Toronto pro-BDS student union said to be refusing to make kosher food accessible

“Shamefully, the GSU has been permitted for years now to cultivate a hostile attitude toward Jewish graduate students at U of T,” says the B’nai Brith Canada CEO.

By World Israel News Staff 

A student union at the University of Toronto has refused to support a campaign to make kosher food accessible on campus because its backers are “pro-Israel,” says B’nai Brith Canada.

According to the organization, a Jewish student wrote to the university’s Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) last week, asking it to consider supporting an ongoing campaign by Hillel, an international Jewish campus organization, to secure kosher food access on campus.

The student was told, however, that the request would likely be rejected because Hillel is openly pro-Israel, according to a B’nai Brith statement.

“The response email added that any move to support the kosher food campaign could be contrary to ‘the will of the membership,’ an apparent reference to the GSU’s adoption of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting the Jewish State in 2012,” said the statement.

“The GSU is the only student union in Canada with a committee dedicated to promoting the BDS Movement,” according to the Canadian branch of B’nai Brith.

“Shamefully, the GSU has been permitted for years now to cultivate a hostile attitude toward Jewish graduate students at U of T,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada. “The U of T Administration must act against anti-Semitism on campus – fine words are simply not enough.”

B’nai Brith says that it was written to officials at the University of Toronto, “asking them to swiftly condemn the GSU’s stance on the kosher food initiative, ensure that the complaint against the GSU BDS Committee is expedited, and work to make kosher food more accessible on campus.”