Yeshiva University Student Councils Reinstate Group that Protested for Gay Rights

(JTA) — The Yeshiva University student councils reinstated a group that had lost its official status on campus after organizing a protest march connected to gay rights.

The councils on Thursday decided on the reinstatement of the College Democrats club days after refusing to renew recognition of the club, the Forward reported.

The club saw its recognition withdrawn shortly after its members called for the establishment of a Gay-Straight Alliance Club and for permission to be granted to host LGBTQ events on campus.

Last week’s march by about 100 people led to the group being briefly “barred from running events, hanging up fliers on campus and receiving funding from student activity fees,” according to the Commentator, the student newspaper at Modern Orthodoxy’s flagship institution.

The club had been warned of the move if it went ahead with the march, the Commentator student newspaper reported.

The president of the student councils, Ariel Sacknovitz, did not respond to the Forward’s emailed request for comment, the paper reported.

In his email notifying the club of its reinstatement, Sacknovitz said all club heads would need to state that they follow the rules necessary to maintain funding and recognition of their groups, the Forward reported.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Courtney Marks, one of the College Democrats co-presidents, told the paper. “They realized that this wasn’t the hill they wanted to die on, kicking the Dems off campus.”