University distances itself from comments made by Jewish chaplain

Reiham Amin on 18 November 2023

A row has broken out after the University of Leeds Jewish Chaplain posted videos about the Israel and Palestine crisis on social media.

Zecharia Deutsch, an Israeli citizen, has taken leave from his role in Leeds to serve as a reservist in the Israeli Defence Force.

In the videos, which were sent to a chaplaincy WhatsApp group for Jewish students in Leeds, Deutsch says ‘If you know the real story of what has been going on here in Israel over the last thousands of years […] no one can deny that Israel is dealing with this war with the utmost morality and good ethics.”

He added “What Israel is trying to do is destroy the evil… whilst also trying to deal with the civilians of Gaza in the best way possible”.

Last month, Hamas launched an unprecedented assault on Israel which killed approximately 1,200 people and saw over 200 women, men and children being taken hostage.

In response to the violence, Israel has carried out an unparalleled air strikebombardment on Gaza and launched a ground offensive. According to the Hamas-run health ministry, more than 11,000 people, many civilians, have been killed in Gaza since the crisis began.

The IDF has so far drafted 300,000 reservists to boost its standing force.

The University of Leeds’ Chaplaincy service is in place for all students and staff’s well-being, offering pastoral and spiritual support for those practising any faith.

The actions of Chaplain Zecharia, however, have left some students at the university feeling worried and concerned for their safety.

A University of Leeds spokesperson said: “Jewish Chaplains are employed and assigned by independent charity the University Jewish Chaplaincy (UIC) to provide services to students at universities across the UK, including the Yorkshire region.

“We understand that one of the chaplains, who is an Israeli citizen, has been called up as a reservist and has therefore taken a formal leave of absence from his role.

“Leeds University chaplaincy services will continue to provide support to students of all faiths and none, alongside our student support and welfare teams across the University and LUU.

“The University has been made aware of comments which we understand were made in a personal capacity and should not be interpreted as the position of the institution.”

In a statement released by the Palestine Solidarity Group, Leeds Islamic Society and Leeds Ahlulbayt Islamic Society, the student groups expressed concern and disappointment.

The statement went on to question the University by asking what they will do to ensure the protection of all students in a safe environment for everyone in the chaplaincy and have demanded his immediate removal and a commitment that “anyone actively associated with the IDF will not be allowed to teach and work on campus.”

Chaplain Zecharia Deutsch did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Return to Your University Self

Ami Ibanga on 30 October 2023

Returning to study after a break can feel like being thrown in the deep end and realising you’ve forgotten how to swim. Ami gives their top tips for becoming reacquainted with your inner student.

On this week: 23 October – from the archives

Josh Elgin on 23 October 2023

‘On this week‘ is a new weekly column by our news editor Josh Elgin which offers a window into the past through the pages of The Gryphon archive. Exploring the events and stories that unfolded during the same week in history – enabling a deeper understanding of the context that shapes our present.

24 October 2003

TWENTY YEARS AGO – the halls of residence Eldon Court, which at the start of this year was evacuated and ordered to close after a damning fire report, was still under construction.

Rob Hamblin reports that the developers of Eldon Court received a backlash from residents and were investigated by Leeds City Council after they built more floors than they had been given permission.

A fresh planning application was submitted in December 2003 which was approved the following year, with the building eventually opening in August 2005.

In January, up to 300 students were told to evacuate and the building was ordered to close after a report by the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service found that there were “inadequate means to ensure the means of escape can be safely used in case of fire” and insufficient means to reduce the risk of fire spread.”

Northend Management, the owners of the building, were expelled from the ANUK and Unipol National Code in May 2023. Rooms were advertised for the current academic year, though universities in the city were asked by Unipol to inform students that the hall was no longer certified by the code.

21 October 1983

FORTY YEARS AGO – the University of Leeds and Leeds University Union created a “positive anti-apartheid” scholarship to pay for all necessary expenses in order for black South African students to study in the city.

In 1983, South Africa was run under apartheid, a system of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination that was enforced from the white minority population from 1948 to 1994.

The rights and opportunities of black South Africans were severely restricted during this time which led to significant social and political inequalities.

26 October 2007

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO – the University of Leeds asked Facebook to take a student group down after its members were accused of harassing a lecturer at the University of Leeds.

The anonymous lecturer told Virginia Newman and Charlotte Griffiths that they were subject to “wall to wall” comments by students who were dissatisfied with their module.

