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World Union of Jewish Students

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WUJS
Company typeNon-profit
Founded1924
HeadquartersTel Aviv, Israel
Websitewww.wujs.org.il

The World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS; Template:Pron-en) is the international, pluralistic, non-partisan umbrella organisation comprising of 48 national independent Jewish Student Unions from all over the world, founded in 1924, with Albert Einstein as its first Chairman. Other previous Chairmen have included Amos Oz and Chaim Herzog.

The headquarters of WUJS are located in Tel Aviv, Israel and its current Chairman is Oliver Worth, a British immigrant from the United Kingdom.


Histroy

1924-1929

The World Union of Jewish Students was founded in 1924 by Zvi Lauterpacht, an Austrian Jew who was aggrieved by the injustices regarding the admittance of Jews to European universities, which at the time had quotes for Jewish students. As this quota system spread throughout Europe, Lauterpacht saw the need to spread his campaigning efforts.[1] From this the concept of an organized international union began to materialize. The union, however, only began to truly develop when Albert Einstein threw his weight behind the union. Then a lecturer in Berlin, Einstein was equally concerned with growing anti-semitism across Europe, himself having been verbally attacked when lecturing. In 1925 Einstein accepted Lauterpacht's invitation to be the union's first Chairman.

On April 30th 1924, the opening Congress was held in the Maccabi Sports Hall in Antwerp, Belgium. The Congress opening was attended by over 2,000 people including the Chief Rabbi of Belgium and the Military Governor of Antwerp. Following this 76 delegates from 17 countries met for 4 days to hear reports on the realities of Jewish students in various countries, and to discuss the problems affecting them. Amongst the sentiments expressed were that "The best method for the work before us appears to be a strong, organized union of all Jewish Students throughout the world." The first Congress resulted in the establishment of the WUJS Executive that would sit in London and the election of Lauterpacht as the first Chairman.



WUJS Executive

The World Union of Jewish Students is administered by its Executive. Chaired by a full-time Chairman, the Executive is comprised of the the Presidents of WUJS' continental and special status unions.

See also

References

  1. ^ WUJS http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:9alYTd8nppEJ:wujs.org.il/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D13%26Itemid%3D153+history+of+wujs&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk
Israel

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