Designing Momentum: Why Antisemitism Can’t Be Countered One Program at a Time

After I published my piece on events vs organising, a student messaged me something totally reasonable:

“Maybe as a next step, you can create a guideline on how to make an impactful event.”

I get why she asked. Most of us have been trained, explicitly or implicitly, to think of Jewish advocacy on campus as a sequence of “programs.” Something happens, we plan something. We need visibility, we host something. We want education, we run something. The culture rewards what can be calendarised, branded, and photographed.

So no, this isn’t me rolling my eyes at the student. It’s the opposite. She’s asking the question the system has taught her to ask.

But if our goal is to move the needle on antisemitism on campus, I don’t think “how to run stronger events” is the question that matters most.

Not because events don’t matter. They do.

But because on most campuses, the limiting factor isn’t whether students can plan a decent program. Between capable student leaders and local Hillel staff who know logistics cold, the mechanics are rarely the bottleneck.

The bottleneck is this: we’re not designing momentum.

And antisemitism isn’t defeated by isolated moments of excellence. It’s countered by cumulative power… built through identity, relationships, and structure over time.

The Real Problem Isn’t “Bad Events.” It’s Unconnected Events.

Let’s name the shift plainly.

Campus activism to defend Jewish students and fight antisemitism isn’t failing because Jewish student leaders are failing across the board. In lots of areas, students are thriving: building community, creating joy, sustaining Jewish life, developing leadership, and doing it while juggling brutal academic realities.

But when it comes to countering antisemitism and shifting campus climate, the status quo approach is too often built around:

• one response at a time

• one program at a time

• one cycle of urgency at a time

Even “great” events can leave no residue if they’re not part of an intentional sequence.

A single strong program can create a spark.But only a strategy creates a fire that keeps burning after everyone has gone home.

Event Culture Is a Trap

Events are seductive because they’re:

• visible

• measurable

• emotionally satisfying

• easy to report up and out

• easy to justify (“we did something!”)

And if you’re feeling unsafe, doing something… anything… can feel like relief.

But events become a trap when they become the strategy.

They create motion without direction.They keep student leaders busy without making them stronger.They reward activity over accumulation.

Which brings us to the question students actually need help answering:

How do we plan a semester that builds power… not just a calendar that fills time?

Introducing Theories of Change

A theory of change is just a grown-up way of answering:

1. What are we trying to change?

2. What needs to be true for that change to happen?

3. What sequence of steps gets us there?

If your plan is “do programs, hope campus feels different,” that’s not a theory of change. That’s vibes.

A simple campus-focused theory of change might look like:

• If Jewish students build a confident core (deepening identity + skills + trust), then…

• they can become visible without panic (maintaining a calm, consistent presence in the public square), then…

• they can build real partnerships (relationships developed before a crisis hits), then…

• they can take strategic action (pushing for institutional accountability + leading coalition-backed initiatives), and…

• campus norms shift over time: Jewish equity needs are taken more seriously, antisemitism is costlier, and Jewish students are less isolated.

Notice what’s doing the work there: not one event, but a scaffold.

The Canadian Winter Term Reality Check

Now let’s get practical, because January is coming. While the issues I am identifying are relevant everywhere Jewish students are organising, since I am based in Canada and many of my readers will be people engaging in this work here, I figured I would use the local context as a case study and provide actionable suggestions for those active on Canadian campuses.

Canadian campuses (broadly speaking) give you:

• January: return + reset

• February: momentum-building window

• March: chaos season (and often Israel Apartheid Week-related shenanigans)

• April: finals + en masse student exit from campuses.

That is not a lot of runway. You have about 12 weeks of real organising time.

So your plan can’t be “we’ll build the movement this year.” It has to be:

What can we build between January and April that still exists in September?

The goal of winter term isn’t to “solve antisemitism.”It’s to build durable infrastructure: a core, a rhythm, relationships, and an escalation path.

A Better Question Than “How Do We Run An Impactful Event?”

Try this instead:“What do we want to be true by the end of April?”

Pick 3-5 outcomes that are measurable in human terms, not poster terms. For example:

• A consistent core group of 8-12 who meet weekly and share responsibility

• Two new student leaders trained into specific roles (organising, comms, logistics)

• A short list of 10-15 non-Jewish relationships that actually matter (student gov, clubs, faculty)

• One institutional “win” (policy enforcement, reporting process improved, admin commitment secured)

• A plan for September that doesn’t start from zero

Then build your calendar backwards from those outcomes.

