OPINION: The proof of Jewish student activism is in the pudding

By Joshua Rom, Nottingham University 

I am totally humbled. A rather odd sentence to start with, but that is the only word that can fully describe how I feel right now. Award Season may be over, but I feel that the student awards were just a testament of all the work that was put in by students up and down the country. 

This weekend was a big weekend for me in particular; I was not only overwhelmed to be nominated for the communication of the year award at the UJS National Student Awards but my show “The Panel” was nominated and won an award in the Light Entertainment Category at the National Student Television Awards.

What I can only is thank you. Not just to my lovely Jewish mother at home who makes me meals to bring up to university and in return has to listen to me rambling on about why I hate Roman Witches (My degree is classical civilisation). But to everyone that made the awards happen.

I may not officially be Publicity Officer for Nottingham JSoc anymore, but the effects that the amazing people that worked around me in the committee is everlasting. The UJS award nomination could not be possible without my fellow committee members, the support that they gave me. Particular mention should go to Ben Carr, especially when it came to Organising Nottingham B4J. If I ever felt like I could not do the job, or whether I was not capable, Ben Carr was there to support and reassure me that I can indeed do the job.

The amount he contributed alone to the publicity department is enormous especially with the census and his passion for improving the lives of Jewish Students in Nottingham. His talent for film making should also not go unnoticed as his B4J video was one of the funniest I have seen and managed to incorporate not just the event itself but everything that is good about the Jewish Student community in Nottingham. I could not be more proud to look back on my work as Nottingham Jsoc Publicity Officer. If there was a time to look back on the year it is now.

Even though I may not have won in the awards, it does not make me any less proud of what we achieved as a committee and neither should the other students who didn’t win an award. This weekend has made me realise that the cliche is only around because it is true. We are all winners.

I look back on the struggles we faced putting on events but the one thing I can say about my time as Jsoc Publicity Officer, I don’t know how we did it. The barriers we faced in the organisation process of anything whether it was a Friday night dinner or a social were always ridiculously high.

What I gathered most is the sense of unity that our committee had. I feel like I have lifelong friends and even though we may not see each other as much now as we are going our separate ways within university, (I am getting involved in student media whilst doing a degree and somehow retaining some sort of social life) I know that I will always have those friends to reminisce about the time we struggled to put on a boat cruise (amongst other things). That and some embarrassing video’s that our committee filmed as a joke. That will stay within the committee.

I want to say thank you for UJS. I learnt a lot about myself and teamwork through working on the committee. After my disastrous experiences in certain youth movements, I would say that UJS gave me the opportunity through JSoc to rebuild my confidence, something in which I will always be grateful for.