UJS presidential hopefuls set out their visions

They say a week in politics is a long time. Indeed, no sooner has one UJS president got their feet behind the desk than the election for a successor begins. 

Voting for the leader of the union, which represents 9,000 members across 75 Jewish societies in the UK and Ireland, opened on Sunday 16 November and is set to conclude ahead of the organisation’s headline conference, which will take place from 28-30 November.

The key topics on the agenda: campus antisemitism, Jewish pride and potential, Israel engagement and regional expansion.

Speaking to Jewish News and campaigning for their fellow students’ hearts and minds are three compelling candidates. 24-year old Israeli-born psychology student, Anat Kraskin, is a two-time Glasgow JSoc President and former UJS National Council representative. 21-year old philosophy student Raphi Leon is President of Warwick JSoc, also a former member of UJS National Council and has served as an International UJS Delegate. And 20-year old politics and international relations student, Jonah Levy, is President of Bristol JSoc and its former Head of Campaigns.

And while there can be only one winner, the runners up know that if they don’t get elected they can apply to be sabbatical officers.

So, ladies first. In her manifesto, Anat Kraskin says: “UJS gave me a platform, a voice, and a community. Now I’m ready to give back – to lead a Union that empowers every JSoc to thrive, amplifies Jewish pride on campus, and delivers real results for Jewish students across the UK and Ireland.”

Born and raised in Ashdod before moving at the age of ten to Kiryat Ono, near Ramat Gan, Kraskin has been involved with the student community since her first week as a Fresher.

“I went to a JSoc event, met my best friends there and since then, that’s the only [extracurricular] thing I do at university. I love our union very much. It’s given me a platform, a voice, and a lot of opportunities to lead and to be part of fellowships.”

She’s represented students nationally through UJS and internationally as a UK Lauder Fellow with the World Jewish Congress.

“That sense of community that I feel with our Union is why I’m proud of everything it represents,” she says. “That’s why I want to lead it. And I feel now I’m ready to lead it and take it from strength to strength.”

Being an Israeli on campus has absolutely shaped her world view of student politics. “I grew up as a majority in Israel, and I came here and became a minority. That is a very different perspective. It challenged me and I learned how to deal with both identities.”

The period after 7 October 2023 have been “the hardest years for being a Jewish student in university. Being a minority was something that was very, very highlighted. I feel like I dealt with it, and I bring that sense of strong pride and chutzpah, that I can deal with and tackle antisemitism. I think it makes me a better leader.”

As for being the only female candidate, Kraskin tells Jewish News she doesn’t “want it to intimidate me, so I’m trying to not let it get to me. But I’ll be honest that it is something I’m aware of. It’s hard to imagine sitting in a room full of men and being the only woman voice. A lot of them will talk about gender equality, but at the end of the day, gender equality is not a slogan, it’s actually something real. And I feel like while I’m running, I’m showing that gender equality needs to be better. It needs to be real, and we need to address it. And a lot of people will say I’m very serious and I’m very dry – this is criticism that a woman will get.”

When it comes to tackling antisemitism, Kraskin says she is “known for delivering results. I did that for two years in Glasgow. I campaigned against a director who wanted to change the IHRA definition. And the next year, when a group of people said, ‘Let’s kick Zionists out of campus’, I had to campaign against that.

“I’m very passionate,” she adds, “and it’s a serious role, leading a national union. This is something I care about, the proactive advocacy that we need to do. But something that is very important to me is to have more Jewish joy on campus, because Jewish joy is resistance.”

Moving forward, Kraskin wants to be proactive and “continue the good work that the President (Louis Danker) is doing.”

Top of her ambitious agenda is “to modernise. I want to have new opportunities for JSocs when it comes to funding and when it comes to bigger, better and more creative events that they want to do. I want to launch a new program to Yad Vashem.”

With her international hat on, Kraskin wants “to expand our regional representation. Israel engagement definitely needs a glow up in our union. This is something I will bring to the table as an Israeli, as someone who understands it. Let’s stop ignoring Israelis, Israeli students and Israeli voices. As lived experience, they need to be part of the conversation.”

She tells Jewish News “that when I talk to people on campus, someone who doesn’t know me, and they ask me where I’m from, this is something I can’t hide. I have to say the country I’m from, and the minute I say ‘Israel’, it becomes worse than any other Jewish student who can say where they from and have a different nationality. You can see the change. Their faces change, they move in their chair, and we suddenly feel this hostility that they don’t like you just because of where you are from. I don’t want to apologise for where I’m from, and no other Israeli wants to apologise.”

Jonah Levy has served on two Bristol JSoc committees and says “it’s been a massive part” of his life. Fighting antisemitism is a priority. “That mission will always continue, and it’s the role of UJS to make sure that Jewish students feel safe and supported on campuses. I’ve got a lot of tangible and actionable initiatives about how we can really make these steps to keep Jewish students safer.”

