Kamala Harris wants Jews to donate to her campaign — in multiples of 18
Donating to charity of giving gifts in multiples of $18 is a longstanding Jewish tradition rooted in the numerical value of the Hebrew word chai

Vice President Kamala Harris attends a reception for Israel’s Independence Day, hosted by the Embassy of Israel, in Washington, D.C., on June 7, 2023. Photo by Getty Images
Kamala Harris wants Jews to donate to her campaign — Jewishly.
That’s the unspoken message one Forward reader got in a fundraising email from Harris-Walz headquarters this week. Would she like to give $18, $36, $72 or maybe a generous $108?
Such denominations are typical in asks from Jewish nonprofits like the Anti-Defamation League or the local Jewish federation (and, yes, your humble servants here at the Forward.)
Donating to charity of giving gifts in multiples of $18 is a longstanding Jewish tradition rooted in the numerical value of the Hebrew word chai, which means “life,” and is made up of the eighth letter of the Hebrew alphabet (chet) and its 10th (yud). When you get a $180 check for your bar mitzvah, the giver is also wishing you a long, healthy life.
When an arsonist set fire to a Florida mosque in 2017, a man who set up a crowdfunding page online to raise money for repairs noticed that many donations were in what seemed like “weird” amounts. Turns out they were all multiples of 18, given by donors with Jewish names. A similar thing happened this January, when the Forward’s editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, wrote about a Palestinian couple desperate to escape Gaza: within 24 hours, 200 people had donated to their GoFundMe page, most in multiples of chai.
The Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately respond to any of my questions about its chai strategy. How many people did they send the $`18-$36-$54-$72 solicitation to, and how did they know those people were Jewish? Was it the brainchild of Harris’ Jewish husband, Doug Emhoff? Do Jewish recipients like this subtle “I see you” messaging — or find it a bit creepy?
And, most importantly, how much did it bring in?
I also reached out to the Trump campaign to see if they’re also asking Jews for multiples of chai. No immediate answer from them either.
Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said her organization always asks for donations in multiples of chai, but that this is the first time she’s heard of a political campaign doing so.
“We know it has significance for Jewish voters,” she noted, “so I have to assume that the Harris-Walz campaign recognizes that.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
- 4
Opinion Mike Huckabee said there’s ‘no such thing as a Palestinian.’ It’s worth thinking about what that means
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
-
Fast Forward Yarden Bibas says ‘I am here because of Trump’ and pleads with him to stop the Gaza war
-
Fast Forward Trump’s plan to enlist Elon Musk began at Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave
-
Film & TV In this Jewish family, everybody needs therapy — especially the therapists themselves
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.