Happy New Year from Scotland, the home of New Year celebrations, and from London. As we write, the snow is falling and it is very cold (for us) in the United Kingdom.

The UK chapter of SPME was formed in the Spring of 2009 with co-chairmen Ashley Grossman, Professor of Neuroendocrinology at Barts and the London School of Medicine (a.b.grossman@qmul.ac.uk ) and Howard Kahn of the Department of Management at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (spmeuk@yahoo.com ). As you will know, the United Kingdom has been affected by anti-Semitism and anti-Israel invective from many parts of the media and on some University campuses. It is especially true of newspapers, for instance the Guardian, the Independent, and the Herald (Glasgow). Of course, the BBC has also on occasion shown itself to be extremely prejudicial against Israel.

In the few months of its existence, SPME-UK has been involved with ‘Therapy Today’, the Oxford Jewish congregation, Edinburgh University Jewish students’ society, University College London, a small anti-boycott group in West Yorkshire, the Scottish Law Journal, the National University of Ireland, etc.

Much of our time has been taken up with the stance of the UCU (University and Colleges Union), which since its creation in 2006 has been trying to enforce an academic boycott of Israel on its members. This has resulted in many Jewish (and non-Jewish) members leaving the Union: now the UCU are to hold three seminars on antisemitism! The Scottish Trades Union Congress has decided to support a boycott and disinvestment from Israeli companies, and calls for sanctions against Israel; and there has recently been a demand for a boycott of Israeli products. Although these last two do not directly involve academics, SPME-UK will do their best to counter these actions.

A major development in 2009 was the election of SPME-UK as a member of the Fair Play Campaign Group (FPCG). The FPCG ‘was established by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council in December 2006. It works to coordinate activity against boycotts of Israel and other anti-Zionist campaigns.’ It is the leading anti-boycott UK organisation and among the FPCG members are the Academic Friends of Israel, Trade Union Friends of Israel, Union of Jewish Students, Friends of Israel-Academic Study Group and the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre. SPME-UK hopes to work closely with FPCG and its members. We have also made contact with many individuals who have pledged us their support.

In 2009, SPME-UK was very busy. In 2010 we plan to continue to build up the membership of the Chapter and to take up the offers of assistance. The recent identification of a suicide bomber as a previous President of a major UK university Islamic Society reinforces the concerns we have with anti-Jewish feeling on campus. One of our aims is to have a representative in all UK Universities and we ask all those interested to contact us.