The Momentum Calendar: A Simple Semester Scaffold

Here’s a template students can use immediately.

Phase 1: January (Weeks 1-3)

Build the core + set the rhythm

Non-negotiables:

• Establish a weekly meeting for your core activist group (same day/time, protected)

• Decide on one shared communications channel for your core group (WhatsApp/Signal/Telegram)

• Assign students to take the lead in these three areas: organising, communications + logistics)

What you do in weekly meetings:

• Peer-led learning… each week assign one member of the group to teach everyone else about an important topic (e.g. Jewish identity, antisemitism literacy, campus policy fluency etc.)

• Take time to practice a specific skill (e.g. how to do a 1:1, how to recruit, how to follow up, how to debrief)

• Plan for the following two weeks only (don’t “strategise” yourselves into paralysis)

Key principle: your core meeting continues no matter what else happens.

That’s your gym. You don’t stop going to the gym because you played a match.

Low-lift “events” that serve organising (optional):

• Shabbat dinner for your core + 2 potential recruits

• A small learning circle open to friends (designed to recruit, not just educate)

Your goal by end of January:

• A core that trusts each other

• A repeatable weekly rhythm

• Clarity on what you’re building this semester

Phase 2: February (Weeks 4-7)

Visibility + recruitment + relationship-building

If you’ve hit every point in Phase 1 then now you earn the right to be visible.

Weekly or bi-weekly:

• One calm visibility action (info table, poster campaign, simple on-campus presence) tied to what you’re learning.

• One recruitment action (invite 2 people each week into a low-barrier entry point).

Parallel coalition building track:

• 1:1 meetings with other student leaders and student government.

• Maintain “show up” behaviour: attend their events, offer support, build trust before you ask them for anything you need.

• Important: do not jump to “why don’t we partner on a big coalition event we have an idea for.” That’s the social equivalent of proposing marriage on a first date.

Your goal by end of February:

• a broader circle of “known Jews and allies”

• relationships that are warm enough to call on

• a campus presence that feels steady, not frantic

Phase 3: March (Weeks 8-10)

Strategic action (without letting Israeli Apartheid Week run your life)

This is where students get captured by the calendar.

If your entire March plan is a response to IAW, you’ve already lost the strategic initiative, because you’re letting your opponents dictate the agenda.

That doesn’t mean ignoring it. It means refusing to centre it.

A better approach:

• Pick one planned direct action for March that is yours: proactive, values-driven, and achievable

• Prepare it in February with partners already in place

• If IAW provokes incidents, respond… but do not let it become the organising centre of gravity

Direct action examples that build power (not just noise):

• A clear institutional ask tied to existing policy (“enforce X, clarify Y, adopt Z process”)

• A campus-wide educational push with credible partners and faculty support

• A targeted meeting campaign with admin backed by coalition voices

• One high-quality media moment (video/op-ed) that shifts narrative, not just attention

Your goal by end of March:

• One action that demonstrates agency

• A stronger relationship with institution(s)

• A reputation for calm competence

Phase 4: April (Weeks 11-12)

Consolidate + hand off + prepare for September

April is not for launching new initiatives. April is for:

• Documenting what worked

• Capturing contact lists

• Naming next year’s leaders early

• Writing a September playbook (even if it’s scrappy)

Ask:

• Who is staying engaged over the summer?

• What will our first three weeks of Fall semester look like?

• What relationships do we need to maintain quietly until September?

Your goal by end of April:

• Continuity

• Leadership pipeline

• A plan that survives finals

To go back to the original question that inspired this piece I do want to make clear…

You should run strong events. But the way you make an event impactful is not primarily by improving the event.

It’s by ensuring the event is doing one of three jobs:

1. Recruiting into your core or your circle

2. Strengthening identity/skills within your base

3. Advancing a strategic relationship or institutional goal

If it doesn’t do one of those things, it might still be nice, but it’s not movement-building.

So yes… I can write about running strong events, and I probably will.

But if your campus goal is to defend Jewish students and counter antisemitism, the more important skill is learning how to:

design a semester of momentum.

Because antisemitism is systemic. And systemic challenges don’t get solved one program at a time.

They get countered by communities that build identity, relationships, and agency… week by week, semester by semester… until they’re strong enough that the campus has to adapt.

If you’re a student reading this and want to try it in January, start with one simple commitment:

Pick a weekly meeting time for your core group right now… and protect it like it matters… because it does!