(RNS) — As New Yorkers gear up for native elections in 2025, the Jewish Voters Motion Community is working to extend turnout amongst Jewish voters within the metropolis. In early January, the nonpartisan group launched a $7 million marketing campaign to mobilize Jews to the polls.
“We need to make it possible for our voices are heard on the poll field,” stated the group founder, Maury Litwack.
Litwack stated that town’s elected officers have failed to handle the Jewish neighborhood’s considerations about rising antisemitism. “There have been extra daring antisemitic assaults than ever earlier than, and it’s one thing that the Jewish neighborhood is feeling. They’re feeling it, they’re seeing it, and so they’re trying to take motion towards it,” he stated.
In addition to the race for mayor, which has drawn 9 candidates together with incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, New Yorkers will elect 5 new borough presidents, a comptroller and a public advocate. All 51 Metropolis Council seats are additionally on the poll this yr.
Maury Litwack, founding father of the Jewish Voters Motion Community. (Courtesy picture)
Litwack launched the community in 2024 after years working domestically to interact Jewish voters in California, Florida, New Jersey and New York. Different volunteers from these campaigns, he stated, usually expressed a want for assist from a nationwide group.
The rise of antisemitism satisfied him that the necessity for this sort of group was extra urgent.
In April 2023, when Republican Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, a Jewish Brooklyn resident, launched a invoice to ascertain an “Finish Jew Hatred Day,” the measure was being pushed by the Finish Jew Hatred Marketing campaign, which has labored to create comparable consciousness days in 5 U.S. cities.
The New York measure was adopted regardless of two council members voting towards it and 4 abstaining.
One no vote got here from Shahana Hanif, councilwoman for Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, residence to an necessary Jewish neighborhood. The opposite was Sandra Nurse, who represents the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick.
Hanif, who at present works on her personal invoice on antisemitism, stated she opposed the decision as a result of she thought-about Finish Jew Hatred to be a “right-wing group.”
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However Litwack stated the vote was a wake-up name. “I simply suppose that’s the form of factor that may be very disturbing to members of the Jewish neighborhood. It’s the factor I’ve heard essentially the most about from members of the Jewish neighborhood, which is how might folks vote no. That appears to be the best means you may say, ‘Hey, I care about antisemitism and stopping it,’” he stated.
A survey commissioned by the group earlier than launching its first marketing campaign revealed antisemitism was most Jewish voters’ prime concern. Carried out by the Honan Technique Group, the survey of 681 Jewish voters in Pennsylvania and New York confirmed that after the Oct. 7 assault, Jewish voters have been extra attuned to native candidates’ positions in upcoming elections.
Jewish Voters Motion Community emblem. (Courtesy picture)
On its web site, the community has assets for volunteers who need to take part in telephone banks and canvassing. It additionally encourages folks to make use of the Up Vote cell app to share voting registration hyperlinks with household and buddies. Coaching can also be out there for people “properly related of their Jewish establishments” to develop into “neighborhood captains.”
New York Metropolis voters — and town’s Jewish voters — overwhelmingly vote for Democrats, that means most races are determined on the Democratic Main. The community is at present centered on getting impartial and Republican voters to register for New York’s Democratic Main earlier than the Feb. 14 deadline.
Rachel Dabah, a JVAN volunteer, stated she encountered many non-Democrat voters who both didn’t know they may vote within the Democratic Main or didn’t suppose it made a distinction.
Dabah, a 33-year-old resident of the Higher East Aspect, stated she determined to get entangled when she realized how necessary native races have been in shaping the neighborhood’s on a regular basis life. “I need to make it possible for the folks in my neighborhood and other people on this neighborhood are literally ready to make a distinction and to be heard,” she stated.
Dabah needs to persuade her neighbors that, no matter their political affiliations, they need to have a say within the candidate who will run for mayor and guarantee she or he stands agency on antisemitism. She recommended the community arrange tables outdoors faculties, supermarkets and different locations locally.
(Photograph by cottonbro studio/Pexels/Inventive Commons)
Dabah famous the group additionally reaches out to non-Jewish voters. “They need to ensure that the world is secure. In a neighborhood, all of us need the identical issues, just about. So we have been talking to everyone, not simply Jewish voters,” she stated.
