Canadian Federation of Jewish Students

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The Canadian Federation of Jewish Students (CFJS) or Federation Canadienne Des Etudiants Juifs (FCEJ), in French, was the representative organization of Jewish students across Canada. It was founded by leaders of Jewish student groups across the country in January 2004 in Ottawa and became defunct in 2011.

Contents

The CFJS Executive was made up of an elected President and four Vice-Presidents as well as a number of Committee Chairs and 'Members at Large' chosen by the elected portion of the executive. Elections were conducted on a proportional basis, with each university's campus being allotted 1 vote for every 500 Jewish students studying there, to a maximum of 5. CFJS was governed in part by a Congress, with representatives chosen by Jewish students at each university. [1]

History

The Canadian Federation of Jewish Students was founded by the leaders of Jewish student groups across the country in January 2004 and exists to empower the Canadian Jewish student community. Since its founding, the CFJS has gained national recognition, most notably holding major national conferences from across Canada.

CFJS has been noted for hosting an annual conference of Canadian Jewish leadership (Hillel and Jewish Students Association (JSA) presidents, Israel advocates, Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity leaders, et cetera). In the early years of CFJS, this conference was held at a camp in Parry Sound, Ontario. However, more recently, its annual conference has been moved to Guelph, Ontario. [2]

In September 2008, CFJS partnered with several other Jewish organization to send approximately 300 students to New York to protest "incitement to genocide" by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was speaking that week at the United Nations. [3]

In the spring of 2009, CFJS assembled its congress - representatives of the major Jewish organizations from each Canadian campus - in Toronto, for leadership development, and elections of the CFJS executive. Speakers at the Congress included Jason Kenney, Canada's Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. [4]

In early 2010, CFJS launched Milim, a publication devoted Canadian Jewish student art and literature. [5]

Principles

All of the organization's activities are based on the following five principles: [6]

Representation and Student Voice

Convening and Uniting

Leadership Development

Canadian Jewish Identity Development

National Communication

Representation

CFJS strives to represent Jewish students and their concerns and interests to outside organizations, including but not limited to national Jewish and student organizations as well as international Jewish student organizations and in the news media. This representation exists through the consent and support of local campus-based Jewish student groups. [7]

2010-2011 Elected Executive

2010-2011 Board

CFJS also has representation on the following bodies:

Notes

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References

  1. ↑ "Canadian Federation of Jewish Students". Archived from the original on 2009-12-10. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
  2. ↑ "The Canadian Jewish News".
  3. ↑ "The Canadian Jewish News".
  4. ↑ "The Canadian Jewish News".
  5. ↑ "Milim".
  6. ↑ "Canadian Federation of Jewish Students". Archived from the original on 2009-12-10. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
  7. ↑ "The Canadian Jewish News".
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