jewish pride back on the agenda, running a Jewish culture and history week on campuses around the country, and a plan for a year of zero tolerance on antisemitism.
When the results came in, he had received 938 votes – more than any other candidate in the history of the organisation’s elections.
Speaking to Jewish News a few weeks into the job, he says it’s been “non-stop from day one. It’s very much not a nine to five, but it’s great. I’m loving it.”
Central to his plans are “putting being proud to be Jewish on campus at the centre of everything that UJS does, and the centre of everything Jewish students do.”
Danker believes Jewish student life has “reacted to unprecedented challenge with unprecedented resilience. I think the most important thing for me is showing the world, the community, and our students that amidst all the challenges – and there are many – we are thriving like we’ve never been thriving before. Jewish life on campus is vibrant, and it’s diverse and it’s constant and exciting.”
Whilst his passion for the role is beyond doubt, Louis Danker is also a realist. He knows there are challenges, but says “fundamentally, we are in such an exciting place. Jewish students have chosen to react to all the antisemitism, and all the hostility on campus, with redoubling their efforts to build such amazing communities. I think that is something to behold and something we should be shouting about. So, I will be shouting that from the rooftops constantly.”
Supporting him is “the biggest sabbatical team at UJS in decades. We’ve got a team of myself plus nine sabbatical officers” giving them a “greater capability to respond, be reactive, be on it.”
He adds that UJS “needs to continue having the best-in-class response when it comes to antisemitic incidents on campus. We need to continue providing the expert welfare support and logistical support to Jewish societies as they respond to incidents as they happen.”
The real change is the “pernicious normalisation of antisemitism on campus, whereby it becomes part of campus culture. We are now getting ahead of that. We can’t just tackle the symptoms; we have to tackle the cause.”
That involves “massively upscaling up our antisemitism awareness training that we give to student union, sabbatical officers, vice chancellors, university staff and students.”
Danker and his team will spend August “building relationships with JSocs and Jewish students around the country. We have come up with a calendar for the year, and all the different campaigns and programmes we want to put into place.”
They’ve also written to every university vice chancellor in the country “to request a meeting to scrutinise their plans for the year ahead.” Danker wants to “understand the work they’re doing and ensure that they are fully focused on protecting Jewish student life in the year ahead.”
Danker will “absolutely be touring around, getting to as many campuses as I possibly can. It’s one of the great perks of the job, as I see it. I want to be on the ground talking to students, I want to hear about what they love about UJS and JSoc, and what they want to see more of.”
He jokes with Jewish News about the Leeds blind-tasting “chulent-off” he attended on the campaign, and laughs (nervously) at the thought of how much weight he might to put on during his tenure.
With an eye to the future, he wants to make sure “that every UJS staff member is the embodiment of our message as an organisation: Jewish pride, and living, thriving, fulfilling Jewish lives on campus. Of course, the best way for us to do that is to be there on campus with the students themselves.”
Danker underscores plans to “strengthen our leadership pathway, to ensure that we are creating the Jewish communal leaders not only of today on campus, but in the future as well.” He outlines the rapid expansion of UJS’s Schools work, developing their leadership pipeline. “How great”, he asks, “would it be if the freshers coming into their freshers’ stalls in September already want to be involved in UJS because of the contact they’ve already had with us in sixth form?”
As UJS president, Danker is proud that he is the Jewish students’ “elected representative, and we are their union. It is their voice that is the most important thing. So, if I can spend the year listening to their feelings and concerns, and amplifying their voices, that is a year well spent. And if that involves me getting a lot of trains, then so be it.”
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