Where are they now? What our Twenty-Five Under 25 are doing five years on

Two rabbis (or, well on the way), one cantor, three in the USA, one in Israel, seven Jewish community professionals… many building on what they were doing five years ago. 

Some have gone into the commercial professional field and their Jewish involvement has temporarily decreased.  

Gabriel Pogrund, the journalist who wrote the biographies back in 2015 when he was editor of the Tab student newspaper.

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He is now a lead journalist on The Sunday Times, writing about the Labour Party, antisemitism and other major issues.

 

 

Ella Rose was president of UJS in 2015. Since then she was director of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) for a couple of years and did heroic work “fighting the good fight”, including being the subject of a horrible Al Jazeera documentary. She is now public affairs manager at Holocaust Educational Trust and a trustee of Union of Jewish Students, Yachad and London Jewish Forum. She is  on the executive of LGBT Labour and JLM. In 2015, she was number one and five years on, her sister has emulated her.

Five years ago, Deborah Blausten (at number 2) had started rabbinic school and is now about to finish it. In between, she has been at the core of Limmud teams, taught and worked in synagogues and communities in England and around the world. Her profile has grown and in the Reform movement and the ROI Community she is seen as a networker, mover and shaker with a vision for how community structures need to change. 

Jay Magnus Stoll (in position 3) had finished as general secretary of the LSE student’s union and was public affairs officer of the Jewish Leadership Council and director of the London Jewish Forum. He is now head of external affairs at an arms length government body and previously led communications for Tulip Siddiq, the MP for Hampstead & Kilburn.

 

Hannah Brady (4) was about to become UJS president. She had led tour for HaNoar HaTzioni, was a UJS Activist at KCL, a Young Limmud leader and founder and convenor of UJS Disabled Students Network. She then worked in government marketing for three years and last year co-chaired Limmud Festival. She realised she loved live events, and now works for Reuters Events and is deciding upon her next community opportunity.

 

Maggie Suissa (5) (now Maggie Sheldon, after marrying her predecessor, Dan Sheldon) was for two years the formidable UJS campaigns officer. She is now in the press team at the Department for Transport. 

 

 

Louis Trup (6) served as president of the Oxford University Student Union and was the BBYO rep on the Board of Deputies.

He also broadcastied a musical podcast, Oxjewbox. Louis then went off to officer training at Sandhurst and is back from a UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, preparing to join a COVID-19 support force.  He is the engagement officer for the Armed Forces Jewish Community.

 

 

Gabriel Kanter-Webber (7) was a LJY-Netzer movement worker, having graduated from Sussex where he chaired the Student Council and was a blogger and runner-up student journalist of the year.

He was on the Board of Deputies representing LJY.  He is now more than halfway through his rabbinic training at Leo Baeck College and conducted Britain’s first gender-neutral b’nei mitzvah and officiated the first Jewish burial in York in 800 years. 

 

 

 

Noah Nathan (8) had been a major campus figure. Founder of Haverut and the Funding Circle for Jewish Student initiatives, among a range of activities.

Noah moved to California in 2017 to work in the San Francisco office of an Israeli tech company.

He now works at Dropbox as an analytics lead. He is on the board of Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley. 

Joel Marks (9) was Aish’s operations director; today he is operations manager/coordinator at digital education platform FutureLearn and is involved with GIFT. 

In 2015 Yael Shafritz (10) was president of Sheffield University Students’ Union and a key activist in Keshet UK.

Yael founded the UJS LGBT+ Students Network and was on the Limmud Conference Team.

Today, Yael continues radical work as City University of New York Rising Alliance Field Organiser at New York Communities for Change, supporting alliance members and students to fight for a free and quality CUNY.

 

Abigail Jacobi (11) was already heavily involved in Limmud in 2015. She continued to chair Limmud Conference in 2017.

She is a co-ordinator of RightsInfo and a Cheviots Children’s Disability Service playworker, returning there while studying full-time.

Alongside her Liberal rabbi father, Abigail is a leader in the Progressive Jewish world. 

Joel Fenster (12) had been president of the Cambridge Union and mazkir of Noam.

Today, he is an associate in Herbert Smith Freehills’ mergers and acquisitions team in London, currently seconded to the firm’s embedded legal operations function.

In the Jewish community, he is on the POD committee of UJIA (formerly known as Lead Now), which works on in service development of those who work for Youth Movements post university. 

Miriam Steiner (13), who studied at Sussex, was an anti-boycott, divestment and sanctions organiser and a disability campaigner.

