NUS president apologises after NUS send out survey without Judaism in a list of religions

NUS president Shakira Martin has apologised after the NUS sent out a survey which excluded Judaism from a list of religions.

Martin branded the mistake "unacceptable", and said "trust me, this ain’t happening again," in a video posted on her Twitter swiftly after the news broke.

It's the second time the same mistake has happened. In June, the NUS also omitted Judaism from a list of religions in a survey.

Under previous president Malia Bouattia, the NUS was dogged by incidents of anti-semitism, and the union was accused of having a culture that "wilfully tolerates anti-semitism".

Since Shakira Martin defeated Bouattia for the presidency in April, she has pledged to make the student movement more inclusive for Jewish students, yet the omission of the country's third largest religion from a list that includes everything down to agnosticism has seen the issue surface again.

In the video, Martin apologised and acknowledged that it had happened before, saying: “Of course Jewish students should be flipping pissed, because it’s happened before, and I said sorry. So I’m bang to rights.”

“Trust me, this ain’t happening again. I will be making sure that this ain’t happening again.

“I want to reassure the Jewish community that I will be dealing with this.

“I will be making sure that we’re reviewing all our forms, that this is on everybody’s form, and this will not be happening again."

The form has now been amended.

In a statement to The Tab, the NUS said: "This is totally unacceptable and we apologise for the omission of Judaism from the survey. We have amended the question and are taking steps internally to ensure that this does not happen again.

"NUS is a place for all students and we want Jewish students to feel able to participate and engage with all of our structures. We understand as a collective movement that we must enable and ensure Jewish students feel welcome in our spaces and our work."

Issy Lenga, NUS VP for Welfare said: "I want to reassure Jewish students that there is a place for them in NUS. Having representation is one aspect but I will work alongside our President Shakira Martin to ensure the student movement starts to do things differently.

"We are committed to improving their time in education, the student movement and NUS."