Canadian Jewish students launch democratic group

Organization to communicate with media

Jewish students in Canada have launched a democratic organization aimed at representing Jewish interests on campus and communicating with the media.

The founding of the organization, the Canadian Union of Jewish Students, was officially announced on Friday. It comes amid major turmoil on American college campuses that have seen police action and clashes between pro- and anti-israel protesters.

While Canadian campus protests have not turned violent, there are anti-israel encampments at a number of major Canadian universities, including Mcgill University in Montreal, the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia.

“We hope to really just be the voice of all Jewish students in this country and be able to get Jewish students engaged in a lot of things, but also something that is really important for us is to create a safe space, where a lot of us feel isolated on our campuses,” said founder Nati Pressman in an interview.

So far, the new organization has 300 members, and aims to represent Jewish students while “engaging in global Jewish matters.”

“With the help of social media, the CUJS is dedicated to being a platform where Jewish students can voice their opinions and concerns to university administrations and other organizations,” a press release says.

Pressman says there are national student unions around the world that represent Jewish students to governments and other organizations. Previously, Pressman was one of the vice-presidents of the World Union of Jewish Students, which brings together Jewish student unions from countries around the world. Canada, though, did not have a Jewish students’ union.

“Given that we have the fourth-largest Jewish population in the world, and ... the third-largest diaspora community, I realized that Canada really needs to have a space,” Pressman said in an interview.

There are already multiple Jewish organizations in Canada, including those who work directly with and on behalf of Jewish students, such as Hillel. The difference between CUJS and these groups, Pressman said, is that it will be democratically elected and completely student run.

“And so for example, when there is any statement released from any other organization, and there’s a sign of approval from CUJS, it increases the legitimacy of said statement as being representative of students,” Pressman said.

It aims to have chapters that represent local Jewish student bodies and is planning elections for January 2025 for the organization’s leadership — an interim board will be elected this June. They also hope to work to connect media with Jewish students and keep data on antisemitic incidents on campus.

Pressman, who is studying history and Jewish studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., had planned to create the organization prior to the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and the subsequent flood of anti-israel protests and growth in antisemitic incidents.

Even though she had a launch plan, Pressman decided now was the chance to launch. To wait, she felt, would be a “disservice.”

“It’s not just one person doing it. It’s a whole team that all have equal input. And that’s something I’m really, really grateful for,” she said.