Facing 2024 as a Jewish student leader

AUJS president NOAH LOVEN considers how Jewish students need to be supported as they confront the growing hostility to any association with Israel on Australian campuses. 

As universities resume across Australia, there's a palpable sense of unease and apprehension among Jewish students.

The recent surge in antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric, bolstered by the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war, has placed Jewish students at the epicentre of a storm in Australia over the Middle East.

Anti-Israel protests, chants such as “globalise the intifada”, and even the glorification of the horrors of October 7 as “resistance” have become a fixture at Australian universities.

I have spent enough time in the archives to know the Jewish students of today are not the first generation to experience this.

Antisemitism has been a persistent shadow over many Jewish students’ campus experiences and AUJS has always had a pivotal role in nurturing Jewish life on campus and fostering a sense of community despite outbursts of hate. Headlines like 'Antisemitism back on campus' from a 1986 article penned by an AUJS leader could have been written today.

But the deep anger around Gaza has propelled Israel-Palestine to the top of the student political agenda, threatening Jewish students’ sense of security in a way which may be unprecedented.

At a National Union of Students (NUS) annual conference in December, where elected student representatives from universities across the country converged, AUJS members attended as observers. Any student advocacy group can attend the NUS conference. Few do, but AUJS has done so in recent years to provide the Jewish perspective on issues including antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment at universities.