National Union of Israeli Students
HaOmanim 7
Tel Aviv 6789727
Israel
- Youth and education
The mission of NUIS is to protect and promote students’ rights in the academic, social, and economic spheres. To this end, its main goals are: (1) Providing academic and social services to students. (2) Promoting student engagement and social activism through national and local initiatives. (3) Representing the Israeli student body in the public sphere on issues such as education, social activism, and human rights.
NUIS has significant accomplishments in the Israeli public sphere. In 2006 it successfully fought against an increase in tuition fees. A year later, NUIS initiated, promoted, and supported the Students Rights Law, which was passed in the Knesset. The law was created to protect student's rights in areas such as equal opportunity in the acceptance to academic programs, regardless of religion, race, gender, and physical disabilities. NUIS consistently addresses and takes steps to promote campus-based environmental issues and prevent sexual harassment. In 2012, NUIS was one of the principal groups behind the social protests protesting the Israeli high cost of living. Following this campaign, NUIS made ‘social impact’ an organizational priority, encouraging students to continue to be involved in national concerns and in civic engagement initiatives.
Re:Lod - In March 2012 NUIS launched Project Re:Lod. Sixty young activists moved to Lod and dedicated themselves to remaking one of Israel's most challenged cities into an innovative model of civic engagement. The main objectives of Re:Lod are: to foster mutual responsibility among the diverse residents of the city with an emphasis on youth; to increase the level of education and engender an interest in hobbies among the high school students participating in after-school activities; to change the Israeli perception of Lod by rebranding it as a center of civic activism and an ideal location for young people to live and raise their families.
Today, with 250 young volunteers and 80 program graduates who have chosen to live their lives in Lod, together with additional partners, NUIS is proud to be in the initial stages of replicating this successful model in Tzfat and Kiryat Shmona.
LETS - In recent decades we have been witnessing an intensification of a tendency toward self-imposed segregation in Israeli society – more and more the various ethnic groups are isolating themselves and distinguishing their identity apart from the Israeli collective.
To help combat these destructive developments, NUIS has developed an educational program –Learning for an Equal and Tolerant Society (LETS), that will promote tolerance and multicultural understanding for Jerusalem-based high-school students, working in conjunction with professionals from the Jerusalem Municipality’s Education Authority Division and other. The program will be implemented by students from Jerusalem-based academic institutions, who will design and moderate the workshop sessions in the high schools, serving as role models in the process.
The NUIS has a wealth of experience in operating social impact projects with students from all sectors of society throughout the state of Israel. Additionally, some of the NUIS projects are collaborations with civil society partners, such as with the ReLod Project. To this end the NUIS would be pleased to share its knowledge with the Network as it would relate to operating social projects and working with different community-based partnerships. An additional possibility, is to create a connection between existing Network projects with a high quality human resource such as the 330,000 students that are under the auspices of the NUIS.
1. Mutual Learning- Although the NUIS has a wealth of knowledge in operating social projects and working with partners, it believes that there is much more to be learned specifically in the realms of coexistence, multiculturalism, and other similar models in Israel and throughout the world.
2. Concentrated Efforts- the NUIS strives to invest efforts addressing acute needs of Israeli society- such as racism and intolerance in ethnically mixed cities.
3. Increase the NUIS experience with multiple partner projects, and learn from international case studies.
4. Project sustainability- NUIS wants to position itself such that it will be exposed to funding opportunities and partnerships which will aid in sustaining its projects.