After a complaint was made, the University of Leeds asked Facebook and the students to take down the posts.

Facebook, which was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, had 50 million users in October 2007 and the iconic like button wouldn’t be implemented until two years later.

The platform now has 2.9 billion active users and its moderation policies have been a subject of intense debate and scrutiny, as it attempts to protect users from harassment and stop misinformation from being shared whilst also upholding freedom of expression.

A spokesperson for the University of Leeds clarified that its policy was not to “monitor” students’ social media, but if an issue was raised they said “we have a duty of care to our staff and students and the overall reputation of the University.”

With thanks to Special Collections which is located in Brotherton Library – visit their website to learn more about the collections they hold.

‘Hell Bus’ drives home campaign against greenwashing amidst week of student activism

Em O'Riley on 11 October 2023

From Monday 9th to Wednesday 11th October, the ‘Hell Bus’ was on University of Leeds’ Campus as part of a university tour.

The installation was created by Leeds-born artist Darren Cullen for the 2021 Channel 4 show ‘Joe Lycett Vs the Oil Giant’.

In the show, Lycett, a comedian with a deftness for championing consumer rights, used his trademark satirical style to challenge the false claims of the Shell corporation.

A poster for the event describes the bus as “a travelling pre-apocalyptic satirical art exhibition taking aim at oil company greenwashing”.

Greenwashing is the act of overstating or lying about environmental credentials to appeal to consumers.

Image: spellingmistakescostlives.com

Miniature scenes and mock-posters expose the incompatibility of what these corporations say, and what they do.

Cullen mimics the style and language of their advertising, distorting their image to expose the insufficiency and misleading nature of big companies’ climate efforts.

One display features aspects of a fake strategy in “The Switch to Green Energy”. These include recovering oil from “seabird absorption”, and carbon capture by “burying 1 million bottles of carbonated fizzy drinks deep underground”.

Expert at what we might colloquially call ‘taking the piss’, the satirical work reveals the absurdity that Cullen sees in how corporations react, or fail to react, to the existential threat of climate breakdown.

Image: James Bosher

The bus name and number ‘Hell 2050’, refers to the year by which many governments and companies have pledged to achieve net zero.

One scene references HSBC, NatWest, and Barclays banks.

Accusations of greenwashing against Barclays are particularly relevant given the previous ties to the University of Leeds. Until the new partnership with Lloyds Bank was announced in September 2023, Barclays was the official banking provider.

Whilst the university defended the relationship, some students and staff said it was incompatible with the universities’ sustainability claims.

In response, campaign group Student Rebellion Leeds staged a 12 day occupation of the Esther Simpson building in November 2022.

Image: James Bosher

Their overarching demand was that the university cut all ties to fossil fuels.

In the 2022 Fossil Fuel Finance Report, Barclays ranked 7th worst bank globally, and tops UK-based rankings.

On its website, the bank states: “Barclays is dedicated to helping companies take action to address the environmental and sustainability challenges facing our planet”.

However, since 2019, the bank has made $10bn of credit available to Shell. Barclays classified this as “sustainable finance” despite Shell being the 5th largest oil and gas corporation globally.

Image: James Bosher

Environmental organisation ClientEarth reported that Shell’s 2018-2030 emissions will account for 1.6% of the 1.5°c budget.

This number is what scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say is the maximum temperature rise that will not pose a serious threat to life.

The ‘Hell Bus’ is not the only climate activism taking place on campus this week.

Tomorrow, Thursday 12th October, The Gryphon will be live-reporting from the Leeds Just Stop Oil rally at the Wavy Bacon sculpture. The post on Instagram announcing the rally had the song ‘Paint the Town Red’ by Doja Cat attached, and the caption read: “You reallyyyy dont want to miss this…”.

Just Stop Oil is infamous for its use of orange paint in demos, including this week at universities across the country.

This includes in Bristol, where a University of West England (UWE) student was arrested on Monday 9th for spraying orange paint over a University of Bristol building.

Image: Just Stop Oil

The action was in response to the university’s continued partnership with Barclays.

Just Stop Oil runs a national campaign protesting the UK government’s licensing of new oil and gas projects.

Despite pledges to divest, universities nationwide maintain problematic links to fossil fuel companies and the banks which finance them.

Research and climate activist website DeSmog found that since 2022, large fossil fuel companies have pledged £40.4m to UK universities. The universities which received the most funding were Exeter, Imperial College London, and Heriot-Watt.

