More than one kind of Jew: identity, advocacy and AUJS 

My involvement this year as President of AUJS University of Technology Sydney (UTS), alongside my identity as a proud Iraqi and Yemenite Jew, has shaped the way I see the world. It has also shaped how others see me – and more often, how they don't. 

Being in this role has meant a lot of different things. It’s meant managing a team, running events, and often scrambling at the last minute to make something work. It’s meant sitting in meetings with university officials trying to find ways to keep Jewish students safe and heard. It’s also meant volunteer work, and maybe because of that, it's meant the wins have felt more meaningful. When something goes well, it feels real. 

What I’m most proud of is the team we’ve built. When I started, the AUJS presence at UTS was still being built. Now, we have a team of twelve executives, each one genuinely committed and doing amazing work. They do all the work behind the scenes, and while I may get the credit at times, they’re the ones making things happen. I’m proud I was able to bring in people who care and want to build something together. 

My role however is not always so rewarding. One of the hardest parts is how isolating it can feel when you raise concerns about racism or discrimination and the response you get is silence, or even worse, resistance.

It can feel like people are more interested in debating the wording of a complaint than using logic and acknowledging what happened. That experience teaches you something about how lonely it can be when you are Jewish, and even more so when you’re Israeli. There aren’t many of us Jewish students on campus, and we need to continue to speak up and fight. I know I will.