Students and staff show support and solidarity for our Jewish students

Around 500 staff, students and members of the wider community gathered in the centre of the University of Essex’s Colchester Campus to take part in an event to show support and solidarity for our Jewish students and staff.

Speakers included the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex Professor Anthony Forster who also read out a statement from the University’s Chancellor and Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow MP.

Professor Forster said: "At the University of Essex we have a tradition of coming together to show the strength of our feeling about an issue, to demonstrate our support for each other and to stand shoulder to shoulder as individuals and as a community, on issues that matter to us.

"We are a University that must live by our values and the events of last week have called into question our commitment to these values. 

"It is right that the Jewish Society has now been formed, and I know that the University and the Students’ Union will do all in our power to enable it to flourish alongside our other societies.

"This is however only one step. On behalf of our community, I want to speak out against all forms of antisemitism. Today we have come together to show that antisemitism is completely antithetical to the values of the University of Essex – and it has absolutely no place on our campuses and in our relationships with each other."

You can read the Vice-Chancellor’s full speech on his online blog.

Other speakers included:

• President of the Students’ Union, Tanki Chartier
• President of the newly formed Jewish Society, Amy-Julie Fogiel
• Daniel Kosky, Campaign Organiser from the Union of Jewish Students
• Colchester Borough Council Deputy Leader Cllr Tim Young
• A representative from the University’s Multi-Faith Chaplaincy Centre, Father Mark Swires

As part of our response we have launched a review of the experiences of Jewish students and staff at the University of Essex. Find out how you can contribute.