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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.


History

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 President.

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. For the next few years the role of WUJS was to greatly increase, with new programs developed to redirect students from Hungary, Poland and Russia to Western Europe where there were greater opportunities for Jewish students to be admitted.

1929-1933

Although similar efforts were made to assist Jewish students coming to France, they were less successful, where Jewish students who had made it to France were running into many financial difficulties. In January 1929, Lauterpacht told a convened group of students in Paris, France, that the conditions for Jewish students in Eastern Europe were still bleak, and that in fact anti-Semitism was still on the rise, especially in Germany with the rise of Hitlerist youth. At the thirst WUJS Congress, to which Einstein sent a message highlighting the plight of German Jewry, the opening session was presided over by the renowned British philosopher Samuel Alexander who finished his opening statement with the line "I have become a Zionist", which was met with wild applause. It was decided at the congress that Einstein would remain President alongside a group of Vice-Presidents that would include Chaim Bialik, Sigmund Freud and Chaim Weizmann.

1933-1939

Maurice Perlzweig, a young, British Liberal rabbi, was elected Chairperson at the 1933 Congress. By 1936, Perlzweig was also a leader of both the Zionist Organization and the World Jewish Congress, which he had helped to create. The World Jewish Congress was to become one of WUJS' main support mechanisms after the war, and continued to be so up until the present day. In 1939 the offices of WUJS moved to Switzerland for the duration of the Second World War. While little is known of WUJS activities during the period of the war, it is known that WUJS members were particularly active in the French resistance. Following the war, the WUJS offices were moved to Paris. A Congress was held shortly after the war, and another in 1948. The third congress after the war was convened in August 1950. Shortly thereafter, the new Chairperson, Brian Sandelson, and Secretary General Louis Bartfield launched a new global newsletter, but their intention to make this a monthly publication was never realized as WUJS was sorely lacking in funds. This financial paralysis, soon coupled with the lack of a Secretary General, brought WUJS activities to a halt until the early 1960's.


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
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