OPINION: Whatever happened to the good old NUS I worked for 70 years ago?
As an investigation confirms hostile culture for Jews on campus, Jewish News historian Derek Taylor says the NUS wasn't established to make students "guinea pigs for a political objective"
![Former president of NUS, Shaima Dallali [Twitter].](https://static.jewishnews.co.uk/jewishnews/uploads/2022/03/93EM5K4U_400x400.jpg "Former president of NUS, Shaima Dallali [Twitter].")
The National Union of Students was formed in 1922 when the Inter-Varsity Association and the International Students Bureau decided to merge.
The objective was to help students in any way possible, with the emphasis being on assisting them to find work during vacations and organising cheap travel for them. Now, I wasn’t around in 1922 but I had a gap year before going up to Cambridge in 1951 and spent nine months working in the NUS Travel department. Which makes me the oldest ex-employee of the NUS by some years.
There was no politics in the organisation in my day. The NUS was set up to help students make ends meet, not to make them guinea pigs for a political objective. The travel department hadn’t dealt with the paper work for its charter flights to America for three months and I faced a mountain of paper work. To sort it, I went in one morning at 8.30am and went home at 5.30am the following day.
I had a gap year before going up to Cambridge in 1951 and spent nine months working in the NUS Travel department. Which makes me the oldest ex-employee of the NUS by some years.
It’s amazing how little there is to do at 4am. The new head of the travel department had just been appointed. Harry Baum was Jewish and had recently been demobilised from the war crimes division of the British army. He had arrested a number of war criminals and told me that the best way to get them to surrender was to greet them with a loaded pistol and fire it into the ceiling.
The objectives the NUS had then were of real use to students. They gave them opportunities which poor students could never have afforded otherwise and found them jobs. In my second year I worked sorting firs one vacation for the Hudson Bay Company.
As they had a free seat in 1952, I actually went to America as a member of the University of Pennsylvania State College Choir and came back as a member of the American armed forces in another free seat. I wondered at the time if Russian spies found it that easy to leave the United States.
Anti-semitism was never a problem with the NUS that long ago. The Holocaust had horrified everyone and the NUS today should recognise just what racism can lead to. Any form of racism, as can be seen in modern times in Ruanda, Cambodia and Burma.
The problem with eradicating it for us is the distortion of our relationship with Israel. Quite rightly we have no influence whatsoever in the politics of the country. We vote in British elections, not Israeli. If the Palestinian students recruited every Jewish student to their cause, we could do absolutely nothing to influence the Knesset – and quite right too.
Yet the recent report on NUS politics makes sad reading. The government has said it will have nothing to do with the organisation in the future and if the NUS don’t make anti-racism stick, they will stay isolated. There will always be racists and we must help all our ethnic communities to continue to make them as insignificant a political force as they are today.
The proof of the pudding will be whether the NUS lives up to their stated denunciation of all forms of the virus.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
