From hostility to pride: Reclaiming Wits campus

This week, the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) hosted its once-vaunted Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). Historically, IAW has been a source of hostility, intimidation, and even violence on campus, and a key driver in making Jewish students feel unsafe at this critically important South African university, which also happens to be my place of employment. 

Previous iterations were absolutely hostile: effigies, fake walls, physical intimidation, confrontation. As both a professor and a community leader, I’m integrally invested in the future of South Africa’s universities as safe and open spaces for Jewish students. Without viable and safe campuses, our community cannot secure its future. This is why, as a strategic imperative, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) has placed immense focus on these campuses over the past years. 

Through a multipronged approach working with the South African Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS), student government, and the university administration, the SAJBD has worked to diminish the impact of IAW and to ensure Jewish student safety. 

In countering potential hostility, SAUJS led an exceptional three-day educational and identity-focused campus initiative titled “Proud Without Apology”. The theme shifted from last year’s “For the Future” to one centred on identity, pride, and narrative ownership, expressed respectfully and without apology. 

The days’ themes were deliberate and powerful: Day 1: Pride in our People – Judaism; Day 2 (coinciding with the PSC march): Pride in our History – Zionism; Day 3: Pride in our Countries – South Africa and Israel. 

On Monday, during the lunch hour, SAUJS held an interactive graffiti activity on campus to coincide with the PSC protest, which was slated to be the IAW pinnacle event. 

The results speak for themselves. The SAUJS event was a resounding success, attracting hundreds of students. These students engaged not only with their own sources of pride but also with the day’s theme, “Proud Zionist”, and with the broader Jewish student community. 

IAW, once a source of antagonism and fear, has been entirely transformed into a space of pride, celebration, and confidence in Jewish identity. 

We are immensely proud of the brave and tireless work of our student body, ably led by national SAUJS chair Sasha Said, Wits chair Leah Meyerowitz, and the committees across campuses. They are the real leaders on the frontlines against efforts to close off this most important space to Jewish students. In doing so, they not only instil pride in our community, they build the viability of our community into the future. 

This intervention is a clear example of how, through persistent effort and strategic engagement, even the most hostile environments can be confronted and reshaped successfully. No person on the campus this week would have any doubt as to the vibrancy and strength of our student body, who not only stand up to attempted hostility and antagonism, but engage, debate, and thrive. 

Our future is in exceptional hands. 

We congratulate SAUJS on its excellent work and wish it well for the rest of IAW across other national campuses. It’s shown us what’s possible when we refuse to be cowed, when we claim space rather than cede it, and when we meet hostility not with fear but with creativity, bravery, and pride. 

• Listen to Charisse Zeifert on Above Talk, 101.9 ChaiFM every Friday from 14:00 to 15:00.