She now works for Scope, the UK’s biggest disability equality charity running its flagship youth campaigning programme.

Charlotte Agran (15) was thrown into the centre of Jewish campus affairs when she was elected to the NUS NEC in 2015.

Over the past five years, Charlotte has worked at Mitzvah Day. She is now at the Holocaust Educational Trust managing its Ambassador programme, supporting and encouraging young people from every background to learn more about the Holocaust.

She is also an Adam Science alumna and currently on the ORT UK’s NXT leadership programme.

She is looking to continue working in the Jewish community. 

Sarah Grabiner (16) had recently finished as an RSY-Netzer movement worker and had gone to the US to train to be a cantor.

Today she is cantor of Radlett Reform Synagogue. 

In 2015, Michael Rubin (17) was on the NUS NEC and was in his second year and president of  Leicester University Student Union.

He was about to run successfully to become the chair of Labour Students.

His continued and growing role at Labour Friends of Israel has broadened his profile and role in the Jewish community and his Jewish identity. 

In 2015, Liron Velleman (18) was campaigns officer of Leeds JSoc  and a member of the UJS National Council.

He worked for UJS for two years and became its campaigns director.

Liron ran unsuccessfully in local elections in Barnet, but has been on the NEC of the JLM.

He was London campaign manager for People’s Vote group and now works for Hope not Hate as a political organiser.    

 

Rhea Rogers-Wolfson (19) in 2015 had just gone onto the executive of London Young Labour and was working for the New Israel Fund, which followed on from being an RSY-Netzer movement worker and co-chair of Zionist Youth Council.

Since then, she has been on the NEC of the Labour Party, stood unsuccessfully for parliament and today works for the GMB in Scotland.

Joe Cohen (20) received the Student of the Year award from UJS in 2014. While at Nottingham, he led the JSoc and introduced hot kosher food on campus, and also worked to build a community centre and unite the wider Nottingham Jewish community.

While continuing to volunteer in the community around UJIA and building a career in legal technology, he is expecting to get more involved in the community.

Nat Roden was in our list in 2015 for his work with FJL.

He went on to set up a major young leadership programme with Jewish Care, He is currently working in California.

In 2015 he was number 21

 

 

Ben Salamon had worked for UJS from 2012 to 2014 & had moved on to work for Tzedek.

He has now moved on to the Princes Trust.

In 2015 he was number 22

In 2015 Matt Herman had recently finished working for BBYO and as Chair of the Zionist Youth Council.

Since then he has made Aliyah but continues in his support for BBYO as Chair of BBYOUKI Youth Commission and a trustee of BBYOUKI, as well as being the Corporate Strategy Manager of Amdocs.

In 2015 he was number 23.

Joe Boxer was chair of the Governing Body of Bnei Akiva at the time of our list, he would go on to do 2 years as Mazkir.

Today he is Trainee Financial Adviser at Vintage Wealth Management Limited – and back in Edgware involved at YAM, the Young Adult Minyan of Yeshurun Federation. In 2015 he was number 24.

For number 25 we reflected we wanted to include some of the pre-university names that had been nominated and in the end could not choose between three of them so had them each at number 25

Zoom Rockman was then in year 10 at JCOSS and already a writer, artist and editor, having first established ‘The Zoom!’ comic in 2009. Now still only 19 he is producing cartoons for Private Eye and is Artist-in-residence at the Savoy Hotel.

He has put together a video on how to draw Sir Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson on his website, www.zoomrockman.com.

Last December Zoom won the Mel Calman Political Pocket Cartoon of the Year Award 2019 for a cartoon he did about the homeless situation at Finsbury Park.  Zoom is currently studying Graphics at Central Saint Martin’s in London where he says he is learning more skills and meeting interesting people

Noah Rubin was just 13 back in 2015 when he had already been the Founder of Step Up Collecting.  He continues to do menschy things and he is is currently in Israel studying at Yeshivat Har Etzion and has a place to study engineering at Imperial college.

Back in 2015, Zak Wagman was Member of Youth Parliament for Harrow, at Haberdashers school where he would go on to be Deputy Head Boy.

Just about to graduate from Warwick Uni, Zak has continued strong involvement with Stand with Us and UJS. He has also continued his involvement with Harrow Conservatives and stood for Council in the 2018 elections,  did not win but achieved an 11% increase. He was due to lead a now cancelled FZY Israel Tour. Post Uni he is going into a Retail Management scheme and looking to stand for the local council in the 2021 elections. In 2020 he is the only survivor from the previous list!