Inside the SOAS Jewish Society
Their goal is to provide a safe space for anti-Zionist Jews, also welcoming those from neighbouring universities who do not feel comfortable in their own societies.
Nicholas Pratley, BA History 09/12/2024
In the shadow of imposing glass offices and high-end student accommodation lies Angel Alley, home to Freedom Bookshop. This Anarchist publishing house and bookstore is easy to miss. Steel bars cover bricked-up windows, testament to a fire-bombing by the far-right in 2013. A mural outside memorialises contributors and famous radicals such as Peter Kropotkin and Emma Goldman. This was the apt starting point for a radical Jewish walking tour of the East End. Organised by the SOAS Jewish Society, this tour charted the radical Jewish history of the East End.
This history is engraved on the side of listed buildings; soup kitchens for the poor as well as schools and housing schemes that sustained this immigrant community. Perhaps most significantly, given the rise of the far right and this summer’s riots, we visited the area where ‘The Battle of Cable Street’ was fought in 1936. It was here that the Jewish community and a wide array of Anti-fascists stopped Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists, with their police escort, from marching through the Whitechapel.
On Monday the 11th of November the Jewish Society organised a widely attended protest in support of Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine. Singing ‘Oy, Ir Narishe Tsionistn’, Yiddish for ‘Oh you foolish little Zionists’, protestors gathered to oppose the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA). The CAA while claiming concern for ‘Jewish student’s safety’ had not consulted Jewish students at SOAS. The Jewish Society contended that this was ‘disingenuous and politically motivated’ and in fact put them, Muslim students and students of colour at risk due to the ‘violently racist elements of the English Nationalist far-right’ that their rallies have previously attracted. Off the back of this opposition the CAA cancelled a protest planned at Queen Mary’s for the next day. SOAS’ Jewish society meets every Friday Evening for a Kabbalat Shabbat service. On top of this they gather every second Monday for Shiur (study group) and regularly celebrate religious festivals. These study groups cover a range of topics, one scheduled being on tattoos within the Jewish diaspora. Their goal is to provide a safe space for anti-Zionist Jews, also welcoming those from neighbouring universities who do not feel comfortable in their own societies. Make sure to keep an eye out for their future events such as Tu B’Shevat, ‘New Year of the Trees’ in January, where seeds will be planted for a brighter future.
