Events vs Organising: Why Jewish Student Activism Keeps Stalling

Campus activism to defend Jewish students and counter antisemitism isn’t failing because students don’t care.

They care deeply.

They show up.

They give time, energy, and emotional labour - often while carrying the weight of being the only Jews in the room.

And yet, despite all that effort, something keeps stalling.

Not because antisemitism is unbeatable.

But because too much of our response is built around events, not organising.

The Two Event Traps (Both Familiar, Both Wrong)

There are two dominant event-focused approaches on campus right now. They look different, but they fail for the same reason.

1. The Incident-Response Event Cycle

You know this one.

Another incident happens.

Another emergency meeting is called.

Another rally, statement, or program is planned.Everyone exhales and pats themselves on the back for organising a “strong response.”

And then… nothing fundamentally changes.

The campus climate doesn’t shift.

Jewish students don’t feel more secure.

Leadership doesn’t grow.

The next incident arrives right on schedule.

This model feels responsible. It feels urgent. It feels like doing something.

But structurally, it is reactive. It trains students to sprint from crisis to crisis without ever building the muscles needed to lead between them.

2. The “Let’s Just Do Events” Approach

This one is quieter, but just as damaging.

Let’s do an event.

Then another event.

Then an educational event.

Oh yeah… we haven’t done a “fun” event in a while, let’s plan one.

There’s no through-line.

No escalation.

No theory of change.

Just a rotating calendar of programs, mostly attended by the same small group of already-committed students.

This model confuses activity with impact. It creates motion without momentum. It burns out organisers while giving the illusion of productivity.

Both approaches share a fatal flaw:

They treat events as the strategy.

They’re not.

Why Events Feel So Appealing (And Why They Fail)

Events are seductive because they’re:

• Tangible

• Countable

• Trackable

• Fundable

• Easy to explain in reports and Instagram captions

But events are outputs, not infrastructure.

They don’t automatically build:

• Leadership depth

• Collective identity

• Relational power

• Institutional fluency

Without those foundations, every event (no matter how well-run) evaporates the moment the chairs are stacked.

What Jewish student activism lacks right now isn’t passion.

It’s organising.

What Organising Actually Is (And Isn’t)

Organising is not louder events. It’s not better branding. It’s not doing more.

Organising is the slow, deliberate work of turning people into a collective with power.

At its core, organising does three things:

1. Builds identity

Who are we? What do we stand for? Why does this matter?

2. Builds relationships

Between students. Across communities. With institutions.

3. Builds structure

Roles, rhythms, decision-making, and pathways for growth.

Events can serve organising... but they cannot replace it.

When organising is present, events reinforce power.

When organising is absent, events substitute for it.

The Cost of Event-Only Activism

When Jewish student activism is built around events alone, several things happen:

• Leadership stays shallow.

The same two or three people carry everything until they burn out or graduate.

• New students never integrate.

They attend an event, feel vaguely supportive, and disappear.

• Institutions remain unchallenged.

Without organised pressure, universities learn they can wait out the noise.

• Antisemites adapt faster than students do.

Because reaction is predictable. Organisation is not.

Worst of all, students internalise the wrong lesson:

“This is just how it is.”

It isn’t.

Re-Engineering Jewish Student Activism

If events aren’t the strategy, what is?

Organising begins with a shift in posture - from responding to building.

Here’s how that shift starts, in practical terms.

1. Stop Asking “What Event Should We Run?”

Start asking:

• Who is our core?

• What skills do we need?

• What power are we trying to build over time?

If you can’t articulate what changes because of an event, it’s probably just noise.

2. Build a Core Before You Build a Crowd

Every effective movement starts small.

A grounded group of 5-10 students who:

• Trust one another

• Meet consistently

• Learn together

• Share responsibility

This is the engine. Everything else is decoration.

3. Sequence, Don’t Scatter

Organising is cumulative.

Learning leads to confidence.

Confidence leads to visibility.

Visibility leads to action.

Action attracts others.

Events should follow this arc, not interrupt it.

4. Treat Relationships as Strategic Assets

Coalitions don’t start at rallies.

They start in one-on-one conversations, shared struggles, and showing up for others before you need them.

Statements don’t move institutions.

Relationships do.

5. Measure Growth, Not Applause

Stop asking:

• How many people came?

Start asking:

• Who stepped up?

• Who learned something new?

• Who took responsibility?

• Who stayed?

That’s organising.

How This Connects Back to Pride, Partnership, and Power

This is where the framework from my earlier piece - Stop Reacting. Start Leading. - becomes operational.

• Pride gives students the confidence to stay rooted long enough to build.

• Partnership turns isolation into leverage.

• Power emerges when organising replaces improvisation.

Antisemitism is not a series of disconnected incidents.

It’s a systemic challenge.

And systemic challenges are not defeated by one-off events.

They’re met by communities that know who they are, trust one another, and act with intention.

The Invitation

Jewish student activism doesn’t need to be louder.

It needs to be smarter.

Less scrambling.

More scaffolding.

Less reacting.

More organising.

The goal isn’t to do fewer events.

It’s to make sure every action is part of something larger than itself.

Because when students stop chasing the next moment and start building a movement, something finally shifts.

And this time, it sticks.