NUS apologises after omitting Judaism from religion survey for second time in six months

President Shakira Martin says she is ‘not scared to say sorry’ after organisation is accused of ‘forgetting Jewish students again’

The National Union of Students (NUS) has been forced to apologise after it omitted Judaism from a survey on its members’ religions – six months after making the same mistake in an earlier questionnaire.

Sent out to students all across the UK, it asked them to select a faith from a list of options, but failed to include the fifth largest religion in the country.

A similar survey in July had the same omission. In both, the list of religions offered 11 options including spiritual, agnostic and atheist, as well as Buddhist, Christian and Muslim.

After complaints in July, NUS president Shakira Martin said the situation would be dealt with.

But when the second survey was sent out, a Jewish student alerted the NUS that they had made the same mistake.

They said that the organisation was “forgetting Jewish students. Again.”

Ms Martin apologised to Jewish students in a video posted on social media, telling them it was “unacceptable” and that she was “so angry” with the omission.

“The first time it happened, I could tweet and say sorry,” she said. “But the second time… It’s unacceptable, and I just want to reassure the whole Jewish community that I will be dealing with this.

“I’m pi**ed. I’m so frickin’ pi**ed, I’m not going to lie. And I’m not scared to say sorry. People know that I’m a person that if I do something wrong, I’ll be the first one to say sorry, and I’m hoping that people out there will know that I’m being genuine.

“I’m so angry. Being president and being accountable sometimes can be really difficult.”

She added: “I sincerely apologise. I think that’s what’s wrong with politicians and student politicians – people are scared to say sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry if anyone felt like they weren’t welcomed or that they were pushed out – genuinely that is not my intention, across the whole organisation.”

Ms Martin emphasised her determination to “rebuild relationships and trust among all our membership, but Jewish students in particular”.

She said: “I totally understand after the years – but especially last year, before my presidency, that Jewish students had – that this type of thing is not acceptable. You will not not see Judaism on an NUS form again. I will be making sure that we will be reviewing all our forms, and that this is on everyone’s form, and that this [situation] will not happen again.”

It is not the first time the NUS has incited anger in the Jewish student community in recent years.

In 2016, MPs accused former president Malia Bouattia of failing to take a growing culture of antisemitism on campuses seriously.

A cross-party report published by the Home Affairs Select Committee highlighted a number of allegations made against her.

“Ms Bouattia’s choice of language (and ongoing defence of that language) suggests a worrying disregard for her duty to represent all sections of the student population and promote balanced and respectful debate,” it said.

“Referring to Birmingham University as a ‘Zionist outpost’ (and similar comments) smacks of outright racism, which is unacceptable, and even more so from a public figure such as the president of the NUS.”