UJS Convention showed cross-communalism is alive and well

I had the most fulfilling, interesting and meaningful weekend at the UJS annual convention at the end of November. The sabbatical team spent so much time and effort pulling this weekend together, and it was one to remember!

We enjoyed one of the largest communal Shabbats I’ve ever been to, got to the heart of student politics and issues, and had the most fun making friends and sharing the loveliest experiences with people already close to us.

As UJS is a cross communal movement, they made the most effort to have different services for different branches of Judaism, so we could observe in the way that suited us the most.

There were 5 different services – Orthodox, Progressive, Masorti, Sephardi, and explanatory, so people did not have to go to services that they did not feel connected to. I went to the Masorti service, and ran parts of the service, but what was nice was that people who were unfamiliar with the service still came and enjoyed it.

UJS enabled us to have productive discussions about religion as well as practicing it in the way that suited us the most.

Throughout the weekend, we had a number of different sessions, ran by different people, which allowed us to have different levels of Jewish education, talk about our experiences on campus, discuss progressive and Orthodox Judaism side by side and enrich ourselves in deep and powerful discussions that are so important to our culture.

Sabbatical officer Tamzin Lester, as well as the rest of the team worked tirelessly to make the schedule fascinating, challenging and engaging. One of the sessions that stood out to me particularly was the session on Kanye West, cancel culture and compliance by the UJS president Louis Danker, which I was able to really engage with.

Eve Cohen, one of the sabbatical officers, worked very hard on inclusion, and creating a space for people at convention where they felt supported and comfortable as well as pushed and challenged. There were such interesting
people who came in to speak such as Zac Bates Fisher from PJS and Noya Avniel from CST, both of whom I took a lot from my discussions with them.

One of the most significant parts of convention for me was the conference. As a politics student, I am so interested in student democracy, and how we can work to change the life of Jewish students.

We spent weeks before preparing and writing motions, speaking to each other about what we were proposing and planning what we were going to say. I personally spoke on a motion about female and non binary inclusion in Torah study. As a body of students, we passed some incredible motions; from encouragement of Poland trips to Jewish student prayer spaces, and so much more.

I felt for the first time as a student that my voice really meant something. The weekend ended with the announcement of the next UJS president, who will be Raphi Leon from Warwick, who worked so hard on his brilliant campaign.

Reflecting on convention and my experience there, I took away so much from it. I spoke to so many people who I wouldn’t interact with on a daily basis, and was able to share my thoughts, and exercise my responsibility as a politically active Jew. In my life as a student, I hope to interact with UJS so much more, and hopefully give back to them after everything they have given me.

Thank you to the team at UJS for the most fulfilling weekend!

• Kezzy Miller, Liverpool University JSoc president