Jewish students celebrate success with awards ceremony
by Natasha Sporn
Oxford was crowned best Jsoc in the country last night at the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) ceremony.
They won their accolade after hosting a variety of events over the past year including Friday Night Dinners, guest speakers and social sction initiatives.
Students from Oxford also picked up Interfaith Project of the Year and UJIA Israel Engagement awards.
Around 200 people attended the UJS Awards 2016 in Edgware, which saw 11 trophies handed out to Jewish societies from up and down the country, with students from 25 different Jsocs in attendance.
All this evening’s winners! Mazal Tov! #UJSStudentAwards16 pic.twitter.com/SqItkwYqSu
— UJS (@UJS_UK) March 31, 2016
The title of Developing Jsoc of the Year was handed to Lancaster, following their growth in numbers over and the creation of a friendly environment on campus.
Organisers of Cambridge’s ‘Middle East Peace Week’ Joel Collick and Jonny Shamir won the CST UK award for Campaign of the Year following the campaign directly before Israel Apartheid Week hit campuses.
Another week-long campaign for mental health awareness amongst students on campus won the Dedication to Liberalism Activism award for Louise Cohen of Nottingham Jsoc.
Birmingham Jsoc’s Orli Goldberg won Social Action Project for her Outnumber Hunger campaign work across both students and the local community food banks.
The prestigious Alan Senitt Award for Outstanding Contribution on campus was awarded to Joel Salmon. The former St Andrews president spent two years taking the society from strength to strength as well as spearheading the Coexistence Initiative – a cross-communal project hosting conferences with people of different religions.
Full list of winners
- Best Education Project (in memory of Fred Worms) – Holocaust Memorial Day event – Sally Patterson, Rebecca Filer, Lily Ross and Leo Berger, Bristol Jsoc
- Interfaith Project of the Year – ‘Crossing Bridges’ – Sacha Ephrussi and Yoni Stone, Oxford Jsoc
- Communication of the Year Award – Hava Na’giggle’s Eliot Cohen, Cambridge Jsoc
- CST Campaign of the Year – Middle East Peace Week – Joel Collick and Jonny Shamir, Cambridge Jsoc
- Dedication to Liberation Activism Award – ‘Reclaim’ – Louise Cohen, Nottingham Jsoc
- Event of the Year – Scottish and Northern Shabbaton – Lily Keisle (Glasgow J-Soc), Kathryn Rose (St Andrews J-Soc) and Josh Woolf (Lancaster J-Soc)
- Social Action Project of the Year – ‘Outnumber Hunger’ – Orli Goldberg, Birmingham Jsoc
- UJIA Best Israel Engagement – ‘Zionish’ (online publication) – Aaron Simons, Oxford Jsoc
- Developing Jsoc of the Year – Lancaster Jsoc
- Jsoc of the Year – Oxford Jsoc
- Alan Senitt Award for Outstanding Contribution – Joel Salmon
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