The WUJS Chairperson is elected by the representatives of independent Jewish student unions all over the world to represent the voices of Jewish students within the community, universities, colleges and wider society. The WUJS Student Awards The annual WUJS Student Awards were established at WUJS Congress 2014, by Andi Gergely and Yos Tarshish, to recognise the hard work and dedication of Jewish students who have made an exceptional contribution to Jewish life on campus. These students devote countless hours of their time on top of university work, extracurriculars and spending time with their friends to ensure that Jewish student life on campus is thriving, vibrant, safe, and fun. The winners of the awards are listed below. Awards are given in three categories: Union Awards, Individual Awards and Congress Awards. The Individual and Congress Awards were instituted for the third annual WUJS Awards held in January 2017. Union Awards Individual Awards The Hersch Lauterpacht Award is given each year to a student who has given an outstanding contribution to Jewish student life. The award is given in memory of Hersch Lauterpacht, the Founder and Inaugural Chairperson of WUJS. Congress Awards History 1924–1929 The World Union of Jewish Students was founded in 1924 by Hersch Lauterpacht, better known by his Hebrew name Zvi, an Austrian Jew who was aggrieved by the injustices regarding the admittance of Jews to European universities, which at the time had maximum quotas for Jewish students. As this quota system spread throughout Europe, Lauterpacht saw the need to spread his campaigning efforts. From this the concept of an organized international union began to materialize. The union, however, only began to truly develop when Albert Einstein threw his weight behind the union. Then a lecturer in Berlin, Einstein was equally concerned with growing anti-semitism across Europe, himself having been verbally attacked when lecturing. In 1925 Einstein accepted Lauterpacht's invitation to be the union's first President. On April 30, 1924, the opening Congress was held in the Maccabi Sports Hall in Antwerp, Belgium. The Congress opening was attended by over 2,000 people including the Chief Rabbi of Belgium and the Military Governor of Antwerp. Following this 76 delegates from 17 countries met for 4 days to hear reports on the realities of Jewish students in various countries, and to discuss the problems affecting them. Amongst the sentiments expressed were that "The best method for the work before us appears to