Universities

Clearer guidelines on campus hatred

By Jennifer Lipman, February 9, 2012

The government has been urged to create a "designated contact point" for universities to work with when extremist external speakers are invited to speak on campus.

The call for clearer government guidance about challenging hate speech on campus came from the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, which carried out a nine-month review of the Prevent strategy.

The report found that the interne

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Reflections on an extraordinary fundraising campaign

By Daniel Clyne, February 9, 2012

Over the past two months, I have had the privilege to be part of one of the most inspiring demonstrations of collective action and Jewish values that could be conceived of by any Jewish Society.

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LSE cancels extremist speaker event

By Jennifer Lipman, February 7, 2012

An extremist speaker will no longer address students at the London School of Economics after complaints from Jewish students.

Haitham Al Haddad, who is alleged to have described Jews as "the enemies of God, and the descendants of apes and pigs" and stated that it is necessary to hate Jews and Christians, was due to speak at the university this evening.

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MPs urge action on online radicalisation

By Jennifer Lipman, February 6, 2012

A parliamentary committee has warned that the internet is a "fertile breeding ground for terrorism", posing more danger than extremism on campus.

MPs have found that online activity is influential in almost all instances of violent radicalisation, yet it is not sufficiently monitored for counter-terrorism purposes.

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Nazi defender pulls out of SOAS lecture

By Jessica Elgot, February 2, 2012

A controversial lawyer who made his name defending Nazis, Holocaust deniers and Palestinian terrorists, has pulled out of a talk at SOAS tomorrow.

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Israeli universities 'cheaper' for British students

By Jessica Elgot, February 2, 2012

Students should consider swapping baked beans in Birmingham for beach life in Tel Aviv – because undergraduate degrees at the city's university are cheaper than the UK, claims Tel Aviv University.

Jewish school-leavers, hit by the £9,000 tuition fees next year at most of the top-tier British universities, could pay around £2,000 less if they choose to study in Israel.

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Brunel union investigation after anti-Israel protest

By Jennifer Lipman, January 31, 2012

Brunel University's students union is looking into a protest that saw demonstrators stage a fake checkpoint scene to oppose a talk by an Israeli diplomat.

Ran Gidor, an official at Israel's London embassy, spoke at the Uxbridge university earlier this month in an event organised by the social sciences department.

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Oxford Brookes offers new Israeli scholarship

By Simon Rocker, January 26, 2012

Oxford Brookes University is to offer a postgraduate scholarship to a student from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, thanks to an initiative of the local chaplaincy board.

The successful applicant will receive travel expenses and full funding to pursue a master's course at Brookes from this September.

Sandra Dwek, a member of the Oxford Jewish Chaplaincy Board and a former member of th

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SOAS 'biter' acquitted of assault

By Jessica Elgot, January 24, 2012

A PhD student who bit a pro-Israel campaigner on the cheek at SOAS Israel Apartheid Week has been acquitted of assault.

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LSE students played Nazi-themed game on ski trip

By Marcus Dysch, January 15, 2012

A Jewish student suffered a broken nose in an antisemitic attack during a student union ski trip.

The London School of Economics student, who has not been named, was injured in a fight after he confronted fellow students who were playing Nazi-themed games featuring cards laid out in a swastika formation.

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Work of Louis Jacobs is to be Oxford subject

By Simon Rocker, January 12, 2012

Scholars from around the world are to be invited to Oxford next year to study the work of Britain's most renowned rabbinical scholar, Rabbi Louis Jacobs.

The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies will devote one of its two special research projects to the legacy of the New London Synagogue founder.

The centre has already raised one-third of the £150,000 cost of hosting nine-to-10 scho

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NUS attacks Israeli firms

By Marcus Dysch, January 12, 2012

The Union of Jewish Students is "disappointed and surprised" after the National Union of Students launched a campaign challenging the practices of two Israeli-linked companies.

NUS urged students to encourage colleges to consider cancelling contracts with Veolia and Eden Springs.

French waste-management company Veolia has repeatedly been targeted by anti-Israel groups over its links to the J

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NUS criticised for building boycotts not bridges

By Marcus Dysch, January 10, 2012

The Union of Jewish Students has said it is "disappointed and surprised" after the National Union of Students launched a campaign challenging the practices of two Israeli-linked companies.

NUS urged students to encourage their universities to consider cancelling contracts with Veolia and Eden Springs.

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Nazi defender will visit SOAS

By Jessica Elgot, January 5, 2012

A lawyer who has defended Nazi war criminals, Holocaust deniers and Palestinian terrorists, will speak at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies, shortly after Holocaust Memorial Day.

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Professors duel over 'colonialist' line on Israel

By Jennifer Lipman, December 29, 2011

A London-born academic at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has refuted allegations that he compared Israel to the Nazi regime after he cited a well-known poem condemning bystanders during the Holocaust in a piece that was heavily critical of Israel.

Professor David Newman was accused by King's College London Professor Efraim Karsh of being anti-Israel and a "pseudo-academic" following an arti

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King's College opens faiths programme

December 29, 2011

One of Britain's largest university theology departments is to launch a new programme on the three Abrahamic faiths with a Jewish scholar of Islam at its head.

Adam Silverstein, who lectured for six years in Muslim-Jewish relations at Oxford University, has joined King's College, London, as its first director of Abrahamic religions to promote the joint study of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

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Anti-Zionist Warwick professor faces investigation

By Marcus Dysch, December 29, 2011

The conduct of an anti-Israel professor is to be investigated by the agency that reviews the performance of universities.

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) will consider whether Warwick University's Nicola Pratt breached guidelines on impartiality when marking Israeli student Smadar Bakovic's dissertation.

QAA chief executive Anthony McClaran received a complaint about

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Anti-Zionist professor's low marks for Israeli - now a distinction

By Marcus Dysch, December 22, 2011

An Israeli postgraduate student has succeeded in having her dissertation re-marked to a distinction after it was originally supervised and given a poor mark by a professor who campaigns for an academic boycott of Israel.

Smadar Bakovic repeatedly told Warwick University she was uncomfortable with Nicola Pratt overseeing her master's dissertation on Israeli Arab identity.

Professor Pratt is a

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Return (home) of the graduate

By Lauren Davidson, December 13, 2011

A thud resounds as a box of books lands on the hallway floor. The front door shuts with a bang behind me and the keys jingle as they are thrown into the drawer. Three noises, one sentiment: despair. The dreaded has become reality. I have moved back home.

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Students vote to strengthen union

By Marcus Dysch, December 12, 2011

Students converged on Leeds University last weekend to mark the relaunch of the Union of Jewish Students' flagship event.

Once a regular fixture, UJS conference has been absent from the campus calendar since 2005, due to a decline in the number of delegates attending.

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