He goes on to stress that UJS “shouldn’t be defined by what we’re fighting against. It should be defined by what we stand for: providing Jewish students with every opportunity possible to thrive and succeed.”

Levy, from Finchley and part of Bristol University’s football team, believes the focus should be on unlocking that potential. “UJS has done a fantastic job of standing up for Jewish students in the face of antisemitism, but it needs to give wider attention and a wider focus on how it can help Jewish students on the ground thrive.”

He describes how “I benefited my whole life from the Jewish community, growing up with an incredibly strong community in my synagogue and youth movement” and believes that community needs to embrace its “full spectrum of talent, ambition and interest” and “provide as many opportunities for every single Jewish student to flourish.”

Part of tackling that challenge is “breaking down the barriers that might be holding them back”.

Levy wants to provide more Jewish communal spaces, such as Hillel Houses, to “improve on the current ones and expand them to provide Jewish students with the opportunity to actually come together and celebrate”, as well as “increasing access and affordability of kosher food” and launching programmes to actively “bring Jewish voices from across our community together to be able to speak with one another.”

He adds that Bristol’s JSoc has “an incredibly close relationship with the Vice Chancellor and the senior leadership team at University. From that, I’ve gained a lot of experience and the best ways that we can hold these conversations in a productive and cooperative way to really make sure that Jewish students are feeling safe and protected. That’s something I hope to bring to the UJS presidency.”

Looking ahead to life for students after their campus experience, Levy wants to platform providing opportunities “for Jewish students to come together and celebrate who they are”, through more social events like Booze for Jews and national and regional events, “bringing Jewish students together to really celebrate their identity” and providing opportunities within careers and industries.

“A big challenge of being a student at University,” he says, “is worrying about what life is like after. Looking at how we provide these opportunities for Jewish students to really connect with the workforce and provide them that head start.”

Politics can be a sink or swim environment, but as a Team Maccabi GB swimmer, Raphi Leon is no stranger to getting his feet wet. In the third year of a philosophy degree at Warwick University, he grew up in London’s Swiss Cottage, has advised UJS Trustees on organisational strategy and represented UK and Irish students to the European Union of Jewish Students.

Leon wants to take on the UJS Presidency because “building thriving Jewish student communities has been the defining feature of my Jewish student experience. I’ve absolutely loved it.”

Grateful for “the flame of Jewish pride lit in my own life”, it’s become “the fuel of my passion to share that with others and give others the opportunity to connect meaningfully to their Jewish identity in a way that speaks to them.”

Together with a group of like-minded students, Leon has been part of the team responsible for building Warwick JSoc from a relative unknown into a welcoming, thriving community that won them Jewish Society of the Year in 2024.

“I didn’t take a traditional path through Jewish identity,” he tells Jewish News. “I went to a Jewish primary school, but then to a non Jewish secondary school. My focus there was always contributing to general school life and to learn about and engage with the diversity of pupils at the school from all backgrounds.”

What he’d take into his time as UJS president would be “that kind of approach of understanding where every single student comes from; that Jewish identity is complex. Everyone relates to that identity in their own way. I have the way that’s meaningful for me, but I understand and accept that others have the way that’s meaningful for them.”

If successful, he’d want to “really instil this culture within my team of sabbatical officers, and within everyone at UJS: to say you’ve got to understand where everyone’s coming from, not just the people who come with their friendship groups.”

Leon has spent the last year canvassing opinions; from the recent candidate debate, he was asked about engaging and supporting postgraduate students, “I’ve spoken to Israeli students who want to know about how UJS can support them better, because they have a unique set of challenges and needs; I’ve spoken to international students who aren’t Israeli, but from other other countries, who also have their own challenges of integrating with a new Jewish community. So I think what they will want to ask is: ‘Does UJS understand me? Do you understand where I come from?”

Within his experience at Warwick JSoc, he’s worked to build relationships with the university Vice Chancellor, the Student Union presidents and other key stakeholders within the university. “Taking on leadership positions is something that I’ve always done.”

With the release of the last living hostages in Gaza, Leon says it “feels like there’s finally hope around the corner. And what’s really inspired me is hearing the hostages speaking, their optimism and their focus on building for the future. That’s a really interesting challenge going forward, for the next academic year: how do we capitalise on and make the most of that optimism to ensure that building those thriving Jewish treatment communities is the central focus of JSocs?”

“I’ve always been, ” he adds, “someone who tries to take responsibility, lead others and be a representative figure for those around me.”

It would, he tells Jewish News, “really mean the world” to “continue trying to impact Jewish student life, to build those thriving Jewish student communities that I’ve loved doing in Warwick. I really want to send that message to Jewish students: they can feel empowered to go to whichever campus they want, big or small, and feel that they will know that they’re supported and will get to build the Jewish student experience they want to have. UJS would be there to support them.”

• In order to vote for UJS President 2026, you must have registered on the UJS website and be a Jewish student. When registering to vote you must include your university and graduation year. Voting closes at 23:59 on Thursday, 27th November 2025.