Serving the community – around the world
Menachem Freedman wasn’t available to be interviewed by telephone, but he will be on stage at convocation as valedictorian. In between, he was in Tel Aviv working for the Hotline for Migrant Workers, a legal aid organization that assists refugees.
It’s par for the course: As a student, he helped found the Concordia chapter of the Canadian anti-genocide advocacy group Stand. He also trained as an emergency first responder in Côte Saint-Luc, volunteered with Hillel, the Ghetto Shul and the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre. Somehow he found additional time to serve as the Liberal Arts Society Vice-President Administration, and as a councillor on the Concordia Student Union and as a student senator.
Of course, he still managed to maintain a stellar GPA at the Liberal Arts College, earning their top academic prize. His sister, Ariela Freedman, is a professor at the college, but it’s fairly clear he’s not riding on her coattails.
Asked by email how he found time for it all, he thanks his mother for supporting him so he could concentrate on volunteer work. He’s also grateful to his professors for letting him miss classes and shift due dates. But he adds, “A normal university schedule leaves plenty of time to both do your homework and work on projects of your own. While there was certainly pressure, I generally had enough time for everything.”
He’s also grateful for the opportunity to synthesize his studies and his activist projects. His honours thesis on migration theory provided the foundation for his work with refugees in Canada and Israel. Inspired by Sen. and LGen (ret) Roméo Dallaire’s account of the United Nations’ experience in Rwanda, along with news reports of the ongoing atrocities in Sudan, Freedman established a Stand chapter.
“Stand Concordia is only two years old,” Freedman says, “But we’ve accomplished some impressive things. If a group of students feel strongly about a particular issue, Concordia offers a number of support systems to help your projects bloom.”
He adds, “There was a real feeling of mission, a belief that the goal of the university was not to produce eggheads, but to serve the community. I’m proud to have been a part of an institution that has this mission as one of its primary goals.”
Related links:
• Concordia's Liberal Arts College
• Stand