THREAD: As promised, my thoughts on @UniASMap. Putting out a sarcy tweet was probably not the most constructive approach but I do think it's important that as a current Jewish student 'leader' () I make clear why I don't think it makes anything better for Jews on my campus.

1) Fundamentally anything about antisemitism at uni that doesn't centre the experiences of Jews on campus is susp to start with. I saw no testimonies from Jewish students, no attempts to reach out to them or their representative organizations like @UJS_UK and

No attempt to incorporate it into the amazing work that jsocs, UJS and @CST_UK do to try and make campuses safer. That raises massive alarm bells for me about the usefulness of it as a project.

2) I think this adversarial, individual approach to reducing a/s is essentially flawed. I've sat in these meetings, I've spoken to students, academics, university and SU employees from across the political spectrum and problems with a/s on campus are

Almost entirely a combination of cultural problems (whether that's left wing conspiracies or right wing pseudo-eugenics) and structural problems (complaints processes, staff biases, definitions). Singling out assorted cases does nothing to really tackle that, or educate those

that need it. If anything it feeds into an usvsthem narrative which makes life harder for Jews on campus.
3) It centres Jewish pain over Jewish joy. Too many of us have had our Jewish identity centred around our oppression and actually campuses are full of vibrant, wondrous

communities doing amazing things. It also ignores the fact that Jewish students are also... students, and in the lived experience of most Jews on campus these incidents are extremely marginal. There are issues, but we have to stop letting them define us.

Conc) I think a/s on campus has become this sort of bogeyman that older members of our community like to obsess over - more than is legitimate and often more than is helpful. It sometimes does more to scare young Jews than it does to help us. There are real problems, I know.

But we need to empower local activists and communities, work with us and respond to our needs, create connections and communicate, build solidarity and understand intersectionality. This map does none of that.

Oh also - right wing Jtwitter stop being mean to Jews who disagree with you challenge, especially when they're Jewish students voicing concerns about... a map about life for Jewish students? I wasn't exactly generous, but a mute seems a lil harsh

Let me talk to you about sharing jokes and stories with Jews from Hungary, Lithuania, Argentina and... Glasgow over Friday Night Dinner! Or staying up until 3am with then relative strangers discussing post-holocaust trauma! I'm sick of having to define myself by my oppression