This year, many students have found a new lunch activity in a club on campus, the Jewish Student Union. Every Friday in room 287, students – both Jewish and not – learn about Jewish culture and traditions. Backed by the Jewish Student Union, an organization with over 320 clubs in schools all across North America, sophomores Yali Dancig and Maayan Bujanover created the club in an attempt to foster a safe space for Jewish students at Redwood.

“The purpose of the club was to [create] a safe community for people to be able to talk about their experiences and celebrate their culture,” Dancig said. 

 Each club meeting discusses a different aspect of Judaism and oftentimes starts with a slideshow on a new topic. Members discuss similar holiday traditions within their families such as Shabbat, comparing their experiences. Even non-Jewish students take part in the discussion, sharing similarities or differences to their own culture and religion. Both Jewish and non-Jewish members regularly attend the club because of its inviting atmosphere. 

Since Oct. 7, 2023, the start of the Israel-Hamas war, antisemitism has been on the rise in the United States. Dancig and Bujanover have taken the opportunity to unify a marginalized community by creating a space at school where students can embrace and share their Judaism with others. Now more than ever, Jewish students are in need of a haven.

 “I was inspired to start this club, after a lot of events in the world which caused Jews in our Redwood community to feel unsafe,” Dancig said.

Many students have been on the receiving end of negative comments because they are Jewish or have ties to Israel.

  “I took a lot of harassment at school last year from people telling me things like ‘Go back to Israel’, or saying, ‘Oh, your parents are nothing but worthless Jews’. I received a lot of hate for being Israeli and Jewish last year,” Bujanover said.

The Stop-and-Learn on September 23rd on antisemitism and Islamophobia also played a part in the inspiration for the club.

 “The [affinity group] environment where everyone could discuss and talk about their lives and their Judaism in that Stop-and-Learn really gave me inspiration for this club and its [potential] impact,” Dancig said.

 Despite this safe space, many still felt that the Stop-and-Learn was not relevant to the Jewish student experience.

 “[The Stop-and-Learn] never really talked about how antisemitism can happen in a realistic school environment,” Bujanover said. 

Many of the forms of antisemitism discussed in the Stop-and-Learn could have been considered extreme scenarios, but on our campus, anti-semitic comments are typically more subtle and harder to point out. Bujanover believes that not enough action is being taken to combat and denounce antisemitism at Redwood and hopes to continue persevering with Dancig and the club to educate students.

“[In] this club, we’re inclusive to everyone, not only Jewish people. Not only are Jewish people broadening their understanding of what Judaism is in a community, but also [helping] people who might be outsiders [understand as well]. Now, through this club, we’re able to [educate] them and make sure that everyone is able to put their foot forward with the correct knowledge,” Dancig said.