School of Earth and Environment, Image: Leeds University website

In 2020, a report by The Independent revealed that the University of Leeds’ School of Earth and Environment received the second highest amount of funding from fossil fuel companies. At £11.2m, this was second only to Imperial College whose earth sciences department received £30.1m.

There was no data available on where funding comes from in 2023.

Asked about its environmental commitments, a spokesperson for the University of Leeds said: “The University is taking a robust approach to tackling climate change with a £178 million Climate Plan that sets out our actions, targets and investments to achieve net zero by 2030”.

Open Quantum System Modelling: Interning at UCL

Esther Delap on 10 October 2023

I spent 8 weeks at UCL’s Quantum Technologies department as a summer intern, working on simulating an open quantum system. An open quantum system is a quantum system that interacts with the environment. All real-world quantum systems are in fact open since nothing can be truly isolated from its environment, and therefore it is of vital importance to be able to model open quantum systems. However, methods to model open quantum systems are underdeveloped, particularly in two dimensions, because it is harder to numerically solve open quantum systems. Furthermore, very interesting phenomena arise in two-dimensional open quantum systems that are not yet understood.

During my internship, I used the Dissipative Discrete Truncated Wigner Approximation (DDTWA), a method introduced by Peter Rable, to model a large but finite two-dimensional open quantum system. The motivation behind this project was the suggestion of a quantum time crystal phase in a certain parameter regime of the dissipative XYZ model, where time-translation symmetry is spontaneously broken. The dissipative Hamiltonian is an interaction model in which the quantum particles interact with each other based on the distance between them, and a parameter determines how quickly this interaction reduces with distance. In the dissipative XYZ model, the parameter is different for the three different directions. In a certain parameter regime, other methods for modelling the open quantum system break down. One suggestion is that a time crystal phase occurs, where time-translation symmetry is spontaneously broken leading to an oscillatory phase in the time simulation of the system. To verify this, we need to successfully simulate the dissipative XYZ model in this parameter regime. My task was to use the DDTWA to attempt to simulate this situation.

We know from other methods of modelling what the time evolution of the transverse Ising model in two dimensions should look like. Therefore, the initial task was to simulate this model using the DDTWA to verify that the code I made for this method worked. Once this was established, the same model was used but for the XYZ Hamiltonian. Again, results for certain parameters were compared to previous simulations. I did not have time to explore the parameter regime of interest, but the code now exists to try this and confirm or dissolve the theory of a time crystal phase.

My internship at UCL allowed me to contribute to a potential new discovery in a cutting-edge field, with the possibility of being mentioned in a paper. I would recommend the quantum technologies summer internship at UCL for anyone interested in quantum physics and especially for those considering doing a PhD as I gained an invaluable insight into life as a PhD student.

What it’s like to study abroad in Canada

Holly Perkins on 10 October 2023

This year I went abroad, continuing my studies of Physics with Astrophysics at the University of Calgary, in the western Canadian provenance of Alberta. Before arriving in Canada, I had to select the courses I wanted to study for each semester. Since my year abroad counted towards my degree, it was important that the courses I took roughly matched those that were taught in Leeds. In particular, the experimental astrophysics module stood out to me. The University of Calgary has its own observatory located just outside the Canadian Rockies which we were ableto visit one evening during the first semester. Due to its location, pollution is low, allowing an unbelievable view of the night skies. The university has remote access to the telescopes there which we used for various projects throughout the semester. In one such project, my group successfully detected the exoplanet WASP-12b from the transit light curve of the host star WASP-12a.

The style of learning and assessment was quite different in Canada, with some similarities to our school system. Instead of ‘lectures’ we had ‘classes’ in much smaller groups with regular assignments and even weekly quizzes during my second semester. Although this meant term-time was busy and my workload was heavy, it took a lot of pressure off of the end of the year with final exams only worth 20-30% of our final grades.

Across the year I was lucky enough to visit both Banff and Jasper National Park. Both have great views of the Rocky Mountains and were beautiful to visit in all seasons. I was also able to visit Jasper during the Dark Sky Festival. Due to it being a dark sky reserve, the light pollution was limited. Paired with clear skies, this meant that I could see the Milky Way. However, the highlight of my year was seeing the Northern Lights one evening on campus!

Finding the right balance between studying and making the most out of being abroad was challenging, but it is definitely the best decision I have made! Studying physics abroad provided me with the opportunity to learn in a new way in addition to having access to the incredible resources of Calgary’s Physics and Astronomy department.