In an attempt to further strengthen the support network for Jewish students, the Movement for Progressive Judaism (MPJ) is hiring campus ambassadors for universities across the UK.
These ambassadors “will be directly empowering student leaders to take initiative and create the communities that they want to see”, MPJ’s student engagement officer Zac Bates Fisher said.
Funded by the MPJ inaugural dinner, which took place last December, these ambassadors will be paid and overseen by MPJ and form a crucial connection between Progressive communities and their local university, said Bates Fisher.
He pointed to the creation of these new positions as a response to what he saw as the “real need to create and grow thriving student communities – both for today and to exist for many years to come”.
The roles, fulfilled by current or soon-to-be students, will plan and hold events tailored to the specific needs of students on their respective campuses.
The ambassadors will be recruited every academic year and carry out their duties for a few hours a week during term time, including acting as a point of contact for the 77 MPJ communities across the UK, and putting on events for their Jewish peers.
Their representation of MPJ within the wider student landscape would, said Rabbi Josh Levy, co-lead of MPJ, “[meet] the needs of young people when they are outside of their families and congregations, as well as creating more ways for them to engage with their Judaism and the Jewish community”.
Referencing the late Union of Jewish Students’ president Alan Senitt, who oversaw the union between 2001 and 2003, Bates Fisher said he was confident this move would mean there would be “more Jewish students doing more Jewish things”, as Senitt proclaimed was